Evidence-based instructional leadership in community colleges: a conceptual approach

Abstract

Instructional leadership remains a complicated and debated issue for education. In fact, traditional theories of leadership from within both education and the organizational sciences increasingly face criticism. Drawing from ideas applicable to differentiated contexts of learning, this article develops an alternative model of instructional leadership for two-year, community colleges. It focuses on the potential and need for establishing a reciprocal relationship between administration and faculty in order to achieve effective instructional strategies through a pragmatic and research-based teaching practice that begins in the classroom. The model is itself justified through an analysis of literature on action research, organizational theory, community college strategic planning documents, and Carnegie Foundation recommendations.

Keywords:

• educational leadership
• action research
• community colleges
• organizational behavior