instructional leadership itself needs to be more clearly defined in terms of principals actions and it is here that the work of day et al distributed leadership focuses on leadership practices including interactions with other leaders teachers staff parents and students rather than on formal leaders traits roles and functions or on organisational structures grubb and flessa spillane three specific aspects of distributed leadership are making collaborative decisions emphasising school governance that empowers staff and students and encourages shared accountability for student learning and emphasising schoolwide participation in efforts to evaluate the school s academic development hallinger and heck ij