Teacher leadership in public schools in the Philippines

Concerns have been raised about the tendency to associate leadership with ascribed authority and position and confining school leadership to the leadership of the principal. Distributed leadership has been proposed and one approach to the distribution of leadership in schools is teacher leadership. Teacher leadership recognises the important contribution of teachers to school improvement and brings to the fore the emergence of excellent teachers who have demonstrated leadership capabilities at the same time.\ud \ud Using an adaptation of the framework of York-Barr and Duke (2004) which linked teacher leadership to student learning, this study explored teacher leadership in public schools in the Philippines. The important role of context in the development and practice of teacher leadership was considered by investigating the contextual conditions that either enabled or constrained teacher leadership practice. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with principals and focus-group interviews with teacher leaders and other teachers from seven public schools in the Philippines.\ud \ud The study found that teacher leadership was a meaningful concept in Philippine public schools even if the term ‘teacher leadership’ has not been introduced formally. Teacher leadership consists of actions undertaken by teachers who respond positively to opportunities to improve teaching and learning. These teachers possess a strong sense of moral purpose and requisite pedagogic and leadership competencies. They help create conditions that support teaching and learning, often in challenging circumstances, in collaboration with colleagues and the school’s leadership.\ud \ud Recommendations from this study include recognising teacher leadership in the country’s education reform agenda, encouraging teacher leaders to accept leadership work and giving attention to development programmes for teacher leaders and principals

A Supply Chain Profile of a School-based Feeding Program using the Centralized Kitchen Model

There has recently been renewed interest and a growing demand for school feeding programs. In the Philippines, the government, through the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and non-government organizations such as the Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED), has initiated such programs to address the prevalence of malnutrition among Filipino school-age children. In 2011, ACED introduced the ACED Blueplate Centralized Kitchen (ABCK) model for large-scale school feeding. This study aims to provide a supply chain profile of the first and largest city-wide implementation of the ABCK model in the Philippines to date, which is fully funded by a local government unit, DepEd, and DSWD. The research considers the crucial internal and external factors that influence the attainment of the program objectives, affect its performance, and promote its overall sustainability using the school feeding supply chain framework

Leadership in the Trenches: A Case of Education Leadership in the Philippines

Millions of Filipino school children are enrolled in public elementary and high schools in the Philippines. These schools are unequally resourced in terms of both well-trained teachers and physical facilities and face different forms of challenging circumstances in their respective contexts. Against all odds; however; some of these schools have succeeded in significantly improving student outcomes in terms of performance in the National Achievement Test and other indicators. The leadership of principals and the support they have gained from the community are at the fulcrum of the school improvement and the significant increase in student achievement in these schools. Exemplary principals identify interventions that can bridge gaps of learning and set goals to measure the level of success of interventions. They communicate with parents; teachers and various agencies of the government to help them address student problems and obstructions to their learning. A whole school community approach facilitates the resolutions of problems. However; the stories also tell us that the resolution of problems and achievement of goals often take a long time. These principals made a commitment to see the changes through and to stay with the young for as long as they remained principal in the school. The outstanding principals also showed a firm resolve to see things through despite obstacles. They persevered in the efforts corollary to the long term vision that had for their schools. They harnessed community resources to meet the needs of the school. Interventions rendered by the outstanding school principals included the provision of a feeding program; conversion of spaces for classroom use; efforts to address teacher discipline as well as engaging parents and local government units in the school improvement process. The daunting challenge may also include peace and order conditions that may put the life of the school principal at stake. Steadfastness and firmness in purpose enabled them to achieve their schools\u27 visions despite obstructions and distractions. Leading improvement in schools is a complex task especially when these schools are located in disadvantaged settings. In Philippine public schools where children come from backgrounds of extreme social and economic deprivation and where funding from the government is sorely insufficient the school principal faces very daunting challenges. However; the strong leadership of the school principal and support from the community made it possible for student achievement results to improve; despite the odds.