Out of Balance: The Challenge of Shared Instructional Leadership in an Urban District

• In Event: 66.059 - Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: 66.059-1 - School Leadership, Instructional Leadership, and Leading Through the Challenges of Social Justice and Contemporary Issues

Abstract

Quality urban school leadership is essential to achieving the promise of equal educational opportunity. The literature is rife with normative leadership theories describing characteristics principals in urban schools need to exhibit to be successful. This qualitative study in an urban district examined current and future administrators’ perceptions of what constituted effective leadership and views on the balance between instructional leadership and management responsibilities. Findings revealed effective leadership defined in ways consistent with a shared instructional leadership model. There was also an imbalance between the desire for principals to demonstrate instructional leadership and their management responsibilities, which often took priority. Practitioners, policymakers, and researchers need to reconsider normative theories of leadership and revisit the complex and multi-faceted nature of the role.

Authors

• Jean A. Patterson, Wichita State University

• Karen Kuhn, Sedgwick County Area Educational Services Interlocal Cooperative #618

• Connie Jacobs, Wichita State University

• Mike Bonner, Valley Center Public Schools

• Teresa Miller, Haysville Unified School District 261

• Christy Skelton, Sedgwick County Special Education Cooperative

• Florence Joanne Obat, Wichita State University

• Elizabeth Tinch, Ashford University