The reflection of instructional leadership concept on educational administration master’s programs: a comparison of turkey and the united state of america

Instructional leadership has been one of the most dominant concepts in the contemporary literature while defining school principals’ main responsibilities. Principals, as instructional leaders, are expected to focus more on instructional practices in schools, rather than on conventional managerial work. However, in practice, there are many principals who cannot effectively perform their role as instructional leaders (Fink & Resnick, 2001). Graduate programs, specifically Master’s programs, in educational administration play an important role in preparing school administrators in most countries. In this context, the purpose of this study is to analyze and compare educational administration Master’s programs in Turkey and in the United States of America (USA) in terms of their relevance to instructional leadership concept. We chose these two countries because they have very different educational systems and principal selection processes. The results of the study indicate that educational administration Master’s programs in two countries show significant differences in both their structure and content. Master’s programs in the USA are found to be more relevant to the concept of instructional leadership. Thus, these programs appear to be more appropriate for preparing principals for today’s schools.

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Instructional leadership ,

educational administration ,

graduate programs ,