The Relationship between Principals’ and District Managers Instructional Leadership, Teacher Commitment and Student Performance : An Inquiry into Public Sector Schools of Punjab

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine the impact of principals’ and district education managers’ instructional leadership on student performance through the mediation of teacher commitment. The study has been conducted in 316 public-sector schools of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Two-stage cluster sampling method was used for this research and the three regions of Punjab (central, north, and south) had adequate representation in the sample in line with the overall district-wise proportion in the regions. The study adopted a deductive approach and hypotheses were developed and tested based on the theoretical considerations in line with the Hallinger (2000) instructional leadership model. The results of this study show that teacher commitment acts as a mediator in the relationship between instructional leadership and student performance. Furthermore, school level moderates the mediated relationship between instructional leadership, teacher commitment, and student performance; such that the mediated relationship was more salient in the case of primary schools than for higher school levels. The original contribution of this research is the conceptualization of the instructional role of district education managers in influencing student achievement and the exploration of teacher commitment as a mediator in the relationship between instructional leadership and student performance. Also, for the first time, school level and school culture have been used as moderators in the mediating relationship of instructional leadership, teacher commitment, and student performance. This research advances our understanding of the instructional leadership theory. It makes use of Hallinger's (2000) model of instructional leadership and builds a contextual understanding of how instructional leadership can boost student performance. The study provides sufficient evidence regarding the significance of instructional leadership in improving student performance through the mediation of teacher commitment. Hence, it is critical to explore avenues and take steps to build the morale and commitment of teachers and provide leadership training to district education managers and principals for enhancing their understanding of the important role of instructional leadership and to develop their leadership skills.