Perceptions of Tennessee Principals of their Supervisors’ Role in Developing their Instructional Leadership Capacity

The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of Tennessee principals of their supervisor’s role in developing their instructional leadership capacity. This basic qualitative study gathered the perspectives of elementary principals. The participants included ten Tennessee elementary principals. Principals in the five participating school districts participated in semi-structured interviews for the qualitative study. Data from the interviews was collected, transcribed, coded, and analyzed. The qualitative results found the following four themes from the principal interviews: current direct support, professional development, ensuring strong relationships, and intentional communication. Principals receive support; however, the support is unstructured and primarily focused on behavior instead of building their instructional leadership capacity. Implications for the study suggested using an instructional leader framework as a model for districts to create a structure for ensuring principals continue to receive professional development to increase their instructional leadership capacity. Additional districts within Tennessee and other states can use the findings from this study to develop the supervisor's role to develop the principal’s instructional leadership capacity.