Bhutanese School Principals’ Discernments towards Instructional Leadership Practices

Abstract

The authors report a study in which they examined how the principals utilize to analyze the level and contrast of principals’ discernments towards instructional leadership practices based on individual and institutional factors along with identification of hindrances to leadership practice in Bhutan. The quantitative and qualitative approaches were deployed for this research. Three instructional leadership dimensions of, managing instructional programs, defining the school mission and promoting a positive school learning environment were used as measurement of criteria. The data were collected through Principals Instructional Management Rating Scale questionnaires and semi-structured interviews and analyzed using mean, standard deviation, t-test, and content analysis. The respondents consisted of 31 principals. These 31 principals are the representative of Instructional leadership from one of the districts in Bhutan. The findings of this study revealed principals’ high-level practices of instructional leadership and consistency among the personal and institutional factors. The result showed that all the 10 instructional leadership functions (Principals Instructional Management Rating Scale) almost at high level and overall mean generated was also high (3:58). Distinguished obstacles to instructional leadership were various roles, time limitations, work over-burden, lacking guidelines resources, shortages of teacher, restricted bolster for professional advancement, jumble between expectations and priorities. Within the light of the above findings, researcher would like to conclude that building learning culture not only depends on individual academic qualification but also the working environment and attitude of the academic committee towards student centered learning beneath the supervision of effective instructional leadership.