The future of headteachers as educational leaders in Pakistan: Implications for pedagogical leadership

摘要

Literature on educational management and leadership (e.g. Leithwood et al. 1994, Grace, 1995 and Segiovanni, 1998) suggests the significance of the role of headteachers as educational leaders in the western context. Whereas in the eastern context generally and particularly in Pakistan, the role of headteachers as educational leaders of the future is not yet fully understood and recognized. The current practice of headteachers in Pakistan seems to focus on supervision, monitoring and evaluation of teachers and students work, underpinning the style of u27bureaucratic / mechanistic leadersu27. At present, headteachers spend most of their time on maintaining status quo through administration manoeuvring which does not allow them to question and critically reflect on their management practices and styles to seek further improvement. In this paper an attempt is made to describe for Educational Development (IED), The Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi to initiate a one year field-based modular professional development programme in school management and leadership for IEDu27s cooperating schools. The programme has been embedded in the conceptual framework i.e. transmission, transaction and transformation orientations described by Miller and Sellers, (1985) and Leithwood (1984). The ultimate purpose of the programme is to equip the headteachers with new knowledge, skills and competencies that will help them to become instructional / pedagogical leaders (Greenfield, 1987, and Sergiovanni, 1998) for the future in order to cope with the increased demands of the next millennium. Initial feedback received from the course participants indicates that the programme has enabled them to conceive their role as pedagogical or instructional leaders for transforming their schools as social or learning organizations and enhancing studentsu27 learning outcomes. Furthermore, many candidates felt the programme created a useful structure and vision for school development.