Investigating the Leadership role in Teacher Education Institutes: A study based on Sindh Government Institutes

Abstract

The main purpose of this research study is to determine the leadership role in public sector teachers training institutes in Sindh, province of Pakistan. The study is focused on themes the problems/pressures such as social, political influence particularly at managerial/leadership level, intrinsic sense of responsibility, operational procedures in department, individual responsibility and challenges in faculty training and development   faced by top leadership of Teachers training institutes. The primary source  of  data  collection  used  for  the  professionals  is  based  on  the  comprehensive  survey;  well-designed tools such as questionnaire comprised of thirty closed ended items on a five-point Likert- scale which was developed in consultation with the language and subject experts that are used as  sampling  instruments,  and  certain  items  were  revised  after  pilot  testing.  After  this  procedure,  construct and content validity of questionnaire was determined, the researcher has visited personally those institutions which were included in the population of research study, and random sampling has been used as sampling technique to collect the data. Ethical consideration was ensured in research to save respondents from any problem in the future; special care was given to the language so as not to hurt the respondents’ race, caste, creed and culture.The responses had been analyzed statistically using regression analysis. The respondents of the study included officers of Grade 17 and above from the Leadership of Education & literacy Department. Priority was given to those offices that possessed experience in academic as well as managerial level such as teacher educators /trainers, professors and Heads of Teachers Training Institutions in Sindh, a province of Pakistan. The findings of this study is concluded on the effectiveness of the leadership provided by the head figure in these teachers training institutes is not greatly affected due to problems such as non-availability of physical facilities in the institutions, or the financial problems and academic, professional qualification and experience. However, the effectiveness of teacher education leadership was significantly affected due to political influence, undue transfers of intuitions heads, suspensions or punishment had the negative impact on the effectiveness of leadership. The study suggested reasonable modifications in internal process of institutes and their practical application such as recruitment and appraisal on merit basis and avoiding undue suspension or transfer of management staff.