Instructional Leadership Practices of Principals at Public Elementary Schools in Indonesia

For more than thirty years, instructional leadership has been considered an effective school leadership model for improving student achievement. This study aimed to investigate the instructional leadership practices of Indonesian school principals and the obstacles that they face. In this study, the data were collected through semi-structured interviews with three principals of public elementary schools located in Bandung. An audit trail and member checks were applied to ensure the quality of the collected data. The results showed that the three principals shared the instructional leadership role, particularly in performing supervision responsibilities. Despite this practice, the principals found it difficult to perform instructional leadership due to time contraints. Also, they lacked support from student parents, which made it difficult to improve student achievement. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that the instructional leadership of principals should involve parents more in student learning. Keywords: school principal, principals’ leadership, instructional leadershi