Instructional leadership emphasises the importance of establishing clear educational goals, planning the curriculum and evaluating teachers and teaching. The prime focus is on leaders’ responsibility for promoting better measurable outcomes for learners, highlighting the importance of enhancing the quality of classroom teaching and learning (Day, Gu and Sammons, 2016).
Instructional leadership furthermore emphasises the creation of a supportive, encouraging work environment that can support the development of teaching practices best suited to improve academic performance (Hansen and Lárusdóttir, 2015). This type of leadership has also been termed ‘learning-centred leadership, leadership for learning or curriculum leadership’, as one key dimension focuses on developing and co-ordinating an effective school curriculum (Gumus, Bellibas, Esen and Gumus, 2018) (European Agency, 2020, p. 41).