INTRODUCTION.

Leadership is a crucial element in the day to day management of affairs in our lives. Instructional leadership in institutions is a style of leadership where the school head encourages all to participate towards formulating policies that will lead to the improvement of the learning environment.  This paper is going to give an in-depth analysis to ‘The extent to which principals in the Caribbean schools are practicing instructional leadership strategies.’

Glanz (2005) observes that “Instructional leadership is about encouraging best practices in teaching.”  This calls for a new blend of teaching methods and their implementation in the classrooms so as to meet the needs of various children.  The Caribbean is a “multi-ethnic and multi-religious” (Sunal, pp 23. 2006) nation whose education system has remained intact since the pre-colonial times. The system revolves around a single source of control that is the Education Department, headed by the Education Secretary to avoid defiance during the colonial era.  The Secretary formulates policies which are then communicated to the schools through to the respective states.  This means that the Department is the vocal point of decision making and any mishaps may result in lags between the designing and implementation phases of any policy. This can be the major cause of underdevelopment and rigidity of decision making in schools (Sunil, pp 21, 2006).

Principals are now opting to making internal decisions in regards to the projects to be undertaken by their schools and involving other members in decision making in matters relating to the improvement of schools ( Sunal, pp 23, 2006).  This means that the  principals are not merely running the institution in their capacity as the school head but providing directions towards achieving the targeted education standards thus enhancing its image by providing quality education services to its members. Glanz, 2004 argues that instructional leadership provides an avenue for “teacher development” and “student achievement” and this is one of the many benefits derived from effective instruction leadership.   The principal is also brought to task when it comes to the coordination of the projects and their implementation.

The principal should formulate the vision of the school that will address each and every aspect of the institution and “should be shared and supported by the school community.” (Gupton, 2002, pp30 ).  School heads should allow for a great relation between the students and teachers and also between the students themselves and teachers themselves.  This allows for the picking of various ideas that can be  implemented by either party so as to improve themselves or their environment.  Principals are at liberty to invite motivational and professional speakers to equip members with up-to-date information on improved teaching methods  ( Glanz, 2005, pp 229).  School leaders should be highly ethical and morally executing their duties in the most professional manner as they are persons whose actions are emulated by their subordinates.  They must act according to the values and beliefs they consider desirable and instill them in the students as they are the basis of establishing a school culture ( Zepeda, 2003 ) and a conducive environment for learning.  Adequate preparation for the implementation of the strategies and their benefits among teachers and students is the largest hindrance for instructional leadership as all have to be brought on board and head towards achieving a single objective (Smith, Murphy and Piele, 2006 ).

CONCLUSION.

Principals, as instructional leaders should concentrate on realizing “the primary goal of schooling”, that is “supporting student learning” (Glanz, 2004 ) and should be allowed to manage their schools considering the available resources as long as they follow stipulated

Guidelines given by the controlling authority.  Principals should enhance cooperation among members of the school and find time for the evaluation of the implemented strategies.

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