Saturday, December 20, 2008

Pics
















Gender Analysis - A School's Situation

REFLECTIVE PAPER
Background
This reflective paper focuses on how gender reflects and is enacted in every day practices of a trust controlled school in Karachi, which was established in 1949 and now running in two shifts. Our focus (as a group) was the evening shift, secondary section, which was loaded with 600 students, almost an equal ratio of boys and girls with 32 teachers, 10 male and the rest were female. I will try to critically examine and analyze this school, based on two visits to explore three major dimensions lensed with gender, i.e. management in terms of assignments and tasks delegated to teachers and students, physical resources and teaching learning practices. However, I feel that these two visits were insufficient to have a deeper understanding of gender which is of-course a huge area to discuss and schools have been known as the reflection of society (Leach, 2003). In my personal observation, schools along with society and home, normally continue to perpetuate the worst forms of gender discrimination and the abuse of basic human rights for both girls and boys. Schools help to reflect the values held by society (Leach, 2003). Therefore, covering all aspects of gender inaction in two visits only is absolutely unattainable. This paper will outline the state of the existing practices and procedures in school in gender perspective and will lastly try to analyze some of these practices with some recommendations.
Thematic Observations
Management
As a small reflection of these two visits on first dimensions i.e. the management, I found that females were mostly managing academic side while the administrative practices were done by male members. Female students were mostly given leading positions like monitors and prefects. Assembly proceedings were similar to boys and girls except the separate entry and exit points. Students were performing the same exercise in assembly, but positioned in separate lines. Female students use to get five minutes earlier break and tuck shop was having two windows one for girls and another for boys.
Physical Resources
The physical resources in terms of access, library, labs, sports, water, canteen, restroom, teaching aids and displays, I observed that major portion of playground was occupied by boys. There were separate washrooms, seating arrangement in classrooms was separate and the displays were more male oriented, however, for Science Labs & Library there were equal opportunities for both genders.
Teaching and Learning
The situation of teaching and learning in terms of language, teachers’ interactions, students interactions, curriculum contents and teaching strategies, I found that language used in class was not purely gender biased, teachers used to call students either by their names or saying ‘students’, similarly, the syllabus contents were addressing as ‘students’ or ‘learners’. Female students were hesitant and low voiced and male students were active participants, while during interviews with two teachers', they told us that girls are active participants while boys are passive participants in classes, so this perception was contrasting in real situation.
Analysis
Stereotyping
My initial observation was encouraging to note that boys and girls were treated almost equally without any big discrimination because it was also told that school discourages gender discrimination, however, I felt that socially constructed ‘stereotyping’ was a major influencing factor in school and still there were some gaps between boys and girls. There were certain games such as volley ball and cricket where mostly the boys seemed engaged. The girls had a separate portion for games where they play table tennis; a light game as compared to volley ball and cricket.
All these practices depict that gender stereotyping is common in Pakistan, where the culture and society have been influenced by centuries of a male-dominated life style that places women in a subordinate role and subjects them to unequal treatment. While the concern for gender equality and equity condition in education continues to be now seen as a priority item in developed countries as well as in developing countries.
Specifically talking on ‘stereotyping’ in gender, which can be defined as a subjective perception or a picture in one’s head of the characteristics, roles, attributes, forms, or traits of a person which gradually in-builds through societal influence. I felt among the teachers and students (to whom I interviewed) that their perception about gender was typically stereotyped. They didn’t seem to favor gender disparities but their perception was telling another story, like ‘Girls take initiative’, ‘Girls are sensitive’, ‘Boys are strong’, ‘Boys are our heroes’, ‘Boys are reluctant and careless’
Therefore, there is an urgent need for the teachers and other stakeholders in this school to minimize the so-called stereotyping which in my perception is just the myths with no concern to the reality. At the other hand, it is also critical to bear in mind that teachers do not come into the classrooms as gender-neutral personalities. Teachers are likely to have internalized an exact gender ideology through years of socialization in both informal and formal settings. However, I believe, teachers are purposefully positioned to act as change agents at classroom level in order to level the gender disparities. But, to achieve this purpose a greater awareness among teachers and policy makers is necessary, which will lead to more gender focused and related interventions at school level.
School Culture and Infrastructure
In many ways, school infrastructure and culture was not gender responsive when it came to meeting the needs of teenage girls. This can be a factor to widen the gap between boys and girls in classrooms. Firstly, the design of school desks and benches were not appropriate and suitable for girls to have an easy access, if seated with boys. Secondly, I felt that the hesitation and low voice of girls can be rooted with the culture of this school that students must respond to teacher’s questions while standing or during teacher’s entry and exit from classroom as a sign of respect. Girls may find all these unnecessary requirements as barriers for active participation in the learning process, because of their natural construction and process of feminine.
Displays
School learning and teaching materials, especially displays, were dominant with masculine orientations that negatively impact upon girls’ self esteem and confidence. When dealing with power issues, girls are cast in powerless or disempowering roles in which they cannot make any decisions without consulting male figures. After observing all these stuff, children acquire gender stereotypes about boys and girls. Therefore, sensitization of gender equality and equity is essential during planning and displaying the visual aids in school.
Conclusion and Recommendation
After going through my current course and school visit, I feel that if female are given leadership role and trusted they can become bold and play their role equal to male, which was reflecting from the school principal’s behavior and practice.
After having said that ‘schools are the reflection of society’, now it is the time for school to reflect back to society a different image about a gender equitable society. School is a major source that will help to trigger change. This will occur only when teachers and learners are assisted in adopting classroom level initiatives that reflect new images based on positive gender thoughts. To bring improvement in this regard, I recommend Gender Awareness workshops for teachers, parents and students in this school, all students should be facilitated all sports and according to our group they all should convince to understand GENDER as;
G
E
N
D
E
R
Grow together
Eliminate discrimination
Neglect criticism
Discourage stereotyping
Encourage equity and equality
Respect all

REFERENCES
Leach, F. (2003). Practicing gender analysis in education. Oxford, UK: Oxfam.

Proposal Abstract

EXPLORING HEAD TEACHERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS USING COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

ABSTRACT

Attitudes play a significant role in acceptance of any idea or innovation. This study aims to explore the head teachers’ attitude towards computer usage in education; as many researchers have identified the significance of computers and the important role of headteacher, who has been largely publicized as a hindering factor or sometimes as an initiator. To explore attitudes on a large scale a survey design with an adopted questionnaire (Pelgrum and Plump, 1993) will be used to gather relevant information from 224 head/deputy head teachers of Government primary and secondary boys and girls’ schools. The sample chosen from a variety of contexts in Sindh and Baluchistan including urban and rural areas; which constitutes a representative sample, who are currently involved in a course at AKU-IED under Ed-Link project. Since the government sector is the largest provider of education and Federal Government has also stressed great emphasis on enhancing the scope and amount of computers in Education. Ed-Link project facilitates implementation of the government’s agenda for quality education, which is funded by USAID. This project intends to up-grade and to establish computer labs in these schools; therefore, it is essential to explore the attitude and the state of readiness among the leadership about acceptance of computers in education. The findings of this study will be a source of reference not only for Ed-Link project to plan professional development programs and to initiate appropriate interventions in future but will also be helpful for the policy makers and curriculum designers to improve the current condition of curricula to meet the needs and demands. Furthermore, this study will also be a testing phase to check the reliability and validity of this tool for the head teachers in Pakistan.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Analytial Paper

ANALYTICAL PAPER
BACKGROUND
It is very well said that school improvement is a “systematic, sustained effort aimed to change in learning conditions and other related internal conditions in one or more schools, with the ultimate aim of accomplishing educational goals more effectively” (Hillman & Stoll, 1994), and personally I believe that for effective accomplishment of this objective a gradual and a significant period of time is required. This reflective paper focuses on the same parameters to explore the school improvement through the perception of teachers of a government girls’ pilot school in Karachi, which was loaded with 1238 students of low socio-economic background and 54 teachers with a vision to develop students who will become curious, confident and responsible citizens of the world, capable of critical decision making. I will try to critically examine this school to analyze and link with their vision on the basis of my observations, artifacts/documents analysis, and semi-structured interviews with two teachers to explore the existing state of school improvement and their perceptions.
The discussion of this paper is based on two visits only. However, I feel that these two visits were insufficient to have a deeper understanding of the phenomenon which is of-course a huge area to discuss as schools are known the reflection of society (Leach, 2003). This paper will outline the state of the existing practices and procedures, perceptions of teachers according to school improvement and will lastly try to critically analyze and put forward some recommendations.
Existing state of school improvement
Quality education is every citizen’s right and its responsibility lies with the state therefore government sector is the largest provider of education in Pakistan. According to my observation, generally government schools (mostly in rural areas), are nothing more than a room, chalkboard and a teacher, which can be termed as ‘something is better than nothing’ but according to my understanding this term should never be used when it comes to education. Perhaps under a political agenda some years back as a first step towards accomplishment of ‘quality education’, Sindh government had started pilot educational facilitation in every district of Karachi. The school I visited was also established as a pilot school, fully equipped with almost every facility required for a ‘good’ school in terms of its physical structure and available facilities, like extended physical structure with two huge annexes/blocks with boundary walls all around, playing grounds and other facilities such as sufficient teaching staff (one M.Ed[1]. from AKU-IED[2] and 12 other teachers were VTs[3] from AKU-IED), separate labs for home-economics, physics & computer, band facility, library, separate offices, staffroom, notice boards, special needs room, filter water, washrooms, furniture, gardens/lawn, ground-swings, canteen, girls guide room and art room.
With all this fully equipped structure and facilities, the school should be a successful school and its improvement should progress further. Of-course this would be the feelings of every reader, so the question arises here that what was the state of school improvement?
To explore the ground realities, I observed classes, assembly, staffroom; documents were analyzed and interviews were taken, which guided me to say that all these facilities were in proper use a ‘very long ago’, which has now become the part of school history to remember. I felt and teachers also indicated that there is a lack of funding from government for maintenance and follow-up, so every facility and infrastructure is getting rotten by every single day passes.
Co-curricular activities and sporting events are not that much in practice, while very well written artifacts and honor boards were present showing success stories of past as they were updated up to 1995, which was now stopped for no reason. When enquired from Principal, she felt the lacking and told us that because we are not getting additional grant for such activities, so we could not continue the practices. So, every thing was concluding with the same excuse that we are not getting much grant from government.
School has many Trained teachers i.e. 12 VTs and 1 M.Ed. When discussed with these teachers they showed that there is no motivation from the authorities and leadership. According to a teacher, “there is no praise and appreciation for a good work and no judgment for careless teachers, so our moral became down”. I was reflecting on myself that, weather the trainings I usually get from different institutions, is just limited to get the praise from my authorities and those expertise will only be exercised, when I will be motivated by my leadership to utilize? During my observation I found that, yes; the principal is not motivating teachers properly, but at the other hand, she has also given a free hand to practice and to take initiatives for teachers. I am sure, if these teachers initiate some new teaching strategies, principal would not be the hindering factor.
School campus was reasonably big and the support staff was very limited and it was according to principal and teachers due to non-provision of required staff from government authorities. So, they had an alternative solution for this purpose by involving students (late comers and class room punishments) to collect garbage and cleaning of classroom and school campus. According to teachers, students’ strength was very much high some years back, which has been decreased now and they were justifying it with increased number of private schools in the vicinity and blaming government that it is not providing much funds for modern facilities. However, I feel that may be this ‘punishment’ to students can be one of reasons of decreased number of students’ enrollment.
Library and books were present, librarian ne-da-red[4], Science Labs, art room, home economic room were present but the respective attendants ne-da-red, and so these rooms never open. It was amazing for me that for cleaning purpose, teachers had created an alternate solution and even they had contributed to hire a lady for the preparation of tea during their break time, but for Library, labs and other facilities of school, no solution has been sorted out, but waiting for government to depute the required staff. This lacking can also be traced among the state of staff co-operation, as I found that there was lack of collaboration among teachers, although during the interview, teachers told me that there is a good collaboration, but while interviewing a teacher in staff room on a specific table, some other teachers entered the staffroom, and the teacher whom I was interviewing told me that we should move to another table, as this was ‘their’ table, which showed a face of balkanized culture (Stoll & Fink, 1996) among teachers. This type of collaboration is known as neither isolated nor work as a whole school. In this situation becoming on a focal point by all teachers as a team seems impossible.
Teaching and learning in school was observed as traditional teaching, very well known as ‘Talk, Chalk and Walk’; encouraging and promoting rote memorization among students. There was no concept of group work and activity based teaching. The teachers were having an opinion that existing teaching strategies should be changed towards visual aids, classroom activities, and activity based teaching, but my mind was striking me again, that who would initiate these strategies; the government or the teachers on whom government has already spent lots of money to train them in prestigious institutions? Another problem identified by the teachers that what ever they do in their classes, they don’t get any feedback even from Head teacher as she use to observe classes but never gives feedback. According to these teachers good schools mean the school teachers with positive attitude while for bad schools they were in opinion those schools with teachers but no effective teaching. I was confused to categories this school!
Likewise, the school celebrations were limited to 14th Aug., 23 Mar., 6 Sep., and on asking why these days are celebrated, teachers responded that to give students knowledge about Pakistan and to create the sense of sacrifice (qurbani ka jazba)’ and to boost up the sense of love to their country (‘watan say mohabat’). On asking what other days should be celebrated, teachers told me that sports day, bait-bazi, share-o-shairi, literary debates etc. should be included in our celebration as co-curricular activities. But the question still remained un-answered, that who would initiate these activities and celebrations? While teachers were in on opinion that government should instruct us to do these things. I couldn’t figure out, that when government had instructed them to hire a lady as a personal maid and utilize students as cleaners of school!
When I asked teachers that what is good about this school and what are lacking and what are the things you would like to change? Teachers told me that school needs more facilities for students, sports are lacking, which should be increased, debates and co-curricular activities should be included. But to do all these according to the teachers there was no or less budget allocation from government. Teachers further blamed parents that they are not taking interest in their children education, which reminded me of the characteristics of a sinking school (Stoll & Fink, 1996). While, teachers told me that only few educated parents use to visit school, although school doesn’t have a proper and effective mechanism to interact with parents. I was amazed that to organize debates and other co-curricular activities what type of financial aid is required from government.
Teachers were confidently saying that our school is better than others as we are getting good board result every year – (‘andoon may kaana raja’)- and we prepare students well for board exam. School vision was displayed on the school entrance, however on asking the vision of school, teachers told me that our vision is to make students good citizens, and could be able to differentiate between good and bad.
I understand that there are continuous changes and reforms in education sector all around the world. One of the key elements in most of these reforms is the professional development of teachers. Societies are acknowledging that teachers are the most significant change agents. This role of teacher in educational reforms makes the field of teacher professional development a growing and challenging area. Definitely to bring change in teaching strategies, teachers need to be aware of the new ways of teaching. Even the best and brilliant teachers need professional knowledge to learn about teaching and learning strategies (Rizvi & Elliott, 2007). Currently this school is loaded with 12 VTs and one M.Ed. teacher (of-course a big human resource to motivate and effectively utilize their capacities), but there was no trend of in-school trainings, however out of school trainings for science teachers and others was existing through high ups of education department.
Recommendations
After having said initially that ‘schools are the reflection of society’, now it is the time for school to reflect back to society a different image. School is a major source that will help to trigger change. This will occur only when teachers and learners are assisted in adopting classroom level initiatives that reflect new images based on positive approaches for school improvement. To bring improvement in this regard, I recommend the following strategies to change the existing state of school improvement;
1. According to my observation, every thing is available in school; the only object required is to re-shape the existing school facilities by willingness and active efforts to change (Fullan, 2001). Head teacher and every individual staff member is required to understand that traditional cultural response patterns are now not longer appropriate, they need to change. The culture of school has become dependent on government, which needs to be re-shaped with positive initiatives to create ownership of school by every stakeholder.
2. Strong leadership is required for development of shared vision and goals (Rosenholtz, 1989) through improving collegiality to create learning communities (Sergiovanni, 1998), so that a sense of ownership could be developed. Likewise, effective utilization of the capacities of existing trained staff and reforms are required to introduce instructional initiatives. This can be done through positive leadership by showing trust and empowering other staff members by distributing leadership (Gebhardt et al., 2003), which starts from willingness to share authority, the capacity to facilitate the work of staff, and the ability to participate without dominating (Gronn, 2003).
3. To manage improving schools, perhaps less concentration on organizational change that affects structure and more concentration on building the capacity that exposes teachers to such forces for change. This sort of change must arise from the desire of teachers to improve and stop putting in place obstacles to self-development (Flecknoe, 2005).
4. Since parents are a critical part of a learning community so their involvement is very much crucial. To involve parents in schooling activities, I suggest initiating volunteer programs involving parents for different activities or as a first step, parents can be asked to work with a child at home on reading and home work (Tinzmann et al. 1990).
Implications
This exposure to study a government school was a significant learning for me, because, I was relating all my past experience and practices of my colleagues (a private school). I learnt that school effectiveness is dependent on effective utilization of capacities and on available facilities, rather becoming dependent on others to initiate things and efforts. I understand that as an individual every member should play his/her role in school improvement. This exposure would certainly help me to lead effectively a group of teachers in future.
Last word
I am fully aware that, I become very much negative on reflecting the state of this school, but I really felt pain in my chest while observing the finest resources and ideally constructed infrastructure keeping every aspect and requirement of education in mind, which is now getting towards sinking for no any genuine reasons. This school needs a complete reform.


REFERENCES
Flecknoe, M. (2005). The Changes That Count in Securing School Improvement. School Effectiveness and School Improvement. 4(16), 435 - 443
Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Gronn, P (2003). The New Work of Educational Leaders: Changing Leadership Practice in an Era of School Reform. London. Sage Publications.
Hillnann, J. & Stoll, L. (1994). Understanding School Improvement. School Improvement Network Research Matters, 1, 1 – 4.
Serviovanni, T. (1998). Leadership as pedagogy, capital development and school effectiveness. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1(1), 37-46
Stoll, L. & Fink, D. (1996). Changing our schools. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Tinzmann et al. (1990). Why should schools be learning communities? NCREL, Oak Brook.
Leach, F. (2003). Practicing gender analysis in education. Oxford, UK: Oxfam.

[1] Masters of Education.
[2] Aga Khan University – Institute for Educational Development.
[3] Visiting Teachers.
[4] A Persian word used for ‘non-availability’.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Reflective Paper about XYZ Trust.

REFLECTIVE PAPER
After going through the current studies, my understanding and perception about leadership changed as I had perceived leadership a fixed position but the literature based evidences and classroom interactions were too dominant and convincing to accommodate (Illeris, 2003) new learning which came as leadership a set of functions and leadership as a concept (Leithwood & Steinbach, 2000) rather than a formal role (Leithwood, 2004; Lieberman, 1988). Based on this understanding this reflective paper focuses on how a trust team views its role as a leader. I will try to critically examine and analyze the practices of a trust, based on two visits to explore the leadership and its pedagogy. However, I feel that two visits were insufficient to have a deeper understanding of the topic which is of-course a huge area to discuss. This paper will outline the background information, state of the existing leadership model and practices and lastly will try to put forward some recommendations.
The trust was a result of an inspiration of a worst situation observed by a renowned singer of Pakistan, when he observed some children in a far-flung area of Sindh, Pakistan who were constrained to drinking contaminated water from a well where birds and animals were lying dead. This situation was a though provoking event for him. Hence, he, with the support of his friends and fans, launched XYZ trust, with the aim to provide basic needs for the children, specifically with the vision that trust will be a leader in providing opportunities to a better life through education to the underprivileged working children of Pakistan. However, the focus has now been expanded towards the ‘children in public schools’ besides ‘underprivileged working children’. Under this trust, currently there are 34 schools operational in Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore where almost 2155 working children are getting educational benefits, while 148 teachers are employed. One government schools is also handed over by government to the trust while negotiations for others are in process.
Of-course, it seems a noble cause, and at the other hand there is a harsh reality that currently there are 8 Million Child Labors in Pakistan (Chaudhry, 1999) caused by constant poverty which forces the parents to send their children to work for an additional income. The childhood rights to get education, the chance to play and opportunities for the normal physical development are basic human rights, denied to these 8 million children. Perhaps, now in Pakistan, we are so used to child labors that we don’t even notice it. I reflect on my own behavior that when this task was given, I explored different materials on child laboring and started taking notice of child labors around me, else, I never critically thought about. (Absolutely, it is my new learning). It could be probably the cultural context and mind-set of every common person in Pakistan.
With above worst situation of child labouringly in Pakistan, will the trust be able to accommodate and achieve its goals and vision? Of-course not, but the trust has taken initiatives to fill the gap being within its capacity and limitations, not to facilitate all these 8 millions children but to contribute its share with the slogan that, ‘no differences can only make the difference’. This can be through provoking message to every one of us.
XYZ Trust mainly endeavors to facilitate non-formal primary education to the underprivileged working children of Pakistan to make them better citizens for a brighter future. It has introduced a new notion of education as ‘Education as Labor’, because it also extends financial support to these deserving working children by providing a fixed stipend of Rs 10/- daily in exchange for the time they take out from their every day jobs to attend schools. Through this initiative XYZ Trust is trying to make a difference in the society. The education imparted to these children would help them to take on board with the mainstream society and become useful citizen of Pakistan.
Initially I was exactly not aware of the structure of this trust and its leadership style, and I had thought of sampling one of its trust members to explore his/her pedagogy of leadership. But after going through the whole system of the trust and its schools network, I opted the whole XYZ Trust officials as leadership for the schools whom I found occupying various roles in the school and leadership was not static. They were providing direction and exert influence in order to achieve the school’s goals (Leithwood, 2004).
The leadership style, which I perceived was purely based on the given criteria and tasks proposed by Sergiovanni (1998) as the trust is striving hard for capital development through focusing their ministerial roles seriously and embodying it by emphasizing the practices purposing, maintaining harmony, institutionalizing values, motivating, problem solving, managing, explaining, enabling, modeling and supervising. I found the evidences of every task in Trust leadership and in their controlled schools with compassion that the organization, its employees and other stakeholders believe in concern and sympathy for the underprivileged, especially the working children. I observed that every individual to whom I met showed a culture of collaboration in trust as well as in schools, which reminded me of a live example of learning community (Lovely & Buffum, 2007) because to create a learning community the major components like respect, caring, inclusiveness, trust, empowerment and commitment (Retallick, Cocklin, & Coombe, 1999) are the essential ingredients and all these were very evidently present.
The second major characteristics of the institutions was the distributed leadership (Gronn, 2003) which starts from willingness to share authority, the capacity to facilitate the work of staff, and the ability to participate without dominating, this was very much evident through out the institution, as every body seemed independent to work toward the achievement of their goals.
The students brought to school are not the normal school students, but they use to come from the background of working class children, and they use to have problematic behaviors. I found the leadership of school emphasizing on character building, as they consider character building to be an integral aspect of their programs, as learning without personal integrity will be of little value to the individual and the society.
I also found that the trust in terms of cultivation, courage, creativity, commitment, and communication is very much consistent, with a culture of high expectations as in the beginning of this paper I have already given the statistics of child labor in Pakistan, but the trust is still striving hard to impart quality education to these underprivileged children and gradually approaching toward its goal. Likewise they have the creativity to create solutions to the potential barriers like the problems in terms of dealing with government schools as they faced some resistance from parents and teaching staff. Trust created a good link and partnership with government to overcome the issue as they believe that without mutual cooperation and support by the government, programs can not get the success. Another problem was adopting the proscribed syllabus in its schools, so with collaboration of a prestigious institution the existing syllabus was maneuvered to meet the needs of the students, so that students could be able to get the most relevant and authentic information through the usage of AV aids in their teaching, which also shows their commitment to look for the best practices.
Trust leadership explained that quality education is every citizen’s right and its responsibility lies with the state. Now, a paradigm shift is required in the mindset of state authorities, the people and the education system to save our future generations from destruction. As a first step towards accomplishment of its vision, Trust had initially started educational facilitation for the underprivileged working children of Pakistan, but now they have expanded their service scope from these children to other children studying in government schools through public-private partnership to maximize the mass coverage. Trust believes there is not a single decent public school in Pakistan, so what future do these children studying in public schools have if they study 61-year-old textbooks in a rapidly progressing world? Trust believes that a student must learn from the textbook how to learn, change and inquire freely rather than becoming a “lakeer ka faqeer”. If we want our future generations to ask the right questions then a culture of discussion, interaction, proactive thinking and asking questions needs to be encouraged, then we have to update our curriculum according to the needs of time. To address these needs, Trust has created its own syllabus up to class 5th, which has already been mentioned above.
Likewise according to the Trust, a ‘public school’ is nothing more than a room, chalkboard and a teacher, which can be termed as ‘something is better than nothing’ but Trust emphases that this term should never be used when it comes to health and education. They justify it by saying that a ‘reason to believe’ sets the ball rolling slowly, but in the right direction. It is not strange when extraordinary people do extraordinary things. But when they have a ‘reason to believe’, even ordinary people start doing extraordinary things.
Conclusion and Recommendation
I have been privileged to work with many dynamic, adaptive and creative colleagues who represent the essential qualities of effective leadership. Yes; the group members, I really appreciate their kindness, generosity and knowledge sharing attitude though which I got many new ideas and learning. Concluding this reflective paper, I am confident to say that the school is on the track to transform the school to a LC. A slight supportive and collaborative atmosphere is needed for further progress by the Principal. DL extends authority and influence to groups and some further downed distribution of responsibilities can flourish school further. On going professional development is always the assurance of success that needs to be initiated, while taking appropriate measure to retain the trained staff.
REFERENCES
Chaudhry, M.A.K. (1999). Child Labor: Facts an Fiction. The Lahore Journal of Economics, 2(2). 119 - 123
Gronn, P (2003). The New Work of Educational Leaders: Changing Leadership Practice in an Era of School Reform. London. Sage Publications.
Illeris, K. (2003). Towards a contemporary and comprehensive theory of learning. International Journal of Lifelong Education. 22(4), 396-406
Leithwood, K. (2004) What we know about successful leadership. The practicing Administrator, 4
Libereman, A. (1988). Building a professional culture in schools. New York. Teachers College Press.
Lovely, S. & Buffum, A.G. (2007). Generations at School: Building an Age-Friendly Learning Community. California: Crown Press.
Retallick, J. Cocklin, B. & Coombe, K. (Eds.). (1999). Learning Communities in Education: Issues, strategies and contexts. London: Routledge.
Serviovanni, T. (1998). Leadership as pedagogy, capital development and school effectiveness. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1(1), 37-46
Stewart, D. & Prebble, T. (1993). The Reflective Principal: School Development Within a Learning Community. New Zealand: ERDC Press Massey University.
Leithwood, K., Jantizi, D., and Steinbach, R. (2000). Changing leadership and changing times. (reprint). Buckingham: Open University.

THE KNEE JOINT PAIN IN GILGIT-BALTISTAN - AN URGENT CALL TO ACTION

  THE KNEE JOINT PAIN IN GILGIT-BALTISTAN - AN URGENT CALL TO ACTION Darvesh Karim   Attending a recent social gathering in Gilgit-Bal...