As Hill (1996) sees it, the differnce between instructional leadership of the previous decade and instructional leadership of the present and the future is that leadership of the past focuses on teaching and learning, whereas leadership of the present and future involves principals spending more time establishing appropriate preconditions for education and following through with interventions aimed to improve the learning experience. Principals, therefore, have to be experts in a variety of areas -- and this is part of the challenges of the future.
Leadership challenges that will be present in the future.
Instructional leadership is essentially split into three components: (1) administrative, where the principal still ahs to carry out his regular tasks of helping the school move on and succeed, (2) collaboration with students and teachers -- being there with them, listening to them, and joining them in their concerns, (3) educational - being actively involved in the unfolding and transmission of the educational curriculum in his school (Botha, 2006).
Combination of these three duties may be onerous for any single individual and for the school administrator who has to also involve himself with stakeholders and parents, as well as community and other employees, the burden may be overwhelming. This is particularly so as the schools of the future become more rather than less complex. In fact, as Caldwell (2002) shows, many principals lack the time for, and an understanding of, their leadership tasks.
Hill (1996), principals have to be experts in a variety of areas. These include:
Detailed knowledge of each and every student and their individual progress
Detailed understanding of the context and background of the various learners
Detailed understanding of the specific qualities and preferred learning style of each of the students
Knowledge about the different learning / educational theories and their results
The principals' role of the future, therefore, is an amalgamation of management and instructional...
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