Desmond Blackburn

Socio-cultural Leadership: the Art of Restructuring Schools Through Research-based Principal Leadership Desmond Blackburn

While many factors influence the success rate of schools, none are more influential than the impact of effective local school leadership by way of a principal. Socio-Cultural Leadership suggests many aspects that impact effective school leadership; however none are more substantial than the following tenets of Socio-Cultural Leadership:

• As the instructional leader, the principal must supervise and evaluate instruction to make sure that students are given optimal learning opportunities.
• As the emotional leader, the principal must ensure that teachers are intellectually equipped, emotionally stimulated, and encouraged to assume decision-making positions of leadership in schools to increase student achievement.
• As a community leader, the principal must inspire and/or provide incentives for student-centered communal learning.
• As the facilitator of culture, the principal must also realize the limitations of leadership on student achievement and begin to shape and reshape school culture.

Socio-Cultural Leadership is the result of a four-year-long immersion into school improvement efforts from around the world, not to mention my own experiences as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, district trainer, director of school improvement, and adjunct professor.