Distributed Instructional Leadership Across School Levels: How Norms, Structure, and Expertise Mediate Instructional Improvement

• In Event: 28.018 - Instructional Leadership on School Quality: Critical Considerations

Abstract

Well designed and enacted organizational routines can play a critical role in establishing links between leadership, collegial structures, and classroom instruction. However, few studies document the organizational and social conditions that enable some schools (and stymie others) from establishing such routines in ways that create meaningful connections between school level processes and classroom work. This research sheds light on this issue by presenting findings from a three-year study into district-led turnaround on how norms, school structures, and expertise mediate the connections between leadership, structure, and classroom practice. Results indicate that a combination of expertise, professional norms, and school structure shape the extent to which schools can establish routines that tie together leadership, organization, and classroom instruction.

Authors

• Adrian Mohamed Larbi-Cherif, George Washington University

• Joshua L. Glazer, The George Washington University