Role of School Heads’ Leadership Competencies in the Context of School Improvement Initiatives

The aim of this research was to find out the relationship between school heads leadership competencies and the school results. It further investigated the on ground leadership competency challenges being faced by the head teachers of secondary schools in District Rawalpindi. Mix method approach was used. The study was basically descriptive in nature which required the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data by using a questionnaire and interviews.The information obtained through questionnaire were analyzed through, frequencies, percentage and mean value. Information gathered through interviews were qualitatively described. There were 285 teachers and 93 head teachers from tehsil Rawalpindi, Texila and Kotli Satian using the consecutive sampling technique. A questionnaire was developed for quantitative data collection. The study revealed that there is a significant relationship found between leadership competencies of school heads and school annual results. The study also depicted that the head teachers of the schools confront several challenges to improve their school including: lack of strict accountability in the system, heavy administrative duties, overcrowded classes, students affair management, weak result in Maths and Science, lack of trust of people on the education of government institutions, children coming from low socio economic backgrounds and lack of parents participation in the education of their children, lack of subject competent teachers, assessment practices, students drop out, medias’ role in portraying bad image of the government institution. Keywords: leadership competency of school head, relationship, school improvement, challenges for school improvement

Exploring early years teachers classroom practices in two private schools in Karachi: Learning from ECED: Certificate in education programme, AKU-IED

Early Childhood Education has been considered as a fundamental pillar for lifelong learning. In this regard, the teachers of early years need to play a significant role in the teaching and learning process at the classroom level. The study aimed to explore the question, How do two early years teachers implement their learning, acquired from the Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) Certificate in Education (Cert. Ed.), Programme 2006-2007, at the Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED), Karachi. The study was qualitative in nature. Purposive sampling method was used under the qualitative case study approach where only the trained AKU-IED, ECD teachers were selected from two private schools in Karachi. The two ECD (Class I, II) teachers\u27 perception, their conceptual understanding regarding different aspects of teaching in the early years, their classroom practices, the factors that facilitated them in the implementation of their learning and challenges they faced while translating their learning into classroom practices were explored. The data was generated through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, informal talks or chats, and document analysis. The study is significant at both personal and professional level. It has strengthened and deepened my understanding about child development, how children learn, the role of the teacher and the environment specific to early childhood classrooms. Moreover, it has attributed to the literature about early childhood education especially, in the developing world context. Furthermore, it has also informed ECED faculty at AKU-IED about the implementation of ECED programmes in the real school context. The findings of this study will hopefully make a contribution in designing further training programmes for ECED facilitators at AKUIED. Besides the findings will be particularly helpful in those schools, where the study was conducted. It will provide the two teachers an opportunity to reflect on their own classroom teaching practices, improve and undertake different initiatives in early year\u27s education. The findings suggest that a change has occurred in the teachers believes and perceptions regarding the teaching learning practices in the early years. They have adapted their learning by contextualizing it in their classroom and made a shift from the previous traditional approaches of teaching towards the usage of more innovative ways of teaching. As a consequence, they look at them in a more effective role as early years teachers. They are translating their learning acquired from the programme including active learning, integrated teaching and the usage of different teaching strategies in their classroom. The findings also inform that the teachers find the full fledge implementation of their learning difficult because of the schools own prescribed curriculum which needed to be completed in the given time which gives ,more weightage to the two academic skills including reading and writing. Hence, being unable to ensure the full fledged implementation of their learning both the teachers at times seem less motivated also regarding taking self initiatives in the implementation of their learning regarding certain aspects as well