Teacher Leadership and Educational Reforms - Research Paper Example

?Teacher Leadership and Educational Reforms Teacher Leadership and Educational Reforms I. Introduction Teacher is a leader because; he has the responsibility to change the perception of his students in order to transform them into better future citizens of a society. However, professors are the ones who have the most permanent impact on the lives of their students, pertaining to this fact teachers often have to foresee the future demands of their respective fields. So that they can train their students according to the changing demands of the market therefore, leadership can be assumed as one of the prime duties of a teacher. The cultural and contextual outlook of UAE provide an environment that is ideal for the propagation of academic leadership because, teaching is considered as a superior profession in Arab world thus, motivating teachers towards exercising leadership. In this kind of scenario, million-dollar investment in educational sector is a wise decision because; it will be able to change the prehistoric mindset of Arabs towards education. II. Problem Statement and Methodology The major problem that this study wants to study stems from the introduction of educational reforms in UAE educational system upon the due ability of teachers to demonstrate effective leadership. However, to analyze the problem, this paper will review the existing literature on the topic and register findings in coming stages. III. Purpose of the Study The fundamental purpose of this study is to provide a firm theoretical base for a detailed future empirical study that will quantify “the impact of educational reforms on teachers’ capacity for leadership”. IV. Literature Review At the same time, teacher also posses the duty to bless his students with confidence but, for the accomplishment of this responsibility teacher should be given job autonomy, so that he can plan his lectures and other related activities in a meaningful way. It is believed by management scholars that leadership can only be practiced in a decentralized chain of command. However, in Muslim countries, indigenous collectivist culture has made educational innovation a dream possible to achieve because; people readily form groups with each other in order to achieve some common objectives. Along with this, parents also want a bright future for their children in this fashion, supporting the teachers to bless the students with skills such as creativity that will differentiate them in an international environment. Nevertheless, UAE educational ministry has taken some notable steps recently in order to bring educational industry of the country in accordance with international standards. However, UAE and other modern Muslim nations are already on the path of true educational development. In these societies, individuals have been permitted to achieve their personal goals and are supposed to follow the modern social mechanism of individualism thus, inspiring the creativity of individuals, so that they can differentiate themselves in the society. In above-mentioned societies, however teachers can innovate with their teaching methodologies because of flexible cultural aspects, which permit people to think differently. Additionally, when people do think differently they are considered as leaders. So everybody listens to them, due to this supportive societal behavior, people feel encouraged towards thinking differently, therefore creativity always come from enlightened professors of various educational departments in UAE.. However, in developed nations, it is a well-preserved tradition to train teachers in art of advanced leadership, so that they can exercise it during practicing their profession (Coombe, 2009). These institutions are providing able teaching staff for world-renowned universities and institutions for number of centuries. Arab communities are turning towards educational activities and developed culture of collective learning in order to build up their viable human capital in educational sector for the future (Al-Taneiji, 2010). Nevertheless, these steps are proving effective in terms of achieving their objectives due to an enlightened macro culture of the Arab communities that is ideally conducive towards intellectual endeavors. On the other hand, competent politicians are ruling Arab and they support intellectual growth of the nation because, they consider enlightened people as a source of advantage for the nation thus, motivating educated and open-minded people in order to serve their country as a result, causing the intellectual capital to thrive in the nation (Larrabee & Morehead, 2010). In the light of this observation, Arab nations are committed towards knowledge accumulation and strategic national planning. Along with this, they are also loyal to preserve modern way of life, which clearly belong to the modern era of 21st century. In addition to all else, nationalism is also playing its due role in motivating youth to participate in education and train in modern forms of knowledge because, the concept of nationalism motivates the people of Arab to consider themselves as learners, which causes a significant cultural support in terms of accepting a foreigner as a teacher. Thus, fresh knowledge is continually pumping into the Arabian society. On the other hand, religious outfit of Islam is believed to be in favor of educating females and middle class, which stimulate the mental growth of these fundamental factions of Arab society (Kirk, 2009). Nevertheless, Islamic teachings are explicitly supportive towards education of Muslims. Therefore, it is logical to assume that modern Islamic scholars are capable of understanding and translating Islamic teaching in accordance with the norms of 21st century. Nonetheless, Arab countries need educationists who should dedicate themselves towards their profession in order to develop massive intellectual base for the country. However, this objective cannot be achieved without heightened emotional intelligence, so that professors can withstand ignorance of students around them (Gallagher, 2011). Therefore, training female staff in teaching is imperative for the educational development of Arab states because, females are used to handle difficulties, due to their ability to control emotions effectively. On the other hand, finding and training lefthanders in educating others is also very important because, research considers these individuals with abnormal power of creativity and persuasion, which make them ideal to become effective leaders. Another important facet of Arab nations is their dying out middle economical class that is responsible to execute the ideas of innovation (Khondker, 2011). But, the phenomenon of unequal distribution of wealth slimmed the middle class of these nations thus, depleting the ability to innovate in Arabians; therefore, they are importing human talent from other countries. However, these people are not committed towards developing Emirates because; they have their personal agendas to fulfill. These individuals are working in giant oil companies that are extracting oil from Arab world for considerable time. Thus, this observation implied the presence of foreigner professionals that are leaning onto natural resources of Arab. In this way, this paper emphasizes on educational development, so that locals can take control of UAE’s natural resources. In parallel, UAE teacher educational programs are designed to empower them therefore, trainers subliminally attempt to encourage their student teachers towards developing creativity because, they consider it as a source of innovation in educational industry (Aubrey & Coombe, 2010). This trend amplified another angel of Arabian culture, which is professional dedication that influenced authoritative individuals in supporting able youngsters in order to provide viable human capital in education for future years. Importantly, Arab culture is apparently conducive for research because of, abundance of objective and logical thinking (Smith, 2012). Therefore, government is justly running its operations and controlling the destiny of the nation. In the light of this argument, it is suggested to introduce research activities during early years of schooling in order to foster evidence based thinking in youngsters. Along with this, local transformational leaders are required who can bring rapid and effective change. However, this process may take a considerable time in achieving its objectives. In addition, students are often expecting their teachers to practice increased degree of leadership through influencing their lives therefore; they usually have an urge to develop personal relations with their teachers. On the other hand, students feel betrayed by observing human characteristics in their tutors because, pupils are often found considering their teachers heavenly (Beycioglu & Aslan, 2012), through taking this observation into account, it is suggested that teachers should provide viable and logical role model in front their students, so that the students can follow their footsteps during their practical life. Furthermore, changing the future of education is a daunting task despite substantial investment because; financial sources can only provide physical setting for training. But, a psychological side will be made available by professionals (Macpherson, Kachelhoffer, & Nemr, 2007). It will be wise for the reform committee to hire local and foreigner professionals for the training of teaching staff in terms of leadership and other related concepts because, in this way, the content of the program will appeal to both nationalists and modernists. The major characteristic of teachers’ professional excellence program, is persistence, which will play a significant role in succeeding it. V. Research Question The research question that this study intends to answer is “What is the long term relationship between educational reforms in UAE with local teachers’ ability to demonstrate effective academic leadership?” VI. Findings This paper’s findings are quite satisfactory for the financers of educational reform campaign because, this research believes that UAE for vast scale educational change therefore, government should divide it into various steps. At the same time, this reform initiative will be supported in its early stage because, authoritative individuals will consider it as a source of intellectual development. However, empowerment of teachers is a prerequisite of successfulness of these educational reforms, which is fortunately considered as a familiar concept in Muslim world because, Islam gives the message of equality. Along with this, teaching is practiced by Prophets in the past therefore, under this perception of teaching profession, people respect teachers. This same phenomenon of respect and honor for teaching, will lead the people of UAE towards believing upon the idea of empowering teachers. In this fashion, millions of dollars will be invested in the future on this campaign and as a result, teachers will blessed with confidence, therefore experience a steep growth in their job performance. Thus, this reform will be the mean of solving educational problems in UAE. VII. Recommendations On the other hand, this paper is in favor of sending capable and committed educationists on foreign training, so that they can align their skill set with international standards. In the second phase of the project, these individuals are given an opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with other local professionals. This exercise will result in growing support for reforms because; foreign training not only fulfils psychological needs, but also takes care of physiological needs. Therefore, more people will become interested in this program. Thus, providing initial pool of individuals for which international consultants can be invited for training. In this way, resistance to change can also be minimized. In the light of above discussion, snail’s pace is required in conducting reforms in educational sector of UAE in order to minimize the intensity of cultural shock. VIII. Conclusion This paper viewed educational reforms in UAE in context of teacher leadership and concluded that the pace of educational change in UAE is satisfactory because, it is blessing the participants with an opportunity to catch their breath therefore; this campaign is significantly capable of achieving its objectives. At the same time, management of educational improvement program took everybody on board before initialization. In this way, people and the managerial staff are purely committed to the idea of teacher empowerment in order to save the future of UAE. On the other hand, modern culture of UAE is supporting the capability of teaching staff in terms of leadership because; they are not expected to follow established and traditional ways of teaching. Thus, rendering UAE as place where teaching innovations are highly recommendable.. At the same time, Arabian culture is mainly semi-nationalist in nature, due to this reason, people are conducive towards accepting foreigners as teachers therefore fusion of new knowledge in the culture of Arab is not much painstaking for governmental authorities. Based on whole discussion, educational innovation in Arabian culture is a near reality because, of the flexibility of Arabian mindset, which is an active cause for educational and technological competency in Arab. This trend can be observed through increasing number of the critical educational institutions in UAE. In this way, UAE is planning to revitalize its local middle class, which almost vanished over the past in order to, stimulate innovation in every field. Pertaining to the above condition educational leadership is an attainable dream because macro culture of the society considers teachers as respectable figures already. In short, planned execution of educational reforms will further enhance teachers’ ability to exercise academic leadership. IX. Limitations This paper however, cannot deploy rigorous research techniques in order to back up its assumptions and findings. The major reasons for these deficiencies are lack of financial resources and time; therefore, we developed this paper by basing it on the review of current literature, so that it can provide a viable base for a detailed empirical future study on the topic concerned. References Al-Taneiji, S. (2010). Professional Learning Communities in the United Arab Emirates Schools: Realities and Obstacles. IJAES 6(1) , pp.17-29. Aubrey, J., & Coombe, C. (2010). The TESOL Arabia Conference and its Role in the Professional Development of Teachers at Institutions of Higher Education in the United Arab Emirates. Academic Leadership 8(3) . Beycioglu, K., & Aslan, B. (2012). Teachers and Administrators’ Views on Teacher Leadership: A Mixed Methods Study. Educational Administration: Theory and Practice 18(2) , pp. 191-223. Coombe, C. (2009). Building a Teacher Leadership Academy. TESOL Arabia Perspectives 16(1) , pp.38-39. Gallagher, K. (2011). Becoming and re-becoming a teacher in the Arabian Peninsula: Amal’s story of hope. Teacher Development 15(2) , pp.141-155. Khondker, H. (2011). Many Roads to Modernization in the Middle East . Soc 48 , pp.304–306. Kirk, D. (2009). The Development of Higher Education in the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates Occasional Papers , pp. 1-57. Larrabee, T., & Morehead, P. (2010). Volume 19, Number 2, Fall 2010 of Social Justice and Teacher Leadership: Addressing LGB Issues in Teacher Education. Issues in Teacher Education 19(2) , pp.37-52. Macpherson, R., Kachelhoffer, P., & Nemr, M. (2007). The Radical Modernization of School and Education System Leadership in the United Arab Emirates: Towards Indigenized and Educative Leadership. ISEA 35(1) , pp.60-77. Smith, J. (2012). Leadership A High School Perspective. leading from the middle , pp.50-55. Read More