Development of male and female students' leadership potentials in a trust-run secondary school : Possibilities and challenges

Date of Award

8-1-2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Education (M. Ed.)

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Abstract

This qualitative case study explored the possibilities that a private secondary school offers to a marginalised community for the development of its male and female students' leadership potentials. The school principal, section head, teachers and students (2 male 2 female), two board members and parents of selected children participated in the study. To explore the situations in Excellence Academy, the data was collected using semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis. The study revealed that shared vision of the school was an influential, and motivational factor that allowed the stakeholders (of the school) to create opportunities for the development of students. Practice of participatory approach towards school leadership by the important stakeholders offers a model for the students to adopt the leadership style in their future life. Students learn that how they will ensure the inclusion of the relevant people in their future life in the leadership roles which they might have to play. This study also found school curriculum as a prevailing possibility for developing students' leadership potentials. This school has well-developed curriculum that asserts that students must acquire specific knowledge and skills and get multiple opportunities to practice them. Curricular and co-curricular activities create opportunities for students that can help them develop the leadership potentials which they can demonstrate inside and outside the school. In the study, a close review of school's processes and the structures around students' participation in school management revealed the equality of opportunities for male and female students. Student Council and election process allowed both the male and female students to contest at the election as representatives of the student body. However, the study also revealed some teachers to be having different expectations from the students on the basis of gender, which consequently might have an implication on students' chances of getting equal opportunities to participate on such

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