Supporting teacher professional learning in Oman: The effects of principal leadership, teacher trust, and teacher agency

Abstract

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.

The relationship between principal support, teacher professional identity, and teacher professional learning in China: Investigating gender differences

“…Teacher professional learning questionnaire used in this study was originally developed by Liu and her research team (Liu et al, 2016). This questionnaire has been widely used in different contexts, including Turkish school context (Bektaş et al, 2022), Malaysian school context (Thien et al, 2021), Oman school context (Hendawy Al‐Mahdy et al, 2021), Thailand school context (Hallinger et al, 2019; Kulophas & Hallinger, 2020), and Kuwaiti school context (Alazmi & Hammad, 2021). There are four subscales of teacher professional learning, collaboration (five items, e.g., “I work together with colleagues to plan educational activities”), reflection (nine items, e.g., “I modify instructional methods on the basis of feedback from colleagues”), experimentation (five items, e.g., “I experiment with new teaching ideas”), and reach out to the knowledge base (six items, e.g., “I collect learning feedback from students”).…”

“…Extant empirical studies have indicated that teacher‐centered collaborative learning activities were more effective in improving student achievement than professional development programs offered by universities (Akiba & Liang, 2016; Gibbons et al, 2021; Lave & Wenger, 1991). An increasing number of researchers and school leaders link teacher professional learning to teachers' professional capital development (Belay et al, 2022; Pan & Chen, 2020), which is critical for the improvement of students' learning and achievements (Akiba & Liang, 2016; Bruce et al, 2010; Hendawy Al‐Mahdy et al, 2021).…”

The Effects of Teacher Trust on Student Learning and the Malleability of Teacher Trust to School Leadership: A 35-Year Meta-Analysis

“…v Learning-Centered Leadership (Liu et al, 2016;Hallinger et al, 2017;Kılınç et al, 2017;Piyaman et al, 2017;Al-Mahdy et al, 2021;Talebizadeh et al, 2021). w Leadership Practice Scale (Day et al, 2011).…”

“…36. The Teacher Trust Scale (Liu, Hallinger, & Feng, 2016b;Al-Mahdy et al, 2021;Talebizadeh et al, 2021). 37.…”

Administrative Empowerment Impact on Enhancing the Leadership Skills for Modern Environment of Judiciary

“…This development has included first and second grade leaders, where institutions have benefited from empowering second grade leaders, developing their skills in the face of the pressures of large retirement indicators from first grade leaders, and compensating for the absence of class for any reason to leave work [18]. Developing the skills of second-grade leaders also plays an important role in raising the competitiveness of enterprises [19,20], and there was a gap in succession and a high percentage of first graders in government institutions in the Sultanate of Oman [21,22]. This requires attention to the process of developing the skills of second grade leaders, and because of its important role, so within its theoretical framework.…”