Exploring perceptions and practices of school principals about the use of appraisal data in two private schools of Karachi

Teacher performance appraisal is used to meet two major purposes. First, the formative purpose of appraisal which is aimed at using appraisal data to improve teaching and learning in school. Second is summative or evaluative purpose of appraisal. The evaluative appraisal is done with the purpose to decide monetary terms and conditions for a teacher. It is observed that, most of the time appraisal data is merely used for evaluative judgments with lack of focus on developmental use of appraisal data. As a result, the appraisal loses its purpose. Therefore, school principal has an important role to play in using appraisal data for developmental purpose in school. It is important to understand the practices and perceptions of school principal on how they use appraisal data in school. The exploration will be helpful to understand opportunities and challenges in the use of appraisal data. The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions and practices of schools principals about the use of appraisal data in private schools of Karachi. The research carried out under qualitative paradigm and case study design. Two private schools principals as appraiser were primary participants and two teachers from both the schools were secondary participants as appraisee. Data gathered, through semi structured interview and documents analysis. The findings revealed that, the use of appraisal data by school principal is defined by organizational structure and culture. In a centrally governing school, the appraisal functions in a linear bureaucratic way. Thus, principal plays his role in administering given appraisal. Contrary to that, in self-governing school, principal has an autonomy to develop, plan, administer and analyse the appraisal with the help of its teachers and school leadership. Thus there is a shared culture with an empowered role of the school principal. The data reveals pros and cons of both centralized and decentralized appraisal highlighting their challenges and recommendations to overcome these challenges. However, the data depicted that the appraisal where school principal is empowered in all phases of appraisal, have positive impact on the productive use of appraisal data. Therefore, the study suggests empowerment and autonomy of school principal in TPA. The data revealed that autonomy and empowerment of school principal, helps in making contextual and need based decision. These kind of decisions are helpful to use appraisal data for developmental purpose in school