Fostering department chair instructional leadership capacity: laying the groundwork for distributed instructional leadership HANS W. KLAR In this article, I provide findings from a multisite case study of three urban high schools. In each of the schools, principals endeavoured to foster the capabilities of their depart- ment chairs to enhance school-wide instructional capacity and increase student achieve- ment. Data were gathered from interviews, participant observations and document analyses during a two-year Leadership for Learning grant funded by the Wallace Founda- tion. The findings highlight the critical role the principals played in cultivating a shared understanding of the need for change; engaging department chairs in authentic instruc- tional leadership initiatives; and providing the ongoing support, resources and commit- ment necessary for the chairs to enhance their instructional leadership capacities. I conclude the article with implications for research and practice. Introduction The growing body of research on distributive forms of school leadership 1 emphasizes the affordances associated with broadening and deepening instructional leadership. This research (Harris et al. 2007, Leithwood and Mascall 2008, Heck and Hallinger 2009, Hallinger and Heck 2010a, 2010b, Louis et al. 2010) has highlighted the positive influence of leader- ship on student achievement and organizational improvement when it is exercised by multiple agents. Less attention has been paid to fostering the antecedent capabilities required for middle-level formal leaders, such as high school department chairs, to engage in instructionally focused leader- ship. In this article, I present the results of a two-year, multisite case study of principals in three urban high schools. The study was designed to answer the question: In what ways do urban high school principals develop department chair leadership capacity to support the improvement of instructional practices within their departments? Data for the study were gathered from over 40 interviews with principals, department chairs and school-based Hans Klar is an assistant professor of Educational Leadership in the Eugene T. Moore School of Edu- cation at Clemson University in Clemson, SC 29634, USA. Email: hklar@clemson.edu. His publica- tions have centred on professional development, leadership development and context-responsive leadership. His most recent publication is ‘Superintendents as collaborative learners in communities of practice: a socio-cultural perspective on professional learning’, written with Paul Bredeson and Olof Johansson, and published in the Journal of School Public Relations. INT. J. LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION, APRIL–JUNE 2012, VOL. 15, NO. 2, 175–197 International Journal of Leadership in Education ISSN 1360-3124 print/ISSN 1464-5092 online Ó 2012 Taylor & Francis http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2011.577910