The influence of the process of teachers' involvement in school development planning on their practices

Date of Award

6-2005

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

First Supervisor/Advisor

Dr. Rashida Qureishi

Second Supervisor/Advisor

Dr. Jane Alam Khaki

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Pakistan

Abstract

Teachers are the main implementers of most school improvement initiatives in schools. It is well recognized in the literature of teachers' involvement in SDP" that involving teachers in the whole process including the planning stage is important for a better implementation of plans. Emphasis to involve stakeholders from the first stage is going on, and many schools, especially this network of private school I conducted my study on, have adopted the idea. They are currently involving teachers in different decisions about school curriculum and related activities. Therefore, the study aimed at exploring teachers experiences on the process and influence of their involvement in planning for school improvement, on their practices. Since this was not a well-researched area, especially in Pakistan, therefore, the study is expected to provide useful information for policy makers. The process of involvement was uncovered through eliciting teachers' ideas and other stakeholders (head teacher and education officer) of the school improvement activities. This helped me to discover in what ways teachers are involved, to what extent and what were the influences on them as practitioners behind the involvement practices. Challenges as well as facilitating factors in this process were also examined, and hence useful information could come up for policy makers. I hope this will also help them to make an informed decision on different school improvement practices. The information on this topic was collected through qualitative case study method. This method facilitated eliciting teachers' experiences for providing useful descriptions and rich findings. Semi structured interviews, observations and document analysis were the three data collection techniques used during the study. Main research participants were two teachers, two LAC teachers, the head teacher and the education officer. Taking into consideration the time for the field work and teachers' work-load in the school, only one interview per teacher was conducted, and this made total number of interviews to be six. Due to national examinations schedule which was going on during the period of data collection only one classroom observation was done. Data analysis process went through three major steps. These were coding categorizing and meaning making. The process of coding, categorizing and making meaning involved critical reflection and analysis of content of the data. The constant comparison and contrast of the properties and relationship obtained from the information, within the theme with the current literature, was also done as part of a discussion of the findings. The finding indicated that the process of involving teachers in designing and developing different activities for school improvement has different influences on teachers, such as: improved classroom practices, teachers' higher motivation towards work. and better relationship with other school stakeholders. Further. it found that coordinated structures, collaborative culture and school policies, are the potential assets present in the school to facilitate the process of involvement. In spite of these factors it is more advisable if there could be more structures of making teachers participate fully in of the school in designing bodies with senior managers line with the present structure of consulting teachers middle managers. through LACs as Future researchers may look at the influence of the process of students involvement to learning, and how does the process facilitate the learning communities. transformation of school into

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