Azerbaijan has introduced significant reforms to improve school leadership in public schools. Responsibilities were redefined to prioritize teacher supervision and engagement with school governance structures to ensure school improvement and accountability measures. The purpose of this study was to provide insight into contextual factors predicting the extent of principals’ sense of self-efficacy, or capacity, for instructional leadership in public schools in the capital city of Baku. Findings suggest that any increment in outcome expectancy for teacher supervision, mentorship, and training is likely to increase Baku principals’ intentions to perform those instructional leadership practices. However, time on instructional leadership is the key contextual factor influencing outcome expectancy. Findings also point to the importance of time spent on stakeholder engagement and school management tasks such as providing classroom resources, which are interrelated to instructional leadership tasks. Policy reforms for instructional leadership in Azerbaijan need to consider the interrelations between school leadership functions.

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Abstract. This paper builds on current research trends on professional teacher development in Eurasian countries, including the diversification of teacher training, opportunities for professional teacher networking, and developing a collaborative community culture within schools and the broader education community. This study aims to explore teacher beliefs and thoughts on the effectiveness of professional development, specifically in the context of the Education Sector Reform Project (ESRP), implemented in Azerbaijan during [2008][2009][2010][2011][2012][2013]. This study analyzes quantitative data from two surveys -the teacher self-assessment and the education reforms assessment. In the prevailing conventional teacher training system, teachers are perceived as beneficiaries of professional development programs. However, over the last decade, policy-makers are beginning to attach greater importance to professional development where teachers are seen as learners that are encouraged to make professional development decisions based on their needs. Including teachers in the design of professional teacher development programs might be suggested as a way to ensure learning activities have a greater impact on the quality of teaching. Such a participatory approach that strengthens teachers' roles as decision makers in their professional development has the potential to advance teacher support during education reforms. Education researchers also have an important role as facilitators mediating dialogue between teachers and policy-makers in order to build an effective partnership within the education community.

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