A StudyofPerceptionsofLeadershipanditsRoleinEducational Transformation inGirls’ SecondarySchoolsinSaudiArabia

This study investigates perceptions of school leadership and management held by participantsineightsecondary,girlsschoolsinSaudiArabia.Educationisatthecentre offar-reachingstrategicgoalssetoutinVision2030bytheMinistryofEducation.The Visionrecognisedthatifschoolsweretoimproveandbecome fit forthetwenty first century economy, teachers would have to act as leaders rather thanmanagers who enact centralised, top-down, policies. The study reviewed literature on leadership models in education and explored how participants recognised differences between management and leadership and what kinds of leadershipmodels and practice they purported to enact in their everyday practices. Semi-structured interviews were conductedwitheightheadteachersandsevendeputyheadteachers.Thecasestudy involvedoneschoolandinterviewswereconductedwithoneschoolheadteacher,two deputy head teachers and three teachers from different subject specialisms. Semistructuredinterviewquestionsaskedparticipantsaboutarangeofissuesthatalignwith current models of distributed leadership found in the mainly western educational literatureandexploredtowhatextentsuchmodelswereemergentorcouldbeadapted forandbywomenhead teachersinSaudiArabia.Dataanalysislooked foremergent themes and revealed that most participants perceived a distinction between managementandleadership.Arangeofchallengeswasfoundandspecificallythelack ofautonomyentrustedtoheadteachers,whichmadeenactingdistributed leadership very challenging under present policy conditions. Findings identified three primary barriers(i)schoolheadteachers’performancewashamperedbythelackofautonomy provided by the Ministry of Education, (ii) a lack of sufficient leadership training programs and (iii) insufficiency of opportunities for continuing professional development.Somepolicyrecommendationsandpossibilitiesforchangearesetout.