Teachers’ beliefs about their leadership practices and leadership opportunities: lesson from the correlation study in Urban Pakistan

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on the findings from a quantitative study regarding the correlation between teachers’ beliefs about their practices as leaders and the available leadership opportunities in six dimensions: developmental focused, recognition, collegiality, communication, autonomy and positive environment. The data were collected by administering a survey questionnaire among all the 220 teachers working in different schools under the umbrella of a private school system in Karachi, Pakistan. The analysis has revealed the existence of a significant correlation between teachers’ beliefs about their practices as leaders and available leadership opportunities in the six dimensions to a varying extent – strong in the dimension of positive environment, moderate in collegiality and communication and weak in developmental focus, recognition and autonomy. The existence of significant correlation implies that teachers’ practices as leaders can be enhanced through intentional intervention by providing them with opportunities in the schools. Further analysis of teachers’ responses toward the items has revealed that teachers’ practices as leaders can be improved through developing a positive environment in the school, providing teachers with ongoing professional development opportunities and involving them in the decision-making process.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the no funding involved while conducting this study.

Notes on contributors

Sher Afzal

Mr Sher Afzal has studied Master of Education degree from the Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development, Karachi, Pakistan. He is currently working as an instructor with the Aga Khan University’s Professional Development Centre, Chitral (AKU-PDCC), Pakistan. He holds two master’s degrees. One in Education from the Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development, Karachi, Pakistan. The other in Chemistry from Islamia College University, Peshawar, Pakistan. He has teaching experiences in school, college and university level. His research interest is teacher leadership, teacher professional development and early literacy ([email protected]).

Meher Rizvi

Dr Meher Rizvi is an associate professor of Education at the Institute for Educational Development (IED) at the Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi, Pakistan. She has extensive teaching experience in a wide range of educational contexts, including primary schools, secondary schools, teacher education colleges, and national and international universities. Her primary research interests include teacher professionalism and professional development, educational change and school improvement, instructional leadership, and primary education reforms and policy implications ([email protected]).