Supporting teacher professional learning in Oman: The effects of principal leadership, teacher trust, and teacher agency

Lagging student performance in the Sultanate of Oman has, in recent years, led the Ministry of Education to target teachers’ professional learning as a key strategic pillar in its efforts to reform the education system. While international evidence finds principal leadership can make a meaningful difference in teacher engagement in professional learning, this has yet to be studied in Arab societies. The current study collected data from 887 teachers in 78 Omani middle schools with the aim of understanding if and how their principals’ learning-centered leadership influences teacher agency, teacher trust and teacher professional learning. Factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and bootstrapping were used to explore both partial and full mediation models of these relationships. Results validated a partial mediation model in which learning-centered leadership had moderate direct and indirect effects on teacher professional learning. The validated model also highlights the important role that principals can play in creating a climate of trust where teachers believe that investing their time and effort in professional learning will be beneficial for themselves and their schools. The results from Oman are compared with findings from other Asian societies and implications discussed.

Modeling the Influence of Principal’s Leadership on Teachers’ Professional Learning in Governmental Schools in the Sultanate of Oman

The study aimed to identify the degree of principals' learning-centered leadership (PLCL) and teachers' professional learning (TPL) in governmental schools in Oman, then to modeling the effects of (PLCL) on (TPL) in governmental schools in Oman, through identify the level of this influence and compare the effects of the different dimensions of (PLCL) on (TPL). The study employed the quantitative approach using the structural equation modeling to analyze the data collected from a convenient sample of teachers (n=574) from government schools in the Sultanate of Oman. The study found that the practices of (PLCL) were at the high level for all its dimensions; while the "modeling" dimension came as the most practiced dimension, the "managing of learning program" dimension was the least. For the teacher’s professional learning also showed at high level for all dimensions (reflection, experimentation, collaboration and reach out to the knowledge base); while the experimentation dimension was the highest, reach out to the knowledge base was the least one. On the other hand, the study found a positive influence of the principal leadership on teacher professional learning; The source of that influence was from the two dimensions: “managing the learning program” and “building a learning vision”. The study presents a set of recommendations, such as recommending the implementation of structured programs to develop the skills of the school principal in support of teachers’ professional learning. Keywords: Learning-centered leadership, teacher professional learning, structural equation modeling, The Sultanate of Oman

Examining principal leadership effects on teacher professional learning in China: A multilevel analysis

While principal leadership has been exercised in day-to-day practices to address the needs of teachers as professional learners, empirical studies regarding its effects on teacher professional learning have not increased proportionally. Using a sample of 255 secondary school principals and 2756 teachers from four provinces of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Guangdong in China (B-S-J-G-China) who participated in the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2015), this study employed a two-level hierarchical linear modeling to examine principal leadership effects on teacher professional learning. Results showed that principal leadership practices explained a large proportion of between-school variance in teacher learning. Principals’ developing people had positive effects on both personal and collaborative learning. Principals’ instructional improvement had a positive effect on collaborative learning, while principals’ facilitating teacher participation had a negative effect on collaborative learning. The implications for improving principals’ role in promoting teacher learning are also discussed.