CULTURAL HISTORICAL ACTIVITY THEORY: EXPLORING PRINCIPALS’ INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP
Abstract
Instructional leadership activities are significant for school development. Although many researchers in this field consider leadership activities relating to the work of school principals, in effect, leadership is a network activity that includes all school staff. This study aims to show this interdependence network activity within Cultural Historical Activity Theory. The research question is “what are the activities of an instructional leader?” in order to understand instructional leadership activities in school from perspectives of Turkish graduate students and Cultural Historical Activity Theory. The answers are conceptualized within the framework of an Activity Theory. The students were asked to write about the activities of an instructional leader in the first and last course of the semester. Eighteen graduate students participated in this study.References
Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (1998). Qualitative research in education: An introduction to theory and methods (3rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Cole, M., & Engeström, Y. (2007). Cultural-historical approaches to designing for development, in J. Valsiner and A. Rosa (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ellis, V., Edwards, A., & Smagorinsky, P. (Eds.). (2010). Cultural-historical perspectives on teacher education and development: learning teaching. London: Routledge.
Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by Expanding: An activity theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit.
Engeström, Y. (1999) Expansive visibilization of work: An activity-theoretical perspective. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8, 63-93. DOI: 10.1023/A:1008648532192
Hallinger, P. (2005). Instructional leadership and the school principal: a passing fancy that refuses to fade away. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 4(3), 221-39. DOI: 10.1080/15700760500244793
Hallinger, P., Murphy, J. (1985). Assessing the instructional management behavior of principals. Elementary School Journal, 86(2), 217–247.
Harris, A. (2010). Distributed leadership, in Bush, T., Bell, L. and Middlewood, D. (Eds.), The Principles of Educational Leadership and Management, London, Sage.
Leithwood, K. (1994). Leadership for school restructuring. Educational Administration Quarterly, 30(4), 498-518. DOI: 10.1177/0013161X94030004006
Nohria, N., & Eccles, R. (1992). Networks and organizations: Structure, form, and action, (pp. 288-308). Harvard Business School Press.
Oswald, M., & Engelbrecht, P. (2013). Leadership in Disadvantaged Primary Schools: Two Narratives of Contrasting Schools. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 41(5), 620-639. DOI: 10.1177/1741143213488377
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Wilson, V. (2014). Examining teacher education through cultural historical activity theory. Teacher Advancement Network Journal, 6(1), 20-29.
Copyright information
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 - CC BY 3.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
info@iseic.cz, www.iseic.cz, ojs.journals.cz