How staff dynamics can constrain instructional leadership

Instructional leadership has been widely recognised as a central driver of teaching quality and student achievement. However, its enactment is often constrained by various factors, such as principals’ knowledge, limited time, and external context. This qualitative study explores how interpersonal dynamics within the teaching staff may also inhibit principals’ efforts to exercise instructional leadership. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 27 elementary school principals across Israel, the analysis identified three recurring patterns that hinder leadership practice. Non-instructional collegiality occurs when teachers prioritise personal relationships over professional collaboration, creating a culture in which social harmony displaces instructional dialogue. Teacher-controlled boundaries emerge when staff collectively restrict the principal's legitimacy to shape pedagogy, fostering conflict-avoidant norms that protect underperformance. Coordinated non-cooperation reflects instances where close teacher networks subtly or overtly resist leadership initiatives, offering surface-level compliance without meaningful engagement. Taken together, these dynamics illustrate how school micropolitics complicate the enactment of instructional leadership.