No abstract

Leadership is conceptualized in various ways. In general, however, leadership is defined as a transaction between leaders and followers. In 2016, the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University successfully obtained the international accreditation by the U.S. National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, which is now known as the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. Such achievement was recognized nationally by policymakers and was commended internationally by expert educators. In fact, the journey toward international accreditation was so challenging that without the contribution of sustained leadership it could not have been completed. The college leadership contributed considerably and played an inspirational role to achieve that goal. In the early stages of the process, the college leadership conducted a thorough needs assessment in which opportunities, assets, and risks were identified before a decision regarding seeking international accreditation was made. When national accreditation was first established in Oman, the college leaders focused on communicating the vision and mission clearly to the college faculty and administrative staff as well as students. This was followed by leading change within the institution through a careful inspection of the resources that could be deployed and the incentives that could successfully promote the new accreditation culture and build positive attitudes. Through forming teams of leaders within the institution as part of the distributed leadership, the college was able to set up an action plan in which various gaps could be covered. The college leadership adopted different approaches to lead the college, its faculty, staff, and students toward the attainment of international accreditation. A combination of distributed, transactional, and transformational leadership approaches was used by the college leadership in order pursue and accomplish accreditation. The college relied on the AASC as a form of distributed leadership. The AASC included faculty members with experience in academic accreditation and assessment and represented focal points for other faculty members. The college leadership restructured the roles and responsibilities of the Heads of Departments as a form transactional leadership to embed accreditation work within the normal flow of operations. The college provided constant feedback on performance, adhered to equity and equality principles, considered personal differences among staff and students, and responded to their diverse needs. As a form of transformational leadership, the college worked on creating the culture for accreditation, stimulating innovation and creativity, encouraging scholarship and research activities, and sharing potential risks. The college sought to build a community of practice by creating a positive collegial atmosphere for teamwork and capacity building. The adoption of a combination of successful leadership styles helped the college to overcome the potential ambiguity and conflict between academic duties of faculty and the demanding tasks of accreditation. Additionally, it helped faculty members, staff, and students to change from being passive observers to positive players. In short, the achievement of international accreditation, though a tough journey, was possible only because the college leaders thought it could come true and worked for it.

Lagging student performance in the Sultanate of Oman has, in recent years, led the Ministry of Education to target teachers’ professional learning as a key strategic pillar in its efforts to reform the education system. While international evidence finds principal leadership can make a meaningful difference in teacher engagement in professional learning, this has yet to be studied in Arab societies. The current study collected data from 887 teachers in 78 Omani middle schools with the aim of understanding if and how their principals’ learning-centered leadership influences teacher agency, teacher trust and teacher professional learning. Factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and bootstrapping were used to explore both partial and full mediation models of these relationships. Results validated a partial mediation model in which learning-centered leadership had moderate direct and indirect effects on teacher professional learning. The validated model also highlights the important role that principals can play in creating a climate of trust where teachers believe that investing their time and effort in professional learning will be beneficial for themselves and their schools. The results from Oman are compared with findings from other Asian societies and implications discussed.

No abstract

This paper investigates if teachers, as they apply different classroom management strategies, violate in any way possible, the rights of children in the classrooms. The study sample consisted of six teachers, selected from schools in Governorate of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. Qualitative research method was used to conduct this research. Using interviews with research participants, needed information were collected. Results showed that bullying is a common behavioral problem in the classrooms; followed by talking with classmates during the class; coming to class late; use of a device and not paying attention.Based on the results of this paper, a number of recommendations were made.

No abstract

The higher education (HE) system in Oman is governed and controlled by the state and is thus a government managed sector in which the state is the chief policy player. The main aim of this study is to provide a critical understanding of the policy architecture and policy-making processes in Omani HE since 1986. More specifically, the study seeks: to describe the Omani HE policy-making architecture and its operation; to analyse the impact of this architecture and its operations on the HE system; and to investigate national, regional and global factors affecting HE policy.The study employed a qualitative methodology. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were the methods used for generating data. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 43 policy-makers and others involved in Omani HE. The documents included:Royal Decrees, Ministerial decisions, Organizational charts of HEIs, Legislative documents, strategic plans, and meeting minutes. Those documents were from the post 1986 period, aligning with the time frame of the study. These documents are ready for use as they are published for the public. The data generated through interviews and document analysis were analysed thematically according to an inductive approach and through the lens of the theoretical framework.The study finds that the Omani political system results in a hierarchical approach to policy-making for the HE sector. This architecture has three levels-the top level of government, specialized bodies, and the field-with strong control concentrated at the top level of the government and weaker control available to agencies at the lower levels of the system. The study conceptualizes the policy-making architecture of the entire Omani HE system as a cascade of principal-agent games, showing that the Omani Government is a highly powerful controller of HE policy-making. The relationships between the different policy actors and bodies within this hierarchical architecture are documented and described in terms of four different scenarios: (1) policy development by the Education Council; (2) policies emanating from the Sultan; (3) policies emanating from the Cabinet and the Supreme Council for Planning; and (4) policies proposed by the Oman Council.A key argument of the study is that the Omani government developed and reformed its HE system in relation to national pressures for development, student demand, and regional and global pressures. The Omani HE system is situated in relation to national, regional and global contexts and thus, its policies were made and implemented in responses to complex intersections of these contexts. Nationally, pressure has been placed on HE policy by the political system of the state, the economy, the labour market, the schooling system, the history of the HE system, and broader social changes. Regionally, the study finds that Oman learned from, and borrowed much HE policy from, neighbouring Arab Gulf States, motivated by dynamics of both competition and cooperation. The ii Cooper...

Global citizenship has recently attracted significant attention from nations for its importance in sustainable development. This study explores the extent of the adoption of global citizenship concepts and principles in Omani education by analyzing the reality of including global citizenship concepts in national policies in Oman. Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) was used in order to establish the support force in achieving the main requirements of GCED in three Omani national policies: Education Philosophy, the Basic Law of the State, and Oman Vision 2040. The results reveal that the Education Philosophy is one of the most comprehensive documents on concepts, principles, and requirements. Additionally, sustainable development issues are among the key principles contained in the analyzed national documents. These are followed by principles of ecological balance, scientific thinking, and technology, with significant interest in other principles as well.