Higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) have been an integral part of the English language curriculum in the Israeli school system since 2013, when questions that needed HOTS were added to the matriculation exams in all modules. Teachers subsequently have been responsible for integrating such questions into their teaching. The study aims to investigate the cognitive levels of questions posed by 13 Arab Israeli EFL teachers while teaching reading comprehension in heterogeneous tenth-grade classrooms. It also seeks to reveal the teachers’ perceptions with respect to teaching HOTS, and the challenges they face while doing so. Data were gathered by means of a classroom observation checklist and semi-structured interviews. The results show that the teachers tended to emphasize lower-order rather than higher-order questions. The findings of the thematic analysis of interviewees’ answers indicate that while the teachers have positive perceptions about teaching HOTS, they nevertheless face significant challenges. Factors hindering HOTS implementation include the teachers, the students, the system, and certain social norms. This implies the need for training courses to develop teachers’ knowledge about HOTS and to ensure successful implementation in the English language classroom.

This exploratory qualitative study sought to understand the role of transformational leadership in promoting educational sustainability (ES) through examining three classroom critical incidents. For this undertaking, the study employed a quadratic method integrating four theories: Ethnomethodology (particularly indexicality and contextualization), Flanders’ Interaction Analysis Categories (FIAC), Interactional Sociolinguistics (IS), and Transformational Leadership (TL). Two of the three incidents took place during face-to-face classes, while the third transpired online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyses of teachers’ TL and communication strategies were administered, and each respective event was unfolded, explored, and evaluated qualitatively through a bidirectional model designed by the researchers. Data were collected and the study revealed that teachers demonstrated varied levels of TL based on their perceptions of incidents, the awareness of their professional roles as leaders, and the linguistic choices they made. In addition, analyzing the results of teachers’ discourses, TL was demonstrated to be a leverage point for promoting educational sustainability. Proven to be an effective tool, the bidirectional model can be advocated by policy makers to help teachers assume their roles as leaders, and even to qualify them as leaders.