Under My Thumb: The Replicating Effect of Hierarchical Governance From the District’s Oversight of Principals to Principals’ Oversight of Their Instructional Leadership Teams

• In Event: Defining and Assessing the Impact of Instructional Leadership

Abstract

This study investigates whether and how principals implementing a shared leadership initiative via Instructional Leadership Teams (ILTs) were able to share authority with team members. Qualitative methods and specifically, multiple interviews and ongoing observations of team functioning, were collected for a period of eight months during the 2011-2012 school year from ILT teams in four, in-district charter schools. Findings suggest that principals had great difficultly releasing authority to team members, despite their stated desire to do so. This difficulty seemed to stem from their relationships with the central office administration. Specifically, many of the principals complained that, due to the district’s demands and top-down leadership approach, they lacked the authority to effectively lead their school, and by extension, their ILT.

Author

• Jennie Weiner, University of Connecticut