A follow-up of professional development of educational leaders: Implications for school improvement

The paper presents an account of the processes, outcomes and challenges associated with a follow-up study after the completion of a professional development programme in educational management for senior education officers from Sindh. Prior to induction to their jobs, the district education officers, principals of elementary colleges of education and higher secondary schools are not formally exposed to any new educational management and leadership practices. As a result, most of them remain unaware of the tasks and demands of their role, therefore, they tend to maintain a status quo position rather than engaging in change strategies for improving the quality of education in their organization. In order to improve their professional knowledge, skills and competence, The Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development organized a ten week professional development programme embedded in the paradigm of critical inquiry. The participants were encouraged to critically reflect on their existing beliefs, notions of educational management practices and explore alternatives for improvement. Lewin\u27s model of professional learning (i.e. unfreezing, moving and refreezing) was employed as a vehicle for the professional learning of the participants. Following the completion of the programme in June 1998, a one day follow-up workshop was conducted where the participants were asked to focus on questions such as: Where are they in the change process? What has changed so far? Where are they headed? The initial findings suggest that the formal professional development programme on the whole and participants’ process of self-critical reflection in-action, on-the-job, helped them significantly in bringing about change in their perspectives, attitudes, management and leadership styles (i.e. participatory style). It was evident that most of the participants considered challenges as \u27opportunities’ to foster the process of school improvement, which reflects their positive thinking