Emerging Roles and Relationships of Teacher Leaders for Quality Teaching and Learning in Pakistan: A Case Study
Recently, the positions of heads of department and subject coordinators are being instituted in many schools in Pakistan. This is in the wake of the current interest in the concept of teacher leadership and practices internationally. Located within the theoretical concept of distributed leadership, the aims of teacher leadership vary from teacher empowerment and their increased participation in decision-making to facilitating the head teacher in playing his/her role as an instructional leader.
This current trend of developing teacher leadership in different school types in Pakistan raises several questions:
Are teacher leaders selected on the basis of certain predefined criteria, eg, personal characteristics, professional knowledge and expertise, credibility with colleagues etc.?
- What roles do they play/are expected to play?
- How are they developed to play these roles and what challenges do they face in the process?
- What kinds of relationships do they need to build, with different stakeholders in the school and the wider school system for working effectively?
- What processes and strategies are used to facilitate teacher leaders in their work?
- And last, but not the least, what is the impact of teacher leaders on improving the quality of teaching and learning in their schools?
This paper aims to address some of these questions, particularly those pertaining to the emerging roles and relationships of teacher leaders in the specific setting of a non-profit private school in Pakistan.
The Junior Secondary School for Girls (JSSG), in which the case study was conducted, is part of a larger school which, in turn, is part of a network of schools run by a large non-governmental organization in Pakistan. Recently, a team of seven Learning Area Coordinators (LACs) was appointed in JSSG, one for each learning area identified in the new curriculum, to facilitate the section head in performing her new role as an instructional leader, in general, and for supporting the teachers in the implementation of the new curriculum, in particular.
Similarly, at the systems level, seven Programme Associates (PAs) were appointed to support the curriculum development and implementation work in the network schools. This is mainly done through organizing formal professional development sessions for teachers on an ongoing basis and more focused school-based work with teachers and LACs in each school.
Research findings indicate that the emerging roles and relationships of LACs and PAs have the potential of creating conflicts between and amongst the instructional and organizational roles of LACs. Similarly, in terms of relationships, while the explicit aim of creating teacher leadership positions was to develop horizontal relationships, earlier hierarchies and current lack of facilitating conditions could be potential threats for LACs and PAs to work effectively in their new roles.
These findings have implications both for policy and practice in: a) delineating the roles of teacher leaders and; b) building appropriate context and conditions for them to develop collegial and trusting relationships with teachers and other stakeholders at the school and systems level.