Best Practices of Instructional Leadership among Secondary School Principals: A Case Study of Super Principals In The 21st Century.Introduction-Education-Leadership and leadership in 21st century -Instructional leadership and practices of super principals

1.0 Statement of the problem

The school principals job is the utmost essential and challenging job. Malaysian school principals are responsible for creating positive learning environment, enhance students achievements, ensure staffs job satisfaction, and etcetera. In a study carried out by Estapa (2009), it was stated that the previous research findings from many countries and variety of schools have proven that leadership has a powerful effect in securing school progress and transformation (e.g., Hopkins 2001a; West, Jackson, Harris and Hopkins, 2000) and instructional leadership practices enhanceand overcome the challenges and problems in schools especially in the 21st century. Estapa (2009) also mentioned that Hopkins (2001) emphasized on the significance of both thetransformational and instructional leadership practices in school improvementand overcoming challenging circumstances. In a study Collins(2001) indicated that principals who are instructional leaders can directly or indirectly engage in each of the agreed upon elements of instructional leadership in their daily work; and, the leadership traits of principals influence the level of effectiveness of their engagement in these core elements. Marks and Printy (2003) highlighted that in order to ensure the improvement of a school; the principal has to be an instructional and a transformational leader. However, some researchers insisted that strong leadership is focused on instructional leadership because instructional principals are most effective when they influence teacher practice by increasing teachers capacity and making positive changes in the school learning environment. (Blase&Blase , 2000; Lashway, 2003).Moreover, it has been proven that instructional leadership practices leaded to successful students achievement. Instructional leadership practices such as, providing sufficient resources, supplying instructional support communicating, and being a visible presence in the school (Smith & Andrews, 1989, as cited by Quinn, 2002) have great influence on students learning and attainment of school goals.Least attention has been given to the practices that really effect on overall schools improvement, students learning, and results in positive change. Previous studies have highlighted how instructional leadership affects teaching and learning.(Halliger, 2009). Additionally, few researches have only reviewed the previous models of instructional leadership (Neumerski, 2013); while, very few studies have been on the practices of instructional leaders (Quinn, 2002), but there is not any study on best practices of instructional leaders.If there are studies they have just focused on types of practices not on the best required practices in the 21st century.(e.g., Moosung, Walker & Yuk, 2012)Jenkins (2009) mentioned that recently instructional leaders focus is more on the academic standards and the need for schools to be accountable. So, for the academic standards and school accountability there is a crucial need to analyze the best instructional leadership practices of school principals and suggest the best practices for other schools. For this purpose qualitative research is the appropriate method of identifying the best practices of school principals among secondary school principals in Malaysia. The dissemination of this research will be helpful to all stakeholders, school principals (adopt the best), administrators (suggest best), leadership trainers (train to have best)and Government and policy makers (demand for the best) in the 21st century.

1.1 Purpose and the objectives of the studyThe main purpose of the study is to identify the best instructional leadership practices of secondary schools with super principals in the district of Kuantan. School principals in Malaysia have been practicing various educational strategies and situational leadership styles. However, a number of them are still practicing autocratic leadership and are less concerned about the relationship with teachers and students (Chan & Gurnam Kaur Sidhu, 2009). Ministry of Education in Malaysia has strongly emphasized on the Pengetua and Guru Besar Cemerlang (Super principal) in which these principals are chosen based on a very comprehensive principal competency framework based on its leadership model KOMPAS which is developed by IAB (Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2013 - 2025). One of the main missions of MOE is to ensure that all the principals in Malaysia become super principals.Therefore, this study identifies the best instructional leadership practices of super principals in order to highlight the best practices that they practice to the other school principals especially for those who are in the underperforming schools. The objectives of this study reflect the gap between the best instructional leadership practices and school effectiveness. Specifically the research objectives are:1. To identify the best instructional leadership practices perceived by the super principals insecondary schools in the district of Kuantan. 2. To identify how school principals practice instructional leadership in the selected schools.

Reference:Chan, Y.F., & Gurnam Kaur Sidhu(2009). Leadership characteristics of an excellent principal in Malaysia. International Education Studies, 2(4),106-116. Retrieved from, www.ccsenet.org/journal.html Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE),(2013). Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2013 2025. Retrieved from. http://www.moe.gov.my/userfiles/file/PPP/Preliminary-Blueprint-Eng.pdf