What Makes an Instructional Leader? A Study of Chilean Elementary Schools

• In Event: Leadership in a Global Context (Part 1)

Abstract

This paper takes a comparative international approach in order to shed light on two concepts central to studies of educational administration in North America: distributed and instructional leadership. Chilean schools rely upon a unique administrative structure where leadership is shared between two outside-the-classroom leaders: directores (principals) and jefes pedagogicos (pedagogical heads). In this paper the authors analyze data from a multiyear, mixed-methods study of leadership in elementary schools in Chile; survey data from 649 elementary schools and fine-grained case studies of 12 elementary schools are analyzed. The authors challenge normative assumptions behind both concepts: must a principal work directly with teachers to be considered an “instructional leader” or can some of this work best be distributed to others?

Authors

• Joseph J. Flessa, University of Toronto - OISE

• Javiera Marfan, Fundacion Chile

• Stephen E. Anderson, University of Toronto