A Review on the Common Practices of Instructional Leaderships
in Bangladeshi Colleges
a. Nusrat Zerin Anny
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Rajshahi College, Rajshahi-6000
Email: nusratzerin1989@gmail.com
b. Pradip Kumar Mishra
Associate Professor, School of education, University of Nottingham, Malaysia
Email: Pradip.Mishra@nottingham.edu.my
c. Md. Sajedur Rahman
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Rajshahi College, Rajshahi-6000
Email: sajedur.eco.ru@gmail.com
Keywords: Instructional Leadership; Instruction; Quality Education; Bangladeshi college education.
1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Bangladesh has experienced a rapid expansion of education in last few decades like many other countries in Asia (Islam, 2008 & Chapman, 2000). Not only in primary level, the enrollment rate in both secondary and higher education has been increased tremendously in last decades(Hassan, Bhuiyan, Hoque, 2010&Islam, 2008). But ensuring quality education to so many students is a great challenge. Colleges of Bangladesh are the Institutions that provide both secondary and higher education. There are several issues and problems in the education sector of Bangladesh and the principals of the colleges have to deal with them directly.Primary, secondary and higher education are the major levels of education in Bangladesh (Nagashima et al., 2014). The secondary stage includes class XI and XII that are popularly considered as higher secondary and thought in the colleges. After completing higher secondary level the students can select appropriate stream for their higher education according to their quality (Ministry of Education, 2010). At this point, the colleges under the National University come again to provide higher education besides different public and private universities (Nagashima et al., 2014). Additionally, there are different types of colleges in Bangladesh. Some colleges are government and some are non-government. Some colleges offer only higher secondary education whereas some offer higher education (graduate or postgraduate level). Furthermore, there are some other colleges that offer both (higher secondary and higher) level of education. Unquestionably, college education is crucial in the education system of Bangladesh. The principals are the administrators and managers who have to maintain all necessary activities of their colleges. Instruction is a thing that can be found in the heart of a principal’s duty (Msila, 2013). As the leaders of their institutions, principals ensure the learning environment and find ways of improving the performance of the students (Ail et al., 2015). In order to ensure quality education, the principals have to set up a clear goal and then follow an appropriate action plan including managing, monitoring, allocating resources and evaluating, Essentially, the instructional leadership of Principal matters a lot in the performance of a college. Therefore, effective instructional leadership is essential in Bangladeshi colleges to bring expected changes in the sector of college education. This is a literature review study that attempts to identify the common practices regarding instructional leadership and the ways of improving the instructional leadership condition in the colleges of Bangladesh. The study has guided by certain research questions that are given below:
- What are the common practices regarding instructional leadership in the colleges of Bangladesh? ii) How can instructional leadership be improved in the colleges of Bangladesh?
1.2 Rationale
According to the National Education Policy- 2010, secondary education is the preparatory period for higher education whereas the aim of higher education is to produce skilled manpower in Bangladesh. But the problem of governance is common in both levels of education in this country(Hassan, et al., 2010&Islam, 2008). Since, colleges of Bangladesh provide both secondary (Class XII & XII) and higher level of education, it is really important to ensure good governance in these institutions. A good instructional leader can contribute to enhance this situation. In most of the studies, role of instructional leadership has been described in school level institutions. Nevertheless, it is equally important in the colleges also. College principals deal with growing problems while managing their multifaceted responsibilities (Sala, 2003).They have to maintain the teachers, the students, the supportive stuffs and so forth which are impossible without effective instructional leadership. In this regard this study examines the instructional leadership status in the colleges of Bangladesh. Bangladesh has already achieved rapid growth in literacy rate (Mahmud, 2019), and now it is high time to improve the quality education. Improving quality of education needs the qualitative development of educational institutions. In this situation, there is no alternative to enhance the leadership skill of the principals. This study can help the situation by identifying current situation and possible ways of development of instructional leadership in the colleges of this country. So, this study can be helpful for the educational administrator and the policy makers as well. Finally, this study can contribute to improve the quality of education in college level.
2.0 Review of Literature
2.1 Concept of Instructional Leadership
Instructional leadership is one of the most popular and preferred type of organizational leadership in education (Shatzer, 2009&West & Angel, 2008). The concept of instructional leadership was developed in early 1980s as a result of research on school effectiveness and accepted internationally as principal leadership in 1980s and early 1990s (Hallinger, 2003). “Instructional leadership involves setting clear goals, managing curriculum, monitoring lesson plans, allocating resources and evaluate teachers regularly to promote student learning and growth”(Leadership Insights, 2013). Instructional leadership can be described as a type of leadership that is related to the instruction of teachers and learning of students (Shatzer, 2009). Instructional leadership opens a door to the collaboration between the principal and the teachers on different issues related to teachinglearning process like curriculum, assessment etc. (Marks & Printy, 2003). Bendikson, Robinson, and Hattie (2012) found that instructional leadership is more effective style of organizational leadership in educational institutions than any other type of leadership. There are two types of instructional leadership – direct and indirect (Msila, 2013&Bendikson, et al., 2012).Bendikson, et al.(2012) described direct instructional leadership as leadership that focuses on the quality prevailing practices of the teachers and indirect instructional leadership as leadership that involves providing the teachers with good teaching environment. Bendikson et al. (2012) identified that secondary schools are different from primary in terms of size, organization type and age of the students. They argued that the type of instructional leadership should also be different in primary and secondary education. The principals of primary schools are more likely to practice direct instructional leadership whereas the principals of secondary schools should practice the indirect form (Bendikson et al., 2012).
2.1.1 Dimensions of Instructional Leadership
There are four dimensions of instructional leadership- first, ‘Vision, Mission and Learning-focused Culture’; second, ‘Improvement of Instructional Practice’; Third, ‘Allocation of Resources’; and fourth, ‘Management of Systems and Processes’ (Fink & Rooney, 2015). The same document argues that the first dimension involves the students, the stuffs and the stakeholders in order to set a clear goal for achieving desired success for all the students; the second one involves the stuffs in order to assess the current teaching practice of the teachers and providing the teachers with the chance of self-development through different types of activities like- giving feedback, coaching, training and so forth; the third one involves identifying the needs and ensuring proper distribution of different types of resources like- time, money, space, technology etc.; and, the fourth and the final one involves the process of putting right man in the right place, creating an providing good working condition, chance of professional development and planning for future development.
2.1.2 Effective Instructional Leadership
Blase & Blase, (2000) recognized two strategies of effective instructional leadership named ‘talking with teachers to promote reflection’ and ‘promoting professional growth’ through their study. The talking strategy with teachers includes suggestion giving, providing feedback, modeling, providing advice based on active inquiry and admiring the teachers and on the other hand, to promote professional growth the effective strategy includes emphasizing pedagogical study, backing collaborative activities among teachers, facilitating teachers’ coaching relationship, inspiring reform of programs, implementing knowledge of andragogy in developing all level stuffs, and applying action research in order to notify making of instructional decision (Blase & Blase, 2000). According to Bendikson et al., (2012) the developmental stage of an institution determines the effective instructional leadership for its principal. Educational institutions of different developmental stage need different types of instructional leadership.
2.1.3 Traditional VS new thinking on instructional Leadership
Now-a-days the principal do not have enough time or skill to be instructional leader as traditional view expect from them (Hoerr, 2008). But still Hoerr (2008) argues that principals can be instructional leaders at even present time by facilitating learning of the teachers’. The principal can just put some basic questions related to class instruction and then let the teacher find the answer of those question by self which will contribute to professional development of the teacher (Hoerr, 2008). Horng & Loeb in their study of 2010 argued that the traditional ideas on instructional leadership emphasizes mainly on the part related to teaching-learning of an institution.They also found that recently a different view has been emerged on instructional leadership which emphasizes on organizational management for achieving instructional development instead of daily teaching-learning process. In fact, the new concept is more effective in terms of getting success than the former one (Ail et al., 2015).
There are several literatures that describe the concept of instructional leadership from different point of views. The concept is mainly related with the role of the heads of educational institutions. It focuses on the managerial works of school/college principals. One thing is common among all the literatures that all of them consider instructional leadership as an important concept in terms of educational leadership. Even, the explanation of the concept is changing to fit with the needs of current time. There is no doubt that instructional leadership is really important for educational institutions to get desirable success.
2.2 Instructional Leadership in Educational Institutions
Good leadership always contributes to better performance if educational institutions (Horng & Loeb, 2010). Instructional leadership is able to enhance the teaching-learning quality of both the teachers and the students which result into the improvement in academic performance (Ail et al., 2015). Marks & Printy (2003) found that Instructional leadership promotes collaboration between the principal and the teachers on issues like curriculum, assessment and instruction that has a direct impact on teaching quality.Instructional leadership has a strong positive correlation with the degree of teachers’ commitment (Ail et al., 2015). Msila(2013) argues that the intention of an instructional leader is to enhance the performance of learners through empowering stuffs. The study concludes that even an institution with insufficient resources can succeed if handled by a good instructional leader (Msila, 2013).
2.2.1 Instructional Leadership in Primary Schools
In most of the cases schools that got instructional leaders are more effective than others (Neumerski, 2013). Southworth concluded in his study of 2010 that now it is needed to emphasize on instructional leadership more than before. Horng and Loeb (2010) argued that new form instructional leadership that stresses on organizational leadership is more effective for schools. They also found that the old form emphasizes on daily instructional activities like- observation which sometimes affect class performance. They revealed through their study that, most of the better performing schools had good organizational leaders. There is positive correlation between activities related to organizational and school outcome.
2.2.2 Instructional leadership in secondary schools and colleges
Bendikson et al. (2012)show that the instructional leaders of secondary schools or colleges have to lead multi-layered institution and that’s why their leadership is likely to be an indirect one.Bendikson et al. again argues that the secondary schools are divided into departments and the principals have to deal directly with the persons who got the responsibility of individual departments.In these cases, head of the departments are the direct instructional leaders (Bendikson et al., 2012).Burke (2014) developed a new model of instructional leadership that is applicable for community colleges. He developed the model focusing on the possibility and necessity for creating negative correlation between the administrators and the teachers with the intention to get effective instructional plan. Developed through an action research this model was able to enhance the leadership practice in the community colleges (Burke, 2014). According to Marion & Gonzales (2014), the college principals have to face different types of problem in their workplace. This study also found that, the qualities of principal determines the performance of the students and the college as well. The characteristics of effective college principals of the U.K. identified by this study are very similar to the qualities of effective instructional leadership.
From the prevailing literatures, it is confirmed that instructional leadership is an essential topic in the discussion of educational leadership. In fact, it can be considered as one of the major duties of a school or college principal to become an instructional leader. From primary school to colleges, in every kind of educational institutions effective leadership contributes to the performance of the institution. The leadership form also varies in different types or levels of educational institutions. Moreover, the success of an educational institution depends widely on the effectiveness of leadership in that particular institution.
2.3 Common Practices of Instructional Leadership in the Colleges of Bangladesh and Neighboring Countries
Chapman(2000) explored that many Asian countries experienced rapid growth in terms of literacy rate over last few decades, but the crisis of educational management system still exists in these countries. As a result, it is essential for these countries to enhance the leadership system in their educational institutions in order to improve the quality of education(Chapman, 2000). Like many other countries, Bangladesh is suffering from the same problem that is, the problem of effective leadership in education. But the educational institutional, especially those where higher education is provided (like Bangladeshi government college) cannot be operated like any other institution (Ara, 2015). A good educational management system is needed to ensure quality education in the Asian countries.
2.3.1 Common Practice of Instructional Leadership
Different types of leaderships exist in Bangladeshi colleges as they serve different purposes. In the secondary colleges, the monitoring and supervision system is frustrating which causes low level of accountability of the teachers and the students and resulted into lower quality performance (Ali, Akhter, Maleque, 2007). Most of the colleges that provide secondary education are non-government colleges and that’s why they experience different sort of problems regarding educational management (Hassan, Bhuiyan, & Hoque, 2010 and khan, Hossain, & Haque, 2010). The principals of non-government colleges have to obey the decisions of the government body and they enjoy less freedom in terms of leading their institution; but still some non-government colleges are doing very good in secondary level and their leadership practice is really good (khan, Hossain, and Haque, 2010).
Although some non-government colleges are doing really well at the urban area, the colleges situated at rural areas fail to provide quality education in most of the cases (Hassan, Bhuiyan, Hoque, 2010). It’s because, the leadership practice at the colleges of urban area is more effective which includes proper recruitment, sufficient and appropriate allocation of resources, proper monitoring and supervision, teacher assessment etc. (khan, et al., 2010). But the common leadership practice in the nongovernment colleges of rural area is totally different as their students are mostly the children of poor people (Hassan, et al., 2010). Neither the government nor the principal of these colleges are sincere on providing quality education or practicing effective instructional leadership (Noor, Saroaut; Shaikh and Haque, 2012). There bad practices start from bad recruitment and end with low quality education (Hassan, et al., 2010). Only occasional monitoring takes place and no kind of teacher assessment is performed which allows the teacher to be careless about their job (khan, et al., 2010).
The leadership situation is quite different at the government colleges from the non-government colleges. Most of the government colleges of Bangladesh offers higher education besides or without secondary education(Ali, et al., 2011). In secondary level the performance of government colleges are satisfactory, but in tertiary level education, (higher education) the quality of education is not up to the mark (Karim, 1995). In the government colleges the principals are relatively free as leaders who work under the ‘Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education’ and the ‘Ministry Of Education, Bangladesh’ (Raju & Rahman, 2012). The performance of the government colleges of Bangladesh depend largely on the activities or managerial skill of their principals (Hassan, et al., 2010). The National Academy for Educational Management arranges different type of training programmes in order to enhance the leadership quality of the college principals (Ali, Ayet et al., 2011). In many government colleges, the principals are active and effective in terms of leadership in the secondary level, but the same person, at the same time is indifferent on the issue of effective leadership in higher education which is really surprising (Ali, Ayet et al., 2011).
Effective leadership practicing is a very tough thing in Bangladeshi colleges because, the higher education allows student politics that make some students more powerful than even the principals as they don’t have any accountability to anyone (Hassan, Prof. Zohara Ummy et al., 2010). Moreover neither the authority nor the students of these government colleges are interested in providing or getting quality education, they just want the quantitative growth in terms of the rate of higher education (Islam, 2008).
2.3.2 Common Practice of Instructional Leadership in the Colleges of Neighboring Countries
The study of Sharma(2012) was on four Asian country’s successful principals in terms of instructional leadership perspective. The countries covered in the study of Sharma (2012) are India, Malaysia, Thailand and United Arab Emirates. In this study Sharma collected useful data from near about fifty-five principals of these countries on the issue of instructional leadership. The study findings show that instructional leadership helps for both the teachers and the students in many ways (Sharma, 2012). The study of Sharma (2012) concluded that, effective leadership can help the students’ overall development and continuous professional development of the teachers.
In Pakistan, the college principals understand their duties in terms of the changing local or global patterns of teacher education (Bana & Khaki, 2014). The same study of Bana& Khaki (2014) found that Pakistani principals believe in controlling their institutions in order to ensure smooth functioning in their institution. The study concluded that at present, many places of Pakistan are so dangerous that the principals have life threats in their workplaces and the principals work really hard to get desired results.
In the context of United Arab Emirates, effective leadership is considered as the main elements of fruitful delivery of instruction(Pettaway et al., 2015). Pettaway et al., also found in theirstudy that the issue of effective educational leadership got importance in U.A.E. with the development of the country. Instructional leadership is considered as important and suggested to be imagined from a holistic perspective (Pettaway et al., 2015).
The common practice regarding instructional leadership varies from country to country. In this section the common practices of instructional leadership in Bangladesh and some other Asian countries has been discussed with references of existing literature. The findings from existing literatures indicate that the current practice of instructional leadership in Bangladesh must be improved if the country wants to ensure quality education.
2.4 Excepted Level of Instructional Leadership in the Colleges of Bangladesh
According to the ‘National Education Policy, 2010’, the main goal of education is to produce better human being in this country. The process of transforming a person in a better one is not an easy task; rather, it needs proper guidance (Raju & Rahman, 2012).There is no doubt that this complex process needs to have an effective leadership practice.
2.4.1 Expected Level of Instructional Leadership in Secondary Education
According to the ‘National Education Policy, 2010’, secondary education is the second level of education in Bangladesh that comes after the primary level and before the entrance of tartary education. The objectives of secondary education in Bangladesh are: to develop the students’ internal or hidden talent; to enhance the students’ expertise in order to prepare them for future job market; to make the students prepared to get higher education with the consolidation of the knowledge that they gathered from their primary education; to alleviate discrimination among the secondary educational institutions and the students in terms of gender, socioeconomic background, ethnic identity etc.; and to implement the curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2010). To fulfill the objectives of secondary education of Bangladesh there is no alternative to effective instructional leadership. The ‘National Education Policy, 2010’ advocates for proper recruitment, that is, right man in the right position; infra-structural development; technological development; effective assessment system for students; training for the teachers’ professional development; and effective monitoring and supervision by the authority. If any principal can ensure the above conditions, no doubt that he/she is a good instructional leader and exactly this type of leader is expected in the secondary educational institution of Bangladesh.
2.4.2 Expected Level of Instructional Leadership in Higher Education
According to the ‘National Educational Policy, 2010’ of Bangladesh, the objectives of higher education in this country are: to support the students in acquiring world class knowledge; to facilitate the students in developing free thinking; to help the students in enabling themselves to identify the problems and possible solutions of those problems that are prevailing in Bangladesh; to expand knowledge through original and practical research; to introduce the students with the knowlegde of advanced and modern world; to produce citizens with secular, liberal, progressive and scientific mind set; to explore new areas of knowledge; and creating a wise, creative, humane and patriotic generation (Ministry of Education, 2010). To meet these objectives, the possible strategies described in the policy are: providing higher education according to the quality of the student; ensuring residential facilities for students; ensuring infra-structural and technological support; improving the quality of higher education by any means, encouraging research work, providing training to the new teachers at urgent basis, encouraging teacher-student collaboration in terms of research work, ensuring necessary resources, following a common academic calendar; etc. (Ministry of Education, 2010). Again, like the secondary level educational institutions the principal who is able to fulfill all these requirements of the education policy will be an effective instructional leader and his/her leadership type will be the expected level of instructional leadership for higher education of Bangladesh.
After waiting for a long period of time Bangladesh has got its first and only education policy in 2010. The policy is about the whole educational system of Bangladesh. It includes each and every important issues related to education from primary to higher education. It includes the aims and strategies to meet the aims as well. The expected level of instructional leadership is also found in this document, but in an indirect way.
3.0 Case Studies and Best Practices
3.1 An International Case Study with Best Practices of Instructional LeadershipLeadership [Collected from work of University of Aucland, New Zealand by Helen S. Timperley (2005), titled “Instructional Leadership Challenges: The Case of Using Student Achievement Information for Instructional Improvement”]
The study of Timperley (2005) focuses on the challenges of instructional leadership through four stages of an action research project. She involved an assistant principal and a group of teachers who were supported by a consultant in her research work as the school teachers find it more difficult to practice instructional leadership. During the research project, the participants of the project learned the ways of using achievement data in order to improve instruction to help their students with weak performance. At first, did not believe that the project will work or they will be able to influence the performance of their weak students. After eighteen months from the project started, the participants used the achieved data to prepare their instruction in a more precise way targeting the low achieving students. They did this to examine the usefulness of their teaching practice and refined their programmes. In each stage of the research, they faced multidimensional challenges concluded that instructional leadership is necessary in reality and it should be practiced effectively.
The study was undertaken in the context of New Zealand. The research area was one of New Zealand’s poorest areas, that is, a suburban area of South Auckland. This was an action research project and the techniques of data collection were observation and interview. The respondents were selected by the participants of the project. To record the interviews, the participants used audio taped and the interview questions were mainly unstructured. The four phases of the action research were: understanding the problem, making links, more authentic testing, and generalization.
The result of the study was also discussed according to its four phases. In the first phase, the participants keep data as individual student profile. Data were kept as running record and read carefully and accurately. In the second phase, the teachers were asked to set a benchmark for planning instruction. It was decided to spend two years in gathering cohort data. In the third phase, the participants passed through more authentic testing. Finally, in the fourth and last phase, the researcher generalized the result of her research that concluded with significant development in the performance of weak students through the action research.
The study of Timperley ends with the conclusion that proper practice of instructional leadership is able to improve the situation and contributed to the improvement of school performance. In this study, the instructional leader sets a goal first and then work with a proper planning. The whole process includes various phases. The leader had patience to give enough time and, as a result, she was able to improve the performance of comparatively weak students.
This case of Auckland, New Zealand can be considered as an international case with best practice of instructional leadership. The reason behind choosing this case is, the case identified a less beneficiary area, selected a particular problem and found the solution of that problem.
3.2 A National Case Study with Best Practices of Instructional Leadership [Collected from the dissertation of Sheikh Mohammad Ali(2011), titled “Head teachers’ perceptions and practices of school leadership in private secondary schools in Sirajganj district, Bangladesh”]
Although discussion on educational leadership is very common in developed countries, the concept of educational leadership has not been discussed much in the context of Bangladesh. It is very hard to find literatures on instructional leadership in Bangladesh context. Although there are a few works on educational leadership, finding a case study in Bangladesh context on instructional leadership is really very though.
The study (Ali, 2011) identified the instructional leadership condition in Bangladeshi secondary schools. This study was a qualitative research where the method was case study. The researcher conducted unstructured interviews in order to gather data. In this study, the researcher interviewed four head teachers of different secondary school and presented four case studies based on the data gathered from the interviews.
From existing literatures, the researcher found that teaching is not as easy task and it needs high standard of professional performance. Instructional leadership plays an important role in ensuring and enhancing the teaching-learning environment.
In the answers of the researcher’s question each and every head teacher answered that they try to ensure good teaching-learning environment in their institutions in order to get desired success of their students. In fact, the goal of all the head teachers is to develop the performance of their students and their institutions as well. All of the leaders also stated that their teachers can get him any time for their professional needs as he allows easy access to him. They also acknowledged that working as a leader of an educational institution is not easy in Bangladesh. Sometimes they have to be diplomatic in some issues, but they always try to work honestly and allocate the resources properly.
Shahid, who is a head teacher of a renowned school of Sirajganj stated that, all time he tries to lead his school is such a way that everyone remains satisfied. He also tries to maximize the achievements of his students. He desires to get the best performance from both the teachers and the students of his school.
Rahim, the head teacher of another famous school of the same district says about his faith on effective communication and collaboration. He makes himself easily accessible to other persons. He also tries to ensure a favourable teaching-learning environment in his school in order to reach his ultimate goal.
All four head teachers gave almost same answers to the questions asked to them by the researcher. All four cases indicate that there is good practice of instructional leadership in the secondary schools of Bangladesh. All the head teachers have some target or goal to reach and all of them practice good collaborative activities in their schools.
The condition of Bangladeshi colleges is almost same to that of secondary schools. So, the case studies on secondary schools are also applicable to understand the situation of Bangladeshi colleges. But there is a big problem with these cases and that is, here, the head teachers themselves were the respondents.
That is why, it tells about the leadership condition from the leaders’ point of view. If some other stakeholders were included as respondents, the study could be more reliable. Moreover, the readers could get a holistic picture of the situation if the situation would have been discussed from some other people’s point of views.
4.0 Suggestions on Implementation of Best Practices in Bangladesh 4.1 Summary of the Findings from Related Literature
4.1 Summary of the Findings from Related Literature
Different literatures on instructional leadership have been discussed in this paper in earlier section. Here, the findings from those literatures will be discussed. The existing literatures established instructional leadership as an essential for the college principals. Instructional leadership is a form of educational leadership that stats with setting a clear goal and ends with qualitative development of the institution. In the developed countries, the concept of instructional leadership is being renewed or refined in order to cope up with changing needs of postmodern era. In the developed countries instructional leadership is a widely discussed and practiced leadership form for last few decades. But in Bangladesh context, there are very few literatures on this issue. The literatures on Bangladesh context indicate that the instructional leadership condition in Bangladeshi colleges is not satisfactory at all. In some urban colleges good example of instructional leadership can be found, but the condition of rural colleges is simply frustrating. More over the instructional leadership condition in secondary level education is much better than that of higher education. The National Educational Policy, 2010 of Bangladesh described clear objectives of college education and the strategies of meeting those objectives. The way of getting desired quality education as per the education policy also suggests the effective implication of instructional leadership.
4.2 Ways of Improving Instructional Leadership
The previous sections of this paper explored that the instructional leadership situation in Bangladeshi colleges is not satisfactory yet. The government or the proper authority should take necessary steps to improve the current situation. There are several ways of improving this situation. One way could be increasing the amount resources allocated to the colleges. It’s because no kind of development is possible without any resource. Moreover, previous section found that infrastructural and technological development is essential in Bangladeshi colleges which are impossible without sufficient resources. But this is not easy as Bangladesh is not a very rich country. Furthermore, the allocation of money depends on the government’s policy regarding the whole economy of the country. The second way could be arranging a lot of trainings for both the principals and the teachers. Trainings are essential to change the attitude of any professionals. Effective training can turn an ineffective leader to as effective leader. The study of teaching-learning process should be also encouraged. Action research projects could also be conducted to identify particular problems in this issue and then find their possible solutions.
4.3 Recommendations
There are several ways of improving instructional leadership condition in any country. But in this section the specific recommendations will suggest the more effective ways for Bangladesh. Arranging training for the principals and teachers: the most effective way of improving the instructional leadership situation in Bangladesh can be effective training arranges for the principals. Many of the college principals of Bangladesh are aged people who possess traditional thinking and are not willing to work so hard in their work place. Effective training can change their attitude to work place and transform them into good instructional leaders. Bangladesh has an excellent academy for teacher training named ‘National Academy for Educational Management’ (NAEM) that can be used to arrange the trainings for college principals. Overseas trainings should also be arranged in order to introduce the principals with world class instructional leadership of developed countries. Training should also be arranged for the college teachers as they are also an active part of effective instructional leadership and the future principals.
Conducting action research: this can be a very effective way of improving leadership practice in the colleges.Action research is a kind of research that needs very minimum resource and can be conducted in small issues. Moreover, action research provides possible solutions for selected problem. The college principals can conduct action research in their own colleges to solve particular problems of that college. The performance of other teachers can also be enhanced through action research. In this way the college based problems can be solved and the instructional leadership condition can be improved. Furthermore, it will not cause huge amount of money. So, this can be applied to very small colleges with limited resources also.
5.0 Conclusion
Bangladesh is a developing country of South Asia that is starving for development. Education is one of the preconditions of development. That is why the government of Bangladesh is now emphasizing a lot on ensuring quality education. Instructional leadership is related with educational leadership. In this paper it has been found that there is no alternative to instructional leadership in order to ensure quality education. This study assessed the prevailing condition of instructional leadership in Bangladeshi colleges and found that the condition is not up to the mark. The leadership situation in the colleges must be improved if quality education is to be ensured. This paper also found some ways of improving the situation. Considering the economic condition of the country the study recommends two ways that will cost minimum. The first recommendation is to arrange training for the principals and the teachers of Bangladeshi colleges. Training will cause some expenses, but there is no alternative to this. The second way is to apply action research to solve particular problem with the help of very minimum resource. However, the main limitation of this study was scarcity of previous works in this area, especially on the Colleges of Bangladesh. Only a few published papers were found in the context of Bangladesh where most of them were done several years ago. More studies are invited in this field to explore the problems and prospects of Bangladeshi colleges in future.
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