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.

Faglege identitetsforhandlingar i ein fleirstemmig norsklærarrøyndom

Denne artikkelen legg eit dialogisk og sosiokulturelt perspektiv til grunn for å undersøkje tilhøvet mellom fagleg identitet og læraraktørskap (teacher agency). Eitt intervju med ein norsklærarar i vidaregåande skule vert analysert som døme på korleis lærarar forhandlar fagleg identitet mellom personlege erfaringar og sosiale språk og talesjangrar som vert tilbydde av røyster i læraren sin sosiokulturelle kontekst. Tilhøvet mellom dei ulike røystene kan verte forstått som ei produktiv spenning der læraren aktivt tek stilling til moglege norsklærar-posisjonar. Analysen syner korleis læraren utøver aktørskap ved å påverke eigen norsklæraridentitet, samstundes som læraren si gradvise erkjenning av eigen fagleg identitet vert ein ressurs for å gi retning til lærarverksemda. Artikkelen framhevar slik fagleg identitet, sosiale språk og talesjangrar si rolle i å forme læraraktørskap samt korleis fagleg identitet og aktørskap er knytt til lærarprofesjonalitet.

Investigating the Neoliberal Educational Agenda: The Effect of Reform Contexts on Teacher Agency

During the transition to democratic society a neoliberal educational agenda was introduced to guide the reform process in Estonia. Documentary analysis was conducted for this research and six periods emerged, which showed that expectations were placed on teachers that assumed the existence of teacher agency, while the reform context didn’t support its emergence. Evidence of change can be seen in the last periods, when also a significant dichotomy arises.