Session 4

Leading the Core Business… Teaching and Learning

          One of the enduring characteristics of any successful enterprise is the ability of the organization to identify its core business and build and apply profound knowledge in its core business.   Profound knowledge is the in-depth understanding of something.  It is the ability to grasp the fundamental forces and principles that make something work the way it does.          Successful school leaders understand that the teaching-learning process is the core business.  While recognizing the impossibility of learning all there is to know about every curriculum area and every pedagogical strategy, successful school leaders are dedicated, even passionate, learners in this area.  They realize that profound knowledge of the teaching – learning process is the most valuable, and perhaps the most scarce, capacity of school leadership. 

          The value and impact of “instructional leadership” has been long documented in the school improvement research.  The title “principal,” as used in early schooling, referred to the “principal teacher.”  Perhaps more so than in other leadership occupations, the success of school leaders is, and has always been, rooted in the profound knowledge of teaching and learning.