Abstract
The leadership of the principal has a significant role in determining the direction of Islamic primary education institutions. The quality of the leader or principal is very urgent in giving influence to teachers and students. Whether or not the principal's performance will affect teacher competence. Based on this phenomenon, this study reveals the idealized influence of school principals at SDI Qurrota A'yun Tulungagung and MI Perwanida Blitar. This study used a descriptive qualitative study with a multi-case study design. This research data are school committee, school principal, curriculum coordinator, public relations and research and development coordinator, infrastructure coordinator, superior PK, teachers, student guardians, community leaders, and employees. Data collection techniques are participant observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Then, the collected data were analyzed using data reduction techniques, data presentation, and concluding. All data is approved by validity through credibility tests, transferability tests, dependency tests, and conformity tests. The results showed the principal's Idealized Influence in improving teacher competence: (1) Leaders show religious charisma and achievement so that they could impact increasing personal, spiritual, and professional competencies, (2) Leaders have managerial abilities to improve pedagogy, professionality, personality, competences, social, spiritual and leadership by involving all stakeholders to form various programs such as in-service education programs, in-service training programs and on-service training programs, (3) Presenting a visionary leader figure by increasing teacher competence according to institutional development distinctions such as SDI Qurota A'yun by implementing the Cambridge curriculum and MI Perwanida by implementing the Adiwiyata curriculum.
Keyword: Transformational Leadership; Principal's Idealized Influence; Teacher Competence.