“My supervisors first check school cleanliness”: Factors inhibiting instructional leadership practices in Northern Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

Amid the growing concerns of educational stakeholders about the academic achievements of students, educational literature, especially coming from the developed context, portrays instructional leadership as a desirable model with the potential to contribute to the improved capacity of teachers, ultimately leading to enhanced student achievements. However, research shows that school leadership is context-dependent, and different contexts and cultures differently influence the enactment of instructional leadership. Against this background, the current study explored the factors inhibiting instructional leadership practices in the developing world, taking Pakistan as a case. The research used a qualitative approach and case study method concentrating on the phenomenon of instructional leadership in a semi-government school in the context of Northern Sindh, Pakistan. Considering the area under investigation, the school manager and principal were purposefully selected as the research participants. Ten teachers were also consulted to enrich and triangulate data. The school leaders (manager and principal) were interviewed individually using semi-structured interviews, whereas the teachers were interviewed in groups. The emerging data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results showed that the school leaders’ instructional leadership practices were mainly inhibited by their partial understanding of their responsibilities, limited exposure to capacity building opportunities, teachers’ attitudes, and a communication gap between the school and the upper management responsible for overseeing the academic activities of the school. The paper argues that unless these influential factors are considered by policy makers and educational leaders, it is very unlikely for the school leaders to exercise instructional leadership in this part of the world.

Estudio de caso sobre el liderazgo pedagógico en escuelas públicas peruanas

“…Se empleó el método de estudio de caso, debido a que permite la investigación minuciosa de un fenómeno particular para comprender su complejidad (Broughton, 2019); además, porque ha demostrado ser un método confiable y respetable para el análisis contextualizado, holístico y temporal de un caso particular pero complejo (Smith, 2018;Tight, 2017), análisis que es necesario cuando se abordan estudios sobre liderazgo in situ. Este método también ha sido empleado para abordar el liderazgo pedagógico, pero dichos estudios han sido conducidos en contextos muy diferentes al Perú, tales como Pakistan (Nawab & Noor, 2023) e Israel (Shaked, 2022(Shaked, , 2023.…”

School Leadership Transformation: Improving Teacher Performance through Strategic Decision-Making

“…Although there has been much research conducted, such as research by Karakose et al (2022), Dedering andPietsch (2023), andNawab andNoor (2023) on the role of school leadership in improving teacher and staff performance, there is a significant gap in the academic literature related to strategic decision approaching in the context of empowering school leadership. The results of this gap analysis highlight the need for more in-depth research to explore how strategic decisionmaking can effectively improve the performance of teachers and staff in junior high schools.…”