THE INFLUENCE OF LEADERSHIP ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF LEARNER PERFORMANCE Instructional and Distributive Leadership 1. Introduction & Background Leadership in schools is one of the fundamental principles that drives the functionality of schools, as well as an academic improvement of learners. As stated by (Hallinger, 2010), there have been numerous research relating to principal leadership in schools and its impact on the overall success of the school. 2. School Leadership Nevertheless, it is imperative to heed that school principals cannot singlehandedly improve learner performance and development, they need to provide guidance and leadership that will transcends in an environment that aids an increased productivity (Makgato & Mudzanani, 2019). They further state that a positive rapport between the principal and staff is linked with a positive learner performance, as well as with teachers’ fulfilment in their work (Makgato & Mudzanani, 2019). Furthermore, a principal with firm leadership skills can actively be involved in all situations that need to be addressed in order to have an increased learner performance. Instructional Leadership3 Among numerous obligations expected from school principals, instructional leadership has been one of the subjects that received increased interest dating back from the 1980s and remains dominant in literature presented in the present (Costello, 2015). According to (Costello, 2015), instructional leadership can be referred to as any action taken by leaders to ensure efficient teaching and learning. Furthermore (Costello, 2015) criticized the definition and argued that the given definition could be sufficient only if instructional leadership was that uncomplicated and based on one concrete way, he further states that the processes of instructional leadership are multifaceted and they fluctuate throughout different situations, depending on distinct leadership styles, the context of the school, and constituents. Despite the multifaceted qualities of instructional leadership, research shows that a common goal concerning the concept is teaching and learner achievement (Costello, 2015). Research also indicated that there were resemblances in what researchers considered as facets of instructional leadership, which includes establishing instruction that is authentic and has quality, thriving towards a desired teaching and learning setting, intensifying learner performance, and even more recent, constructing a shared instructional leadership proficiency which according to (Costello, 2015) is a move from an old viewpoint of a ‘leader as manager’ to a more recent viewpoint of a ‘leader as a facilitator’. Distribution Leadership (Mestry, 2017) 3. Conclusion (Hallinger, 2010)
