Asian Research Thesis Index

Abstract

The study has been conducted in order to understand the role of the principal with regard to teacher educators' professional development in the context of teachers' training college. The purpose of this study was to find the correlation between leadership role and professional development of teacher educators. The quality and effectiveness of teachers training programmes has been a matter of continuous debate in Pakistan, as the trainings provided by teacher educators have not generally been found to be satisfactory. Being aware of the impact of leadership style on the performance of staff, I wanted to explore the principal's perceptions and practices in regard to teacher educators' professional development. This study was conducted in the qualitative mode, using the semi-structured interviews were used with the principal and two teacher educators. Trustworthiness of the data has been maintained through observations, document analyses, informal discussions and a reflective journal. Core characteristics and correlate frame work used by Foster, Loving and Shumate (2000) in their study of Effective Principals, Effective Professional Development Schools has been adapted to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that the principal assumes a managerial role rather than an academic leader's role, by following the order of the higher authorities and fulfilling the programme requirements. Though the principal and teacher educators have perception of professional development, for them, the strategies are based on individual approach. Thus, in reality the principal neither holds the concept of continuous professional development, nor is capable of organizing, planning, and implementing in-house strategies for teacher educators' professional development. The findings of the study also revealed that the principal has to confront some issues in institutionalizing professional development culture in the college which reduces the principal's empowerment, some of these issues are: time constraint, political influence, work culture, and budgeting. Implications have been made to overcome the issues. For improving the present situation, it has been suggested that the principal should involve herself in acquiring Educational Leadership and Management training and update her knowledge about professional development in order to enhance her role as an academic leader.

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