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, 2006(57]; Spillane, 2006(58]). 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 school-wide participation in efforts to evaluate the school’s academic development (Hallinger and Heck, 2010(4ij).