A Study of Perceptions of Leadership and its Role in Educational Transformation in Girls’ Secondary Schools in Saudi Arabia

Alowin, H A (2020) A Study of Perceptions of Leadership and its Role in Educational Transformation in Girls’ Secondary Schools in Saudi Arabia. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This study investigates perceptions of school leadership and management held by participants in eight secondary, girls schools in Saudi Arabia. Education is at the centre of far-reaching strategic goals set out in Vision 2030 by the Ministry of Education. The Vision recognised that if schools were to improve and become fit for the twenty first century economy, teachers would have to act as leaders rather than managers who enact centralised, top-down, policies. The study reviewed literature on leadership models in education and explored how participants recognised differences between management and leadership and what kinds of leadership models and practice they purported to enact in their everyday practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight head teachers and seven deputy head teachers. The case study involved one school and interviews were conducted with one school head teacher, two deputy head teachers and three teachers from different subject specialisms. Semistructured interview questions asked participants about a range of issues that align with current models of distributed leadership found in the mainly western educational literature and explored to what extent such models were emergent or could be adapted for and by women head teachers in Saudi Arabia. Data analysis looked for emergent themes and revealed that most participants perceived a distinction between management and leadership. A range of challenges was found and specifically the lack of autonomy entrusted to head teachers, which made enacting distributed leadership very challenging under present policy conditions. Findings identified three primary barriers (i) school head teachers’ performance was hampered by the lack of autonomy provided by the Ministry of Education, (ii) a lack of sufficient leadership training programs and (iii) insufficiency of opportunities for continuing professional development. Some policy recommendations and possibilities for change are set out.