Instructional leadership practice among senior leaders in Malaysia primary schools

Abstract

The study intends to explore the instructional leadership practice among the Seniors Leadership Team (SLT) of five schools selected in Malaysia as pilot schools for the 21st Century Education. Four main dimensions underpin this study. The dimensions can, in essence, be translated into four leadership skills firstly to define and establish school goals, secondly to manage instructional programs, third to promote a conducive learning environment and fourth to create a friendly and cooperative school environment. The data for this study was obtained from a questionnaire survey involving 320 respondents comprising teachers from the five schools concerned. Data were analysed using SPSS. The results showed that practices of Instructional Leadership were evident among the Seniors Leadership Team (SLT) of all five schools. However, the results also seemed to point to the second dimension’s practice of managing instructional programs being low compared to the other three dimensions. The overall findings, however, support that the practice of Instructional Leadership among the Seniors Leadership Team (SLT) of the schools studied, was at a very high level.