The Impact of Educational Change on School Leaders

Abstract

The Pakistani education system, like many other countries across the world, is going through a phase of concerted change in the first decade of the 21st century and school leaders are expected to play a crucial role in the management of this change programme. This article considers the impact of educational change on a group of school leaders who were involved in a major area of this programme of reform: the curriculum and assessment system at Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) level. This article draws from a qualitative enquiry that included semi-structured interviews with Pakistani school leaders examining their experiences, views and perceptions of the change programme. In the interviews the school leaders were asked to reflect on the process of change management in their institutions, the problems they have faced and any suggestions they have for the improvement in the implementation of the change initiative. Drawing from these findings, two aspects are explored in this article: first, the responses of the school leaders to the change initiative; and second, the implications of leading a programme of externally driven change. From this analysis an emergent, grounded model of educational change management in the context of a developing country is proposed.

Principals' intentions and anticipated challenges in implementing nutrition education

“…This research discovered obstacles comparable to those identified by Mansoor and Akhtar (2015), including teachers' shortage and ineffective teacher deployment, as a significant problem impeding school-level interventions. The study also supports Razzaq's and Forde's (2012) idea that changes in policies through political interference had made the policy realm faced with inconsistency and ad-hoc-ism. Principals being afraid of any contingent changes and modifications, as this study found, leave them with uncertainty while implementing an intervention.…”

“…Similar to Razzaq and Forde (2012), this study found that principals had grave concerns regarding their capacity. The findings support Lai-Yeung (2011) that principals in Hong Kong had low awareness of the essential role of school food and nutrition programs in developing healthy food habits.…”

“…The available literature (e.g. Mansoor and Akhtar, 2015; Razzaq and Forde, 2012) highlights specific challenges faced by school principals while implementing other school-level interventions. The challenges include insufficient school infrastructure, schools' capacity, less policy support and a nonsupportive school community.…”

Bourdieu’s distinction between rules and strategies and secondary principal practice

“…In Australia, Smyth (1985) argued for school leadership to move away from ‘directing, commanding, controlling and coordinating’ (p. 186) to enabling teachers to have more power over their pedagogy. From the United States, Rossmiller (1992) noted that secondary school principals were often the buffer between the conflicting demands and expectations made on teachers, and the idea of the headteacher ‘using a number of bridging and buffering strategies as improvisational efforts’ (p. 164) was also reported from Thailand by Maxy et al (2010) and from Pakistan by Razzaq and Forde (2013). In 2003 Gold had argued that secondary school leaders in England were strongly values driven, and that these values were not synonymous with government policies.…”

Initiating conversations and opening doors

“…Effective leaders have also been found to provide opportunities for teachers to grow professionally (Blase and Blase, 1999;Klar and Brewer, 2013). They see teachers as key personnel in the implementation process and recognize the value of professional development as a way to bridge between policy and practice (Razzaq and Forde, 2013). They confront change initiatives by equipping teachers with important skills that can help them succeed (Smart and John, 1996).…”