Managing the Instructional Program: A Case Study of Principal Leadership Practices in Public Secondary Schools in Ouémé, Benin

Instructional leadership is central to improving teaching and learning, yet little is known about how secondary school principals in Benin’s Ouémé region conceptualize and enact this role. This study explores principals’ perceptions of instructional leadership and their management of instructional programs. Using a qualitative case study approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight principals in public secondary schools. The findings reveal a tripartite model of instructional leadership integrating relational influence, strategic orchestration, and pedagogical competence. Principals view relational influence as essential for engaging teachers, strategic orchestration as critical for aligning instructional processes with school goals, and pedagogical competence as a source of legitimacy and efficacy in improving classroom practices. Monitoring student progress emerges as the central mechanism for operationalizing leadership, linking teacher performance to student outcomes through data-driven diagnosis, collaborative problem solving, and targeted interventions. Principals also utilize distributed supervision networks to address resource constraints and expertise gaps, thereby ensuring continuous professional development and curriculum fidelity. The study highlights that effective instructional leadership in this context is not merely a set of behaviors, but a professional identity that integrates credibility, relational skill, and systemic orchestration to sustain high-quality teaching and learning. These insights have implications for principal training, policy development, and the design of instructional leadership frameworks in resource-constrained educational settings. Keywords: Instructional Leadership, Principal Practices, Curriculum Coordination, Instruction Supervision and Evaluation, Student Progress Monitoring