The Barriers that Hinder Effective Implementation of Principals’ Instructional Leadership Practices in Schools

The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers that hinder effective implementation of instructional leadership practices in schools in public secondary schools in Baringo County, Kenya.The target population was 6901 Form Four students, 1266 teachers, and 140 principals, during the 2017-2020 school years, 6 Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officers and 1County Director of Education.The study adopted descriptive survey research design.Stratified random sampling technique was applied to sample 30% of each of the categories of the study populations.The sample consisted of 2,070 students, 380 teachers, 42 school principals, six Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officers and 1 County Director of Education.The research instruments were questionnaires and semi-structured interview guides.Data was analyzed with the aid of SPSS.The quantitative statistics used included frequencies, means, percentages and standard deviations and the results presented using tables and charts.Qualitative data were thematically clustered in relation to the objectives of the study.The study established that the main impediments to principals' instructional leadership practices include inadequate educational infrastructure, big class sizes and overburdened teachers.The study recommended that school principals should ensure that schools are adequately provided with sufficient teaching and learning resources; School principals should make an effort to construct more classrooms in order to reduce the big class sizes and overcrowding in the classrooms.The findings of this study are expected to contribute to the body of knowledge on instructional leadership and provide recommendations to educators on how to improve instructional leadership in educational institutions.