International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
to teaching; experience as a teacher; prior experiences with school leaders; master’s degree programs and prior
professional development; beliefs about leadership; appointment as a VP; experience in the [XXXX]
Professional Development Program (participants, content and tasks, timing, positive and negative aspects of the
program, suggestions); current role (daily life, problems faced, Electronic Student Information System,
community, collaboration with peers, future aspirations); and suggestions for future programs.
Background and Character
All of the women in the group were hand-selected by ADEC leadership and underwent a rigorous interview
process. Shared qualifications included more than five years of successful teaching experience, a high degree of
English proficiency, and a master’s degree. The perception of rigor in the interview process contributed to a high
degree of status affiliation within the program. Hessa summarized this feeling, stating, “We are the new Viceprincipals
that Dr. Mugheer had chosen, according to high criteria.” The women in the study generally identified
themselves as being capable and highly qualified. Khawla said, “I always wanted to … be there somewhere to
make decisions, to let people know okay you can do it this way. I am very good at that, designing.” Hessa
focused on the strength she found from a difficult upbringing, stating: “Maybe I was a leader before that
[program]. I have been by myself, I consider myself raising myself by myself, and nobody raised me. … So I am
an independent person … When [I] face a problem I have to solve it.”
Despite their high degree of confidence and status from being in the program, several of the participants
referenced the difficulty of becoming an educational leader after experiencing rote, traditional schooling and
authoritarian leadership role models.
Experiences as a Student and as a Teacher
All of the participants attended government schools in Abu Dhabi and all echoed the sentiment of Mariam,
who said, “My education … was a kind of traditional teaching so it was based on memorizing the text books,
only the text book. …just memorizing, memorizing, memorizing. …There was no enjoyment…It was boring; it
was boring.”
Three out of four participants shared that they had a complete lack of interest in entering the education field,
initially. Only one participant attributed her career choice to personal agency. Fatima said, “I became a teacher
to be honest, something… it’s related to our culture because our family has always direct us to become teachers
because they think we will work in a safe place with all females, yes, so this is only, was the reason in that
time.”
Despite their initial reluctance to join the profession, all three women described themselves as dedicated
teachers. The one participant who joined teaching out of a personal desire to do so, Mariam, described her early
feelings about teaching stating, “When I was little I gathered my brothers and my sisters and our neighbors and I
teach them […] I like to teach how to write and read. I loved the core of teaching, I loved that.”
Three out of four participants referenced experiencing very traditional school leaders, as teachers. Hessa and
Khawla echoed statements made by Fatima, who said that as a teacher, she had “no interaction with
administration unless we have meeting, unless we have something that we have to hand it to them.… But
working with them as a member of their team, no I didn’t have the chance to do that.” Only Mariam described
teaching in a school with a more distributed leadership style.
Three of four participants expressed a lack of understanding about ADEC reforms and the New School
model, before entering the leadership development program. Khawla, who was also a Cycle 2 teacher, said, “I
had no clue about … the New School model … it was the traditional way of teaching, of teaching and the
administration.” Despite the authoritarian leadership faced by the participants and a lack of specific knowledge
about NSM by most, they all identified themselves as leaders within their classroom and expressed pride in their
use of updated educational techniques.
All four participants participated in the PPP program, as teachers. Fatima said, “Already I had this
information [from PD during the PPP program] … I know all these theories but I need them to help me in
applying these theories in my classrooms so I had a lot of concerns during that time.” Both Khawla and Hessa
had strong negative feelings about the PPP program. Expressing great frustration, Hessa said:
They used to force us to teach certain materials while these materials were not proper for the age that I
used to teach.… They demoted my evaluation and they tried to press on me a lot and I was about to
quit teaching. … I am against [those companies] totally.
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