Developing a Sustainable Instructional Leadership Model: A Six-year Investigation of Teachers in One Urban Middle School

Abstract

We introduce a model of instructional leadership that can self-sustain curriculum-based reforms at school sites. Our model is based on a six year longitudinal study of science teachers who implemented an inquiry-based, technology-rich weather curriculum as part of their district- wide science education reform initiatives. This study defines a sustainable leadership model similar to the flying geese metaphor. In developing our leadership model, we used multiple data sources and synthesized three bodies of literature such as community of learners in social cognition theory, instructional le adership in education, and leadership in organizational psychology.