Event Abstract

Back to Event

Aligning professional development, school self-evaluation and principals’ performance standards

Rida Blaik Hourani1* and David Litz1
  • 1 Emirates College for Advanced Education, United Arab Emirates

The Abu Dhabi Education and Knowledge (ADEK) initiated professional development to galvanise the ongoing school reforms. In addition, the Irtiqaa Framework, a school self-evaluation program that contributes to the broad agenda of school reforms and changes, is currently implemented in public schools throughout the entire Emirate of Abu Dhabi (ADEC 2012, Stringer and Hourani 2015 and Thorne 2011). This study explores school administrators’ experiences of the professional development offered in their schools, querying how aligned they are with the school self-evaluation and principal’s performance standards. This research overarches the interconnectedness of professional development, school self-evaluation-Irtiqaa, school performance standards, and administrators’ professional performance standards, in terms of promoting educational changes and reforms (Litz and Blaik Hourani 2016). In Abu Dhabi, the school self-evaluation process has been a fundamental component of school reforms and improvement. The objective of school self-evaluation is to achieve satisfactory school performance standards and mobilize school innovation. This process has caused school administrators to employ new anticipated and unfamiliar roles and responsibilities; thus, professional development has become integral to the school self-evaluation process and to the newly introduced performance standards for principals. These performance standards include: leading strategic planning, leading teaching learning, leading the organization, leading the people and leading the community (Blaik Hourani & Litz, 2016). Ibrahim and Al-Mashhadany (2012) examined the role of school leaders in tackling change and educational quality in public schools in Abu Dhabi and revealed that school administrators and principals demonstrate a reasonable understanding of their role within the ‘strategic planning’ performance standard. The ‘Leading Teaching and Learning’ standard involves developing, implementing and evaluating programs through academic and systemic reviews in line with changing pedagogies; monitoring teacher and student progress; conducting teachers’ appraisals; creating positive learning environments; and influencing teachers’ learning through involvement in the design, delivery and assessment of PD outcomes (Bredson and Joanasson 2000, Day 2000). School leaders and administrators are expected to improve student achievement (Cotton 2003, Leithwood et al. 2004, Davis et al. 2005, Hallinger and Heck 2010). Relatedly, Bush (2011) indicates that instructional school administrators and leaders are vital for materialising school improvement and change, and asserts that a considerable portion of capacity building should be allocated to promote the instructional competencies of leaders and administrators. ‘Leading the Organisation’ standard focuses on principals as organisational leaders; this involves writing, reviewing and implementing policies, as well as policy transmission to stakeholder groups. An effective student handbook, for example, can ensure students, teachers and parents have sufficient understanding of policies and procedures to determine accountability (Meador 2008). ‘Leading the Organisation’ is highly contextualized, and every principal must be able to effect change within the organisation, and this stipulates adapting to new strategies that are embedded in the school reforms agenda (Hallinger and Heck 2010). Within this perspective, Harris (2013) argues that leading the organisation in a context of change requires sustaining collaborative development of new knowledge, skills and competencies and distributed management. York-Barr and Duke (2004) suggest that ‘Leading the People’ performance standard encompasses providing opportunities for teacher leadership, which encourages shared practices and distributed tasks as parts of the organisational culture. The many benefits of shared leadership include involvement in decision-making, new learning, increased self-efficacy and higher levels of morale and cohesion within the school body. Leading the People also involves helping stakeholders inside and outside of the school unfreeze current values, expectations, structures and processes so new ways of thinking about teaching and learning can be considered (Bredson and Johanasson 2000). Fullan (2001) suggests that focusing on people is the most effective way to change any organisation. ‘Leading the Community’ standard positions the principal as the leader of the school community. Principals are expected to promote the success of all students, responding to diverse interests and needs. Shields and Sayani (2005) view leading the community in terms of bridging the gaps between individuals within the institution. This paradigm fosters taking part in a collective culture of learning and developing learning communities and shared knowledge. Regarding leading the community, principals are expected to maintain effective communication with the school stakeholders, collaborate with the school community and promote effective partnerships for the well-being of students and families (Blaik Hourani and Stringer 2015). Given the Abu Dhabi context, ADEK professional performance standards were conceptualised within the educational reforms agenda and the changing roles and responsibilities of school leaders and administrators. Eeach standard has been organised into corresponding elements that is intended to help principals complete their performance evaluations and implement SSE-Irtiqaa for the betterment of their schools and this necessitates building capacities in that direction (Stringer and Blaik Hourani 2015). This research employed a qualitative case-study approach. Semi-structured interviews were used as tools for data collection; as stipulated by Merriam (2009) and Creswell (2003). Semi-structured interviews were conceptualized within the framework of the administrators’ performance standards and school-self-evaluation-Irtiqaa documents provided by ADEK. Findings indicated that school administrators have acknowledged the benefits and importance of professional development. Due to the pitfalls in the PD offered, school administrators voiced the need to align it with the demands of implementing school self-evaluation. Moreover, to foster a better practical understanding of principals’ performance standards, PD needs to be contextualized and interwoven with those standards set by ADEK. In addition, findings addressed systemic changes, micro- and macro-education management levels; in order to determine the PD agenda, ensuring it is aligned with the school self-evaluation requirements, as well as with the elements of school administrators’ professional performance standards. Based on the findings, the researchers endorsed the following tangible recommendations: School and school stakeholders’ needs analysis, problem-based, site-based and job-embedded PD, ongoing and schematic approaches to PD content and design, alignment of PD to multiple holistic capacities, embedding professional learning communities within the demands of school reforms and integrating collaborative learning in an interactive and participatory framework. These recommendations are in harmony of the theoretical framework proposed and evidenced by York-Barr and Duke( 2004 ) Leithwood et al. (2004), Davies et al.( 2005), Darling-Hammond et al. (2007), Hallinger and Heck (2010) , and Bush (2011).

References

ADEC, 2012. Irtiqa’a Framework for the inspection of private schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi [online]. Available from: https://www.adec.ac.ae/en/MediaCenter/Publications/IRTIQA’A%20FRAMEWORK_%20PRIVETE%20SCHOOLS.pdf [Accessed 22 April 2016].
Blaik Hourani, R., and Stringer, P., 2015. Professional development: Perceptions of benefits for principals. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 17 (2), 1–35.
Blaik Hourani, R. and Litz, D., 2016. Perceptions of the school self-evaluation process: The case of Abu Dhabi. School Leadership and Management, 36 (3), 247–270.
Bredeson, P. and Johansson, O., 2000. The school principal’s role in teacher professional development. Journal of In-Service Education, 26 (2), 385–401.
Bush, T., 2011. Theories of educational leadership and management. 4th ed. London: Sage.
Cotton, K., 2003. Principals and student achievement: What the research says. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Creswell, J. W., 2003. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Darling-Hammond, L., LaPointe, M., Meyerson, D., Orr, M. T., and Cohen, C., 2007. Preparing school leaders for a changing world: Lessons from exemplary leadership development programs. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Stanford Educational Leadership Institute.
Day, C., 2000. Beyond transformational leadership. Educational Leadership, 57 (7), 56–59.
Fullan, M., 2001. Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hallinger, P. and Heck, R., 2010. Collaborative leadership and school improvement: Understanding the impact on school capacity and student learning. School Leadership and Management, 30 (2), 95–110.
Harris, A., 2013. Building the collective capacity for system change: Professional learning communities in Wales. In: H.J. Malone, ed. Leading educational change: International perspectives on system-wide reform. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, pp. 151–157.
Ibrahim, A. M. M. and Al-Mashhandany, A. A., 2012. Roles of educational leaders in inducing change in public schools: Al Ain as a case study. International Journal of Arts and Science, 5 (5), 195–216.
Leithwood, K., Louis, K. S., Anderson, S., and Wahlstrom, K., 2004. How leadership influences student learning: Review of research. New York: Wallace Foundation.
Litz, D. and Blaik Hourani, R., 2016. Developing educational capital in times of change: The experience of Abu Dhabi. In: I. R. Haslem and M. S. Khine, eds. Leveraging social capital in systemic education reform. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense, pp. 115–141.
Meador, D., 2008. Role of the principal: Keys to being an effective principal [online]. Available from: http://teaching.about.com/od/admin/tp/Role-Of-The Principal.htm
Merriam, S., 2009. Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Shields, C. and Sayani, A., 2005. Leading in the midst of diversity: The challenge of our times. In F.W. English, ed. The SAGE handbook of educational leadership: Advances in theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 380–402.
Stringer, P. and Blaik Hourani, R., 2015. Transformation of roles and responsibilities of principals in times of change. Educational Management, Administration & Leadership, 44 (2), 224–246.
Thorne, C., 2011. The impact of educational reforms on the work of the school principal in the United Arab Emirates. Educational Management, Administration & Leadership, 39 (2), 172–185.
York-Barr, J. and Duke, K., 2004. What do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of Educational Research, 74 (3), 255–315.

Keywords: Professional Development, school self-evaluation-Irtiqaa, school performance standards, Professional learning communities, principals performance standards

Conference: 3rd International Conference on Educational Neuroscience, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 11 Mar - 12 Mar, 2018.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: Educational Neuroscience

Citation: Blaik Hourani R and Litz D (2018). Aligning professional development, school self-evaluation and principals’ performance standards. Conference Abstract: 3rd International Conference on Educational Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2018.225.00018

Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.

The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.

Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.

For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.

Received: 21 Jan 2018; Published Online: 14 Dec 2018.

* Correspondence: Dr. Rida Blaik Hourani, Emirates College for Advanced Education, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, rhourani@ecae.ac.ae