The role of Texas school principals has been redefined to include instructional leadership for the planning, operation, supervision, and evaluation of educational programs. This study examined how principal trainees at the College of Education of the University of Houston (Texas) were preparing for their redefined role. It investigated the socialization of prospective principals as instructional leaders. As part of this socialization, anticipatory deskilling and reskilling in the process of becoming a principal were of interest. The ethnographic research involved interviews with 10 principal trainees and faculty, field research in university courses, and analysis of official documents. Findings suggest that sometimes trainees encountered messages in both the formal and hidden curriculum of their midmanagement certification program which stressed instructional leadership as rule following, and other times as creative application of broad-based knowledge. Most of the trainees reported the anticipation of instructional leadership as rule-following behavior. Three trainees contributed to the deskilling of their leadership roles by not intending to raise questions about the mandates of what principals are supposed to do or about the given curriculum. Comments made by several trainees spoke to how intensification (an aspect of deskilling) produces instructional leadership as rule-oriented behavior. Theoretical implications and recommendations for policy and practice are discussed. (Contains 36 references.) (JDD)