2018 Articles

Towards an Evolving Conceptualization of Instructional Leadership as Leadership for Learning: A Meta-Narrative Review of 109 Quantitative Studies Across 25 Years

Boyce, Jared; Bowers, Alex J.

Purpose: Instructional leadership has been an active area of educational administration research over the past thirty years. However, there has been significant divergence in how instructional leadership has been conceptualized over time. The present study is a comprehensive review of 25 years of quantitative instructional leadership research, up through 2013, using a nationally generalizable dataset. Design: We conducted a meta-narrative review of 109 studies that investigated at least one aspect of instructional leadership using the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) administered by the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics. Findings: There were four major themes of instructional leadership research that analyzed SASS data: principal leadership and influence, teacher autonomy and influence, adult development, and school climate. The three factors most researched in relationship to instructional leadership themes were: teacher satisfaction, teacher commitment, and teacher retention. This study details the major findings within each theme, describes the relationships between all seven factors, and integrates the relationships into a single model. Value: This paper provides the most comprehensive literature review to-date of quantitative findings investigating instructional leadership from the same nationally generalizable dataset. This paper provides evidence that leadership for learning is the conceptual evolution of twenty-five years of diverse instructional leadership research. Keywords: Instructional Leadership, Principals, Schools and Staffing Survey, Literature Reviews, Research Methodology