The impact of Transforming an Independent School with Conventional Hierarchal Structure into a Professional Learning Community (PLC) on the Overall School Improvement Process
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Date
2024-11
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
This research study intends to investigate the impact of shifting school improvement initiatives from being reactive, long delayed, and externally initiated into being more innovative intra-institutionally originated by getting an anonymised independent school established as a professional learning community (PLC). The investigation is focused on reconceptualising school leadership structures to become more collegial and participatory by abandoning the top-down leadership styles, empowering stakeholders’ collaboration and involvement as authentic partners, and thoroughly reviewing the school ethos to redefine its strategic direction in a more inclusive and collaborative approach to become optimally aligned to the stakeholder groups’ aspirations. This transformation is expected to enhance the cultivation of a new sustainable culture that prioritises collaborative learning, institutional efficacy, and continuous improvement. With this PLC model, the school will develop greater agility and capability of coping with the challenges induced by continuous change that is becoming more expedited than ever before. This way, school improvement initiatives become immaculately contextualised and internally initiated, and thus far more sustainably effective than current standardised school improvement models with very limited potential to achieve stakeholders’ aspirations of building a robust system that can internally, sustainably, and proactively revive school improvement dynamics and mechanisms. This investigation is primarily grounded in an anonymised independent school staff’s insights, as represented by their participation in semi-structured interviews and a self-completed questionnaire. The generated data, both qualitative and quantitative, are analysed into three themes which are aligned to three research questions in order to inform discussions and key findings, and inspire data-driven recommendations.
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Keywords
professional learning community, leadership structure, stakeholder involvement, teacher empowerment, shared school ethos