When others' performance just isn't good enough: Educational leaders' framing of concerns in private and public

Abstract

Effective instructional leadership demands that leaders address the inevitable problems and concerns that exist in any educational organization. Unfortunately, much evidence suggests that many important concerns, including teacher performance issues, continue to be unaddressed and unresolved. This article portrays the nature of concerns facing 77 educational leaders about others’ performance and the variable effectiveness of their attempts to resolve them in both private and public contexts. The majority of concerns identified by these leaders were about behavioral issues, with others being about attitudes, relationships, effectiveness, and capability. Concerns were found to persist longer than is desirable, and leaders reported difficulty in resolving them.