Investigating the Effect of an Educational Leadership Program on School Leaders’ Performance from the Program Graduates’ and Stakeholders’ Perspectives

This paper examines the effect of the Bahrain Teachers College higher diploma of education leadership program (ELP) courses, offered to school leaders, on their performance. The study explores feedback from 360-degrees, including perceptions of: the program graduates, the teachers in their schools, as well as their Ministry of Education (MoE) supervisors. The study sample consisted of 141 program graduates from 9 cohorts (2009 - 2017), 419 school teachers and 17 MoE officials. The study questionnaires were designed on the basis of the program and courses' learning outcomes. The study findings generally revealed that the sample groups perceived the program courses to positively affect the graduates' performance in all areas. The majority of the program graduates agreed that the program positively affected their skills the most in: leading reform (88%), strategic planning (85%) and applying educational ethics (84%). Teachers agreed that the program courses affected the most its graduates' ICT skills (88%) and the skills of applying educational ethics (87%) and strategic planning (86%). The majority of MOE officials agreed that the program affected the most its graduates' ICT skills (81%), professional development (77%) and leading reform skills (75%). These findings suggest that the ELP program improved the ability of the program graduates to implement developments and change in their schools and hence meet the Bahrain Education and Training Quality Authority requirements. Recommendations of the study include tuning the ELP program to further meet the needs of public schools’ leaders in the Kingdom of Bahrain, especially those leading Boys intermediate schools.

I. Introduction

This article presents an investigation of the effect of the Bahrain Teachers College (BTC) Education Leadership Program courses (ELP) on the performance and practices of public schools’ leaders, in relation to their roles and responsibilities as change agents in their schools, from the program graduates’ and stakeholders’ perspectives.