Abedin, Manzoorul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6616-0953 (2020) Best practices, opportunities and key challenges in school leadership development in Morocco – a case study. In: ICSEI (International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement) Conference., 7 January 2020, Marrakech, Morocco. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

School leadership development in the context of Morocco is driven both by recent government-led reforms and training opportunities, and by within-school efforts of principals/directors and teachers leading change together. The aim of this case study is to understand how school leaders are ‘created’ in Morocco - the training opportunities offered by government leadership training colleges, their course content and pedagogy, and side by side how school leaders are developed on-the-job and the challenges faced. This qualitative study is also driven by the purpose of developing the current understanding of school leadership development practices in a context outside the OECD or broadly, the west. The case study includes extensive interviews and observational data from three school directors (equivalent of Principals/Head-teachers) of primary and secondary schools with varying degree of leadership experiences. These Casablanca-based school leaders were asked a series of questions about their professional practices, leader characteristics and development opportunities. The data from the in-service school leaders is complemented by focus group data from a large group of trainee leaders (n=15) in a government school leadership training college along with two trainers. All of them were asked on models of school leadership that is prevalent and developed in Morocco, leadership training content, program evaluation and placement and other future challenges. Their responses were recorded, transcribed and translated into English and then analysed using an open-coding model comparing with recent educational leadership literature, both local and international, in order to critically observe the leadership development characteristics that are unique to Morocco. Key findings include school leaders' recognition of new leadership training opportunities in Morocco and the old-school value of learning on-the-job, the tension between the models of a leader coming from within the school and outside of the school with training; the balancing act between workload, budget and opportunities to innovate, conceptualising a school-specific framework for effective leadership in an accountable context, the need for continuous professional development and networking opportunities in order to keep pace with international research, professional development for trainers on evaluating course contents and the program, as well as recommendations for current and future school leaders and possibilities for future research.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	Education > Change theory and change management Education
Related URLs:	Organisation
Depositing User:	Manzoorul Abedin
Date Deposited:	15 Oct 2020 12:56
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2024 12:47
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/7399

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