Context specific leadership in English language program administration: what can we learn from the autoethnographies of leaders?

ABSTRACT

Research in educational program administration provides insights into the operationalization of programs or organizational services; however, an area of research that is long due exploration and development is how English language programs (ELPs) differ in terms of planning, organization and services and the job English language program administrators (ELPAs) perform in their roles. This paper reports on collaborative autoethnographies of three ELPAs who share their experiences of encountering administrative challenges and devising effective strategies to address them. Employing a qualitative research design, data were collected through critical self-reflections, individual research discussion dialogs, notes sharing and a focus group. While we confirm that administrative challenges exist in ELP administration, the findings of this study add that the nature and extent of these problems (e.g. cultural diversity, course alignment, power relations, racism, recruitment) can be different from program to program and context to context. The main finding of this study is that successful ELP administration requires a good understanding of the macro-culture (e.g. national context, university culture, administration at large) as well as the micro-culture (e.g. program level policies and practices). This study has significant implications for leadership training in ELP administration and future research projects investigating context-specific leadership in English education.

Acknowledgements

Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

I received an email from QNL that they will not be funding this article as their contract with Taylor & Francis has expired.

Notes on contributors

Kashif Raza

Kashif Raza is a Lecturer in English at Qatar University and a PhD student at University of Calgary, Canada. He has previously taught in the USA and Pakistan and has served on various leadership positions. With academic background in ELT and law, Kashif has been involved in teaching, developing and supervising EAP and ESP law courses, and planning and implementing English education policies at department, college and university levels. His research interests include language policy and planning, educational leadership, expectations and perceptions in education, SLW, and legal English. His forthcoming work is a co-edited volume entitled 'Policy Development in TESOL and Multilingualism' published by Springer. 

Mohammad Manasreh

Mohammad Manasreh has a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Warwick and a master’s in TESOL from the University of Exeter in the UK. He has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and school supervisor prior to his current job as a university lecturer at Qatar University’s Foundation Program. Manasreh has several publications and has presented at a number of international conferences. His research interests include e-Leaning, professional development, identity, leadership and action research. 

Mick King

Mick King is Chair of Languages and Literature at the Community College of Qatar. He has published and presented on eclectic themes both regionally and beyond and is an advocate of ongoing personal, contextual and meaningful teacher development.

Zohreh Eslami

Zohreh Eslami is a Professor at Texas A&M University and served as the Program Chair of the Liberal Arts program at Texas A&M University from 2016-2020. She has published more than 1020 journal articles in journals such as Intercultural pragmatics, System, ELT Journal, Modern Language Journal, System, Journal of Pragmatics, Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, and Bilingual Education Journal. Her research interests include intercultural communication, instructional and intercultural pragmatics, cyber -pragmatics, L2 literacy development, L2 literacy in content areas, and task-based language teaching and technology.