Exploring Campus Leaders’ Experiences with Instructional Rounds: An Interpretive Qualitative Study

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Educational Administration

Date of Award

Fall 2024

Abstract

This basic qualitative study gains the perspectives of elementary campus administrators who utilize the structure of instructional rounds on their campus. Instructional rounds are when a team of educators participate in classroom observations, collect data, and debrief based on a problem of practice. The work focuses on the instructional core, which consists of the student, teacher, and content centered around the task. Although previous studies on its use exist related to connections, culture, and feelings of belonging with new teachers, there is a need for additional empirical evidence for using instructional rounds to build capacity in schools. This interpretive study explores administrators’ experiences of how use of this protocol influences their instructional leadership and helps them build capacity for teaching and learning on their campus. Framed by Mitchell and Sackney’s (2000, 2011) capacity-building theory, the scope of the study includes campus administrators’ experiences building personal, interpersonal, and organizational capacity through the phenomenon of instructional rounds. The data was categorized into 21 themes, arranged into 7 broader categories, including leadership, capacity building, instructional impact on the organization, practices to leverage, and recommendations for sustainability, among others.The research findings summarize that the leader must be both a visionary and instructional leader, a culture builder that cultivates trust and safety among staff, and a facilitator of learning by providing in-depth, ongoing training through structured professional learning around a problem of practice. As reported by campus administrators, instructional rounds build capacity through self-reflection, PLC discussions, vertical alignment, campus-wide collaboration, and using non-evaluative data for collective improvement. Although there are challenges associated with rounds, there are many benefits based on suggested approaches for administrators to leverage, such as authentic conversations, data-driven processes, and recommendations for sustainability, such as narrowing the focus and scaling. The study's findings synthesize perspectives and experiences of elementary campus administrators related to rounds used for capacity building and school-wide improvement of teaching and learning.

Advisor

Peter Williams

Subject Categories

Education | Educational Leadership

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