Handbook of Instructional Leadership: How Really Good Principals Promote Teaching and Learning

"A treasure trove of knowledge about instructional leadership. Rich descriptions bring to life such concepts as inquiry, reflection, collaboration, empowerment, and learning community. The authors enable the reader to encounter the spirit of schools where these ideas have become a reality."
From the Foreword by Stephen P. Gordon, Southwest Texas State University

This book is the first comprehensive study of how instructional supervision is actually practiced and how it affects teachers. The authors asked more than 800 K-12 classroom teachers how the best principals encourage teacher growth and professionalism. The answers provide in-depth coverage on how teachers and principals interact. The authors′ research proves that what principals say to teachers about teaching has a powerful effect, and that positive instructional leadership enhances students′ learning.

Teachers offer words of advice for every principal who aspires to instructional leadership: Find out what works best to motivate your teachers, and use it! The bottom line here is encouragement.

Principals will find out what they can do to dramatically enhance teaching in their schools. They′ll learn to:

• Encourage teachers to continue their self-improvement efforts
• Conduct effective instructional conferences with each teacher
• Provide and participate in ongoing staff development
• Encourage reflective practice by the entire staff
• Provide feedback based on individual teachers′ needs

Make your staff the best it can be―a community of learners engaged in professional service to students. Get everyone working toward a collective "practice" of effective teaching.

Talk with your teachers and make sure they understand that you know what they′re doing right. Stress reflective inquiry as an effective technique for growth. Practice real instructional leadership, and build a learning community of teachers and students.

Jo Blase is a professor of educational administration at the University of Georgia, and a former public school teacher, high school and middle school principal, and director of staff development. She received a Ph.D. in educational administration, curriculum, and supervision in 1983 from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and her research has focused on instructional and transformational leadership, school reform, staff development, and principal-teacher relationships. Through work with the Beginning Principal Study National Research Team, the Georgia League of Professional Schools, and public and private school educators with whom she consults throughout the United States and abroad, she has pursued her interest in preparation for and entry to educational and instructional leadership as it relates to supervisory discourse.

Winner of the W. G. Walker 2000 Award for Excellence for her coauthored article published in the Journal of Educational Administration, the University of Georgia College of Education Teacher Educator Award, the University of Colorado School of Education Researcher/Teacher of the Year, and the American Association of School Administrators Outstanding Research Award, Blase has published in international handbooks and journals such as The Journal of Staff Development, The Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, Educational Administration Quarterly, and The Alberta Journal of Educational Research; her eight book editions include Empowering Teachers (1994, 2000), Democratic Principals in Action (1995), The Fire Is Back (1997), Handbook of Instructional Leadership (1998, 2004), Breaking the Silence (2003), and Teachers Bringing Out the Best in Teachers (2006).

Blase has authored chapters on becoming a principal, school renewal, supervision, and organizational development; her recent research examines the problem of teacher mistreatment. She has published over 90 academic articles, chapters, and books, and she also conducts research on supervisory discourse among physicians as medical educators and consults with physicians in US hospitals and medical centers.

Joseph Blase is a professor of educational administration at the University of Georgia. Since receiving his Ph.D. in 1980 from Syracuse University, his research has focused on school reform, transformational leadership, the micropolitics of education, principal-teacher relationships, and the work lives of teachers. His work concentrating on school-level micropolitics received the 1988 Davis Memorial Award given by the University Council for Educational Administration, and his coauthored article published in the Journal of Educational Administration won the W. G. Walker 2000 Award for Excellence. In 1999 he was recognized as an elite scholar, one of the 50 Most Productive and Influential Scholars of Educational Administration in the world. Blase’s books include The Politics of Life in Schools: Power, Conflict, and Cooperation (winner of the 1994 Critic’s Choice Award sponsored by the American Education Studies Association), Bringing Out the Best in Teachers (1994, 2000, 2008); The Micropolitics of Educational Leadership (1995), Empowering Teachers (1994, 2000), Democratic Principals in Action (1995), The Fire Is Back (1997), Handbook of Instructional Leadership (1998, 2004), Breaking the Silence (2003), and Teachers Bringing Out the Best in Teachers (2006). His recent research (coauthored with Jo Blase and Du Fengning, 2008), a national study of principal mistreatment of teachers, appeared in The Journal of Educational Administration. Professor Blase has published over 120 academic articles, chapters, and books.