Teacher leadership in government schools in Qatar: opportunities and challenges

The current study is an attempt to understand how teachers working in Qatari government schools understand the concept of teacher leadership. This topic has received little attention in the educational leadership literature in this context. Teachers came to Qatar during and after its massive educational reform (2003-2017), mainly from countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and are employed in an advanced educational system equipped with the most recent educational technologies and resources. The Ministry of Education (MoE) offers comprehensive professional development programmes, and a licencing system guarantees uniformity in teachers’ qualifications to ensure quality education. These opportunities have made it imperative to investigate how teachers perceive the concept of teacher leadership, examine the factors that influence these perceptions and provide suggestions to foster teacher leadership in schools. Adopting the teacher leadership definition of York-Barr and Duke (2004), this mixed methods study used a questionnaire based on the Teacher Leadership Inventory (TLI) tool developed by Angelle and DeHart (2011) and semi-structured interviews to collect data regarding teacher leadership perceptions. 2,969 people responded to the questionnaire and 96 teacher leaders were interviewed. The results of the study showed that teachers define teacher leadership in terms of formal leadership roles, e.g. subject coordinators. However, teachers in Qatar practise many informal leadership roles to support other teachers socially and professionally. Contrary to previous research, school level (preschool, primary, preparatory, secondary or complex) was not a significant variable in the quantitative phase although interviewees stated that school level affected teacher leadership practices. The qualitative phase results revealed many factors that support teacher leadership (including support from other staff including the principal, and from family members) as well as factors that inhibit it (dealing with difficult people, lack of team support, language and cultural differences, continuous changes from the MoE).