THE MODERATING ROLE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP AND EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM PRACTICES

Abstract

This study investigated the moderating effect of head teachers' emotional intelligence (EI) on the relationship between their instructional leadership (IL) and teachers' effective classroom practices (ECP) in public sector boys' primary schools in the Malakand Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Adopting a post-positivist paradigm and cross-sectional quantitative survey design, data were collected from 375 head teachers and 400 teachers using adapted and developed questionnaires: the Scale of Emotional Intelligence (Batool & Khalid, 2011), Instructional Leadership Questionnaire (Khan, 2010), and a researcher-developed Effective Classroom Practices Questionnaire. The sample was selected through multi-stage random and stratified sampling from three districts (Lower Dir, Malakand, and Swat). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed a significant model (F = 14.8, p = 0.001, R² = 0.55), with positive and highly significant effects for instructional leadership (B = 1.73, p < 0.001), emotional intelligence (B = 0.965, p < 0.001), and the interaction term (IL × EI; B = 1.026, p < 0.001). These results indicate that EI significantly strengthens the positive relationship between IL and ECP, leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis of no moderating effect. The findings highlight that emotionally intelligent head teachers more effectively translate instructional guidance into enhanced classroom practices, particularly in resource-constrained Pakistani primary education contexts where younger leaders predominate. This supports emerging evidence on EI's role in amplifying leadership impacts on teaching quality. Recommendations include integrating EI training into head teacher professional development programs and leadership selection criteria to improve instructional outcomes and school effectiveness.