A new TVET leadership model: combination of innovative and instructional paradigms

This study was designed to determine the constructs to develop a new model of innovative instructional leadership for polytechnics system in Malaysia. The study used Hallinger and Murphy theories as the main underpinning leadership development framework. This study has utilized a model development approach as its research design. In an earlier stage, a modified Delphi technique was used to gather initial data regarding innovative instructional leadership. Eleven experts were selected based on their expertise and experience. They confirmed 13 constructs for the new innovative instructional TVET leadership model. Besides the experts, a stratified random sampling was used to select the polytechnic lecturers. A new instrument was developed which consisted of 13 constructs and 185 items and it was distributed to the lecturers in the selected polytechnics to verify the proposed constructs of the innovative instructional leadership. The empirical data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics that included confirmatory factor analysis. Alarming results showed that the lecturers at the polytechnics disagreed that their administrators possessed the innovative instructional leadership particularly related to strategic thinking, innovative thinking and network management. In addition, the study also found that the administrators of the polytechnics have only moderate level of innovative instructional leadership for most of the constructs. Based on the confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that only 65 items out of 185 items that are valid to measure the innovative instructional leadership in the polytechnics system in Malaysia. In conclusion, this study confirmed the importance of innovative instructional leadership in the polytechnic system in Malaysia. The usage of this model is expected to map the leadership competence of the polytechnics adminstrators.