The culture of instructional leadership amongst principals: a principal professional learning community's exploration of Understanding by Design

The overloaded role of the principal is a reality in every district (Evans, 1996; Fullan, 2008). Principals are second only to teachers among school-related factors in student learning (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004) yet professional learning opportunities for principals suffer at the expense of seemingly more important tasks. In order for principals to be successful in the expected role of instructional leadership (NAESP, 2008), districts must create opportunities for both content and leadership learning (Darling-Hammond, Meyerson, LaPointe, & Orr, 2010). Experts are beginning to realize that professional development for principals is essential to a school and distric's success (Darling-Hammond et al., 2010). The participants in this study formed a Principal Professional Learning Community to strengthen their knowledge of Professional Learning Communities (DuFour and Eaker, 1998; Hord & Sommers, 2008), Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) and coaching techniques (Kee, Anderson, Dearing, Harris, & Shuster, 2010; Kise, 2006). The Action Research in this mixed methods study advocates for job embedded professional development and provided the elementary principals in Journey Township with horizontal learning opportunities (Blankstein, 2010) that will facilitate the reciprocal accountability (Elmore, 2000) that is needed as districts work to build capacity. Though context specific (Creswell, 2009), this study will help the reader draw conclusions on whether a Principal Professional Learning Community is an effective infrastructure to support individual and organizational learning (Senge, 2006).

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D. Educational Leadership

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Leadership

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Walker, Dana

Contributors dc:contributor

• Doolittle, Gini

• School principals; Professional learning communities
• Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration

Repository record dc:identifier

https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/150

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rdw.rowan.edu:etd-1149