Curriculum and Instructional Leadership: A commitment to life-long and self-directed learning is essential for effective learning-centered curriculum and instructional leaders. These leaders need to have a deeper understanding of the way students learn and their level of learning. In most cases, effective instructional leaders are extremely committed and involved in both curricular and instructional issues that have a direct impact on student accomplishment ("What is Instructional Leadership?" 2005). Currently, efficient school leadership must combine the traditional leadership duties like evaluation, scheduling, maintenance of facilities, and budgeting with an increased engagement with particular teaching and learning aspects. The creation of a professional learning environment in which students constantly improve their knowledge and skills requires an understanding of how they learn. Consequently, curriculum and instructional leadership plays a critical role in the process because leaders must put curriculum and instruction first ("Leadership Professional Development Policy," 2009).

History of Curriculum and Instructional Leadership:

Since curriculum and instructional leadership is basically referred to as instructional leadership, it's a concept with a long history that can be traced back to the 19th Century. This concept emerged through the inspection systems in England, North America, and Australia. The model gained popularity in America during the 1970s because of the increased emphasis of the instructional dimension as the role of the principal. While the concept doesn't have a clear definition, it has continued to evolve since then. The main role and responsibility of the principal during the emergence of this model was instructional leadership and improvement of curriculum (Gurr & Drysdale, n.d.). Due to the confusing definitions, the concept remains complex because of numerous interpretations on what a curriculum and instructional leader does.

Components of Curriculum and Instructional...

Superintendents involved in delegating such responsibilities need to obtain a greater understanding of the necessary instructional strategies and the use of data to guide decision-making.
Some of the major components of the model include curriculum, instruction, staff development, and foundations (Morton, Burke & Rice, 2008). The curriculum component include the knowledge and theory that is most worth and how the knowledge can be developed, structured and taught to achieve learning outcomes. While instruction entails the delivery system of the curriculum, staff development is the continual improvement of employee performance. On the other hand, foundations component incorporates the impact of culture, value and beliefs, needs of the learner, information about learning, and social trends.

Strengths of the Curriculum and Instructional Leadership:

Curriculum and instructional leadership has two major strengths brought by its benefits within and outside the classroom environment. First, the result of the model is that it promotes a collaborative learning environment in which the learning process is not limited to the classroom environment and is an objective of every educator ("Instructional Leadership," n.d.). Curriculum and instructional leaders know what is happening in the classrooms, develop staff capacities, and try to maintain improvement and change. Secondly, Sharma (2012) states that this leadership promotes student satisfaction with outcome, high self-esteem and self-actualization, high morale of teachers, and students high recognition. Instructional leaders achieve this by leading the curricular basis of instructions and learning within and outside the classroom environment.

Weaknesses of Curriculum and Instructional…