Collegiality: A New Way to Define Instructional Leadership.

The demands on today's principals make it almost impossible to do the job alone. Mr. Hoerr suggests that the solution is to share the responsibility for instructional leadership with teachers, and he outlines the steps for building collegiality and supporting teachers in their new roles. WHEN A parent says, "My child's school is a wonderful school," what that parent really means is that his or her child has had a super teacher, followed by a great teacher, followed by a tremendous teacher. Sparkling facilities and state-of-the-art technology are important, and--to the degree that they enable teachers to do a better job of teaching--they are valuable. But the most important factor in a child's education remains what it has always been: the teacher. When children have wonderful teachers year after year, they flourish, and their parents are delighted with the school. That's a simple premise, but it has important implications for principals. All principals know that teachers are the most important factor in the educational equation; we learned it in graduate school. We also learned that we are expected to provide the instructional leadership that enables teachers to grow professionally. But--like many of the important things in life-providing such leadership is easier said than done. Obstacles to Instructional Leadership During the last several decades, the role of the principal has become increasingly complex as society has made ever-greater demands on the schools. Today there are breakfasts to provide and after-school programs to oversee. There are special programs to coordinate for students at both ends of the academic spectrum. There are anti-gang and drag-awareness efforts, employee unions and neighborhood groups whose needs and interests must be attended to, IEPs and SATs--along with OBE, TQM, and the ADA. Indeed, the list is almost endless. As schools have taken on a variety of new tasks, educators have come to understand much more about how children learn. And as knowledge of child development, curriculum, and instruction has burgeoned, the profession has become balkanized. Many of today's teachers have their own areas of expertise and their own professional language. One group of teachers may live and breathe thematic instruction, another group investigates student portfolios and other forms of alternative assessment, "the Reggio Approach" occupies the kindergarten crowd, and a committee considers putting in place a schoolwide program based on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. It is simply not realistic to expect an administrator to serve as an intellectual resource or catalyst for all these (and countless other) efforts. As Roland Barth said in his 1980 book, Run School Run, "The obstacles to the job are the job. " But while we administrators can identify the constraints and the roadblocks that keep us from exercising instructional leadership, we cannot let those obstacles stop us. Our task is to find ways to remove or go around them. The Teacher's Role Although the principal bears ultimate responsibility for the quality of his or her school, it is both necessary and appropriate that teachers take on some of the responsibility for instructional leadership. This means that the principal will share power. It means leadership teams. It means that teachers will play a part in determining school procedures. It means that teachers will view their roles from a schoolwide, not just a classroom, perspective. It means that teachers, working together, will take responsibility for helping their peers learn and grow. Like principals, however, teachers have obstacles that keep them from serving as instructional leaders. The greatest, of course, is their hectic and isolated workday. Most teachers spend 80% to 90% of their workday in direct contact with students. Planning periods, recesses, or lunch breaks are about their only times away from students. …