A RESEARCH STUDY SUBMITTED

TO THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION

AT THE LAGUNA NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN EDUCATION

SUBMITTED TO: ELSA E. GUMIRAN, RN. MAN, Ed. D

SUBMITTED BY: GENESIS E. MALLARI

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1.1 Aims of the study ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

CHAPTER TWO

1.0 Importance of Educational Leadership………………………………………………………..

1.1 Views of Leadership………………………………………………………………………………………..

1.2 Skills Necessary for Effective Instructional Leadership………………………

1.3 Instructional Leadership Model…………………………………………………………………

CHAPTER THREE

1.0 Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

1.1 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Chapter One

1.0 Introduction

The Philippines is with running with the trend of focusing on educational leadership
and education in general. Although, defining leadership in the Philippines will be a tricky
ordeal. In the first place, discussing leadership in general is very challenging for the
following reasons: 1) there is no overall agreement of how the notions of leadership –
leadership, management and administration – should be defined and 2) leadership
discourses “give more emphasis to different issues in leadership (Nivala and Hujala,
2002).” Scholars pose two critical questions. How can a very complex and incoherent
phenomenon be argued in general and what theories should be chosen if one argues
about theoretical issues of leadership? This review looks at leadership in the view of
educational leadership in the context of the Philippines. The description we shall adapt
shall be the one discussed lengthily by Leithwood et. al, (2004) They said that most
definitions of leadership have two core functions: “providing direction” and “exercising
influence”. They also noted that leadership is a “highly complex concept” and that
defining leadership “too narrowly are more likely to trivialize than clarify its meaning.
Leithwood et. al, (2004)”

Various studies support the idea that it is the leadership of the school that makes
a difference between mediocrity and excellence. One can always point to the principal’s
leadership as the key to success of a school that is vibrant and has a reputation of
excellence in teaching. Indeed, the school manager is the keystone in the building of
effective schools. There is a positively significant correlation between effective principals
and effective schools.

(Clemente, 1996) emphasized the need to identify and develop education

managers fit to schools into the 21st Century. In this light, school managers should have
characteristics that she/he should possess. The quality of education has come under
scrutiny and the performance of school principals in school management and leadership
is now subjected to public scrutiny. As a result the need for accountability in school
leadership has arisen. Fullan, Miles and Taylor (1978:91) contend that without the
adequate leadership of principals, performance of schools will suffer. Therefore the
principal has to provide sound leadership for the success and effectiveness of his/her
school. It is therefore worth researching how principals deal with leadership challenges,
particularly instructional leadership in schools.

1.1 Aims of the Study

 Create a competency model based on leadership behavior and skills relevant to

coaching and mentoring program.
 Develop the individual, group and team effectiveness leadership model.
Chapter Two

1.0 Importance of Educational Leadership

With the goal of schools being to prepare students, citizens, people for life-long
learning and survival, schools need to ensure that students get the best of their education
by increasing their learning curve. Leadership comes into play in this goal by influencing
students learning through influence on other peoples or features of the [school]
organization, decisions about class size, student-grouping and instructional practices of
teachers, the nature and extent of monitoring student progress, provision of professional
development opportunities for teachers, and the alignment among goals, programs and
policies Leithwood et. al, (2004). More importantly, the commitment of stakeholders is
highly affected by the school head’s behavior (San Antonio and Gamage, 2005).

1.1 Views of Leadership

In the past 50 articles I’ve skimmed about the word leadership in local media
sources – newspapers, magazines, blogs, forums, online articles and book , Filipino
writers have only associated the word ‘leader’ with people in business or government
holding high positions. This poses a very bureaucratic view of leadership as something
that comes only with position or stature in public or private domain. Most leadership
programs in the Philippines launched by the government and/or sponsored by other
countries focus more on training for government positions and fail to represent other
sectors especially education.

Another view I have observed is that the educational leader is a school manager.
As a result, programs geared towards honing educational leaders focus on managerial
skills rather than leadership capabilities. In a seminar conducted by the Philippine Normal
University as part of a series on Deanship, the following topics were listed: “how to handle
day to day problems, effective supervision and evaluation of faculty, strategic planning
and predicting future trends, internationalization and likage (PNU, 2011).” On the
contrary, there are many expectations of an educational leader in the Philippines. In a
study by San Antonio and Gamage (2005), factors affecting stakeholder’s commitment
levels in a school in the Philippines included the schools head’s behavior: supportive
(open to suggestions, recognizes others, approachable, resourceful, transparent, fair,
strict, respect others, trusts others, sincere), pro-active (active, prompt, enthusiastic,
innovative, dedicated), gives priority to school or student welfare, behaving in cooperative
and admirable ways (well-behaved, high moral values, helpful, committed, encourages
others, present good ideas, open to ideas of others, knows how to control emotions).
Leader’s lacking in decisiveness and over-manifestation of their traditional authority
(frank, monopolizing discussions, gives no sufficient freedom to express sentiments,
being authoritarian, arrogant, sarcastic, ill-tempered) lessened participation in school
democracy. Unfortunately, school head’s behaviors are likely to be personality-based
rather than trained. In the construction industry, while civil engineers – symbolic of
teachers in the education industry – are expected to be competent in construction
management skills, areas of expertise in project leadership, organizational alignment and
general management are lacking. Organizational alignment is the congruence and
compatibility of the various activities in a construction project and determines the outcome
of success or failure (Acacio, 2007).

Principal’s view of themselves is also a key factor in improving student

achievement. Key findings in an in-depth survey of 8,400 teachers and 470 school
administrators in 18 schools in the US show that principals play the central role in school
leadership but high-performing school benefit from leadership by teachers and parents.
Results highly suggest that principals improve students’ learning by motivating teachers
and encouraging “professional community – the help and guidance that teachers give one
another to improve their teaching.” (Leighwood, et al, 2004). In the Philippines, 364
randomly selected principals’ beliefs as to whether instructional supports were effective
in supporting teachers’ classroom instruction were “dependent upon how effective they
think they are as school principals and how capable they think their teachers are in guiding
student achievement (Sindhvad, 2009).” Therefore, levels of self-efficacy and confidence
in teachers would also matter in educational leadership in the Philippines.

Observably, structures of Philippine educational institutions follow a very

bureaucratic scheme. Leadership is seen as top positions in a hierarchy. Shirley Grundy
(1993) divided leadership practices into technical action, practical action and emancipator
praxis. While technical action used bureaucratic language of outcomes, goals,
implementation strategies and skills development, practical action, on the other hand, is
exemplified by staff involvement, long term goals, shared leadership and facilitation.
Grundy suggests it is more effective in educational institutions (Grundy, 1993).

1.3 SKILLS NECESSARY FOR EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP

As a leader a principal needs to possess certain leadership skills in order to be
able to carry out his instructional leadership duties satisfactorily. Mansers (1978:17)
suggests the following for school leadership skills:

(i) Instructional skills

The school is a place of leaming and the main purpose of schooling is to
educate. Therefore the main function of a principal is that of an instructional
leader. The principal may not have an in-depth knowledge of all learning
areas, but he should have according to Mansers (1978) three basic sets of
instructional competencies.

These are:
• Ability to monitor classroom instruction.
• Ability to work with educators to plan instructional programme and
• Ability to identify, acquire and coordinate resources necessary for instructional
improvement including staff development.

(ii) Management skills

The leader's priority is to get the job done. Principals should share
management tasks and be able to recognize when a problem exists and be able
to identify it correctly and assist in solution. Problems arising from the workplace
may disturb the functioning of that institution. Principals must have solving skills
to be able to deal with any challenges.

(iii) Human relations abilities

 A good human relation in a school is a precondition for improvement. It is
part of the instructional leadership quality every principal must possess.

(iv) Political and cultural awareness

A skillful principal will know how school and political systems operate.
Principals will also understand why things are as they are if leadership is to be
exerted.

(v) Leadership skills

Principals must be research literate, know what is new in the field and
what
research and experience have shown to be good in practice. As an innovator, a
principal looks outside the system as well as inside. She/he reads about
education, attend meetings and conferences. This will keep the principal updated
with new instructional leadership practices. The principal is leading people and
must assess his/her leadership practice occasionally.

(vi) Self understanding

Principals need to be introspective, to understand their own values and be
able to assess their strengths and weaknesses. It appears that principals who
run successful and self-reliant schools are those who display the above qualities.
Principals are promoted from the ranks of educators. They are very often
appointed partly because they have been successful classroom teachers. Being
an excellent classroom teacher does not necessarily mean that one will make a
good principal. This indicates that after assumption of duty, the new principal
needs to undergo induction program and training in school leadership.
 The outer circle consists of the external structures: expectations, values and
beliefs that influence the principal's behaviors. The second circle shows the leadership
behaviors and -forces exhibited by the principal. The third ring identifies the internal
structures created within the school by the final target being the student outcomes, the
focal point of the school. These outcomes feedback to influence future expectations,
values and beliefs of the institution community, and principal. The instructional
leadership model in Figure 1 puts the principal's leadership behaviors as having a key
role in student achievement.
Contextualizing the principal's role in leadership, Rossouw (1990:40-41) states
that some researchers take an integrated approach to the view of principal as an
instructional leader. He further says that true effects of instructional leadership can only
be seen if a number of variables, both instructional and community are interacting with
it. Institution, like the community, provides both constraints and opportunities. In view of
the above, the principal needs to have a clear understanding of the needs of the
community his school is serving. To solicit the support of the community, the principal
needs to bring them on board in formulating the vision and mission of the school. The
curriculum that is provided by the school must be in line with the aspirations of the
community.
 The diagram above illustrates that principal's beliefs and experiences will
influence his decisions and activities as an instructional leader. For example, a principal
who values communication or democracy will display leadership behaviors different
from those of an authoritarian principal. Also the principal with a background in
counseling will listen to constituents before making decisions and principals with a
background in coaching might assume decision making responsibility. The role of a
principal as an instructional leader receives support from many researchers. Hall,
MacKay and Morgan (1986:120) suggest that instructional leadership of a principal has
to do with effective communication with, and the motivation, supervision, and
development of staff, dealing with pupils, and the solving of problems and the resolving
of conflicts among staff and pupils. According to Rossouw (1990:42) instructional
leadership requires that the principal start with a knowledge of the research on effective
schools. The contribution by authors quoted above, such as Yukl et al and Ubben and
Hughes highlights the importance of familiarity in the research on effective schools by
principals.
Chapter Three

1.0 SUMMARY

We count the Philippines as a country part of the trend of focusing on educational

leadership. Although leadership was tricky to define, we agree that it is an important facet
in student achievement and fulfillment of an educational institution’s goals. There is
currently a view of leadership that is for-government, bureaucratic and masculine while
school leaders are viewed as managers such that local educational leadership schools
focus on managerial skills rather than leadership capabilities. Principals’ beliefs in
themselves and in their teachers highly affect their decisions and therefore, student
achievement. Leighmore (2004), Grundy (2002) and Blackmore (2002) urge a
reconsideration of other approaches to educational leadership.
1.1 CONCLUSION
One of the major aspects of research in this study dealt with the involvement of
principal in curricular related policies, curriculum planning and management as part of his
instructional leadership role. The research findings showed that in some instances
principals do not take part in discussions about curriculum matters. In other instances
principals do not involve their educators in programs for curriculum improvement.
Teaching deals mainly with teaching and learning process. The potential role of principals
as instructional leaders is of vital importance. In this regard the principal's role is
concerned with instructional programs together with the general school effectiveness.
In support of this view, Forsyth and Hoy (1986:50-52) emphasize that the
principals' primary concern is not only that of instructional progress of individual teachers,
but also of being responsible for instructional improvement. Therefore the lack of
instructional leadership skills among many principals should be a matter of great concern
for the Department of Education.
I hope that the Department of Education realize the need for ongoing skills training
for school principals. In addition, the researcher hopes that data collected from various
sources and the recommendations made, will be useful to all school principals and
education practitioners in general. This will ensure that principals are able to run their
schools effectively.

"Leaders who create leaders are more powerful than those who do not."
-Sam Lucas, Gilbert C. Brown, Frank W. Markus
"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." -Peter F.
Drucker

REFERENCES

Forbes, Gilbert M., “Trends and Issues: Roles of School Heads as Instructional Leader,
Administrator and Manager, Manila 2011
Zulu, Simo Duncan C., “The Instructional Leadership Role of School Principals,” An
Unpublished Research Study for the Course Masters of Education in Planning and
Administration, 2004

“Trends and Issues: Role of the School Leader,” Clearinghouse on Educational

Management, College of Education, University of Oregon, 2001

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