Tackling Instructional Mismatch

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Tackling instructional mismatch

Targeted, intentional learning can build leaders' content knowledge

By Sarah Quebec Fuentes and Jo Beth Jimerson

Categories: Leadership, Learning designs, School leadership

October 2019

Vol. 40, No. 5

At the heart of effective school leadership are robust instructional leadership practices. An emphasis on instructional leadership is neither new nor simple. We’ve spent the last several years talking with teachers, school leaders, and content experts about how they engage in instructional leadership and the challenges with which they struggle. One takeaway from this work is that much, if not most, of the time, leaders are engaging in their work within a context of instructional mismatch. Most leaders end up working either with teachers in grade levels they did not teach (e.g. a secondary teacher who becomes an elementary school administrator) or with teachers in unfamiliar content areas (e.g. a former mathematics teacher who supervises social studies and English language arts teachers). This was the

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Authors

Sarah Quebec Fuentes and Jo Beth Jimerson

Sarah Quebec Fuentes (s.quebec.fuentes@tcu.edu) is associate professor of mathematics education and Jo Beth Jimerson (j.jimerson@tcu.edu) is associate professor of educational leadership at Texas Christian University.

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