Differences between the perspectives of school administrators and perspectives of

The results of the survey questionnaire illustrated that there were no differences between the views of citizens and expatriate school administrators in relation to the extent to which schoolteachers should be involved in making educational decisions related to schools’ educational goals and policies, schools’ curriculum and instruction, schools’ administrative policies for teachers, and schools’ administrative policies for students.

However, expatriate schoolteachers indicated that teachers should be more involved in making decisions related to schools’ educational goals and policies, schools’ curriculum, and schools’ administrative policies for teachers than citizen

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schoolteachers because they suggested that expatriate schoolteachers need to prove themselves and feel satisfied about their work atmosphere so they would not mind having more responsibilities. In addition, some expatriate teachers might be more accustomed to different leaderships styles than those experienced in the Independent Schools. Thus, expatriate teachers supported the development of leadership that enhances participatory decision-making within the school and among people and that encourages them to lead and cooperate in order to contribute to the improvement of their school and the whole community. On the contrary, citizen teachers understand that policymakers propose most educational decisions and are more accepting that the role of all schools is to accept and implement the decisions.

In the current study, some school administrators commented during the interviews on the differences between the opinions of the citizen and expatriate schoolteachers about the degree to which schoolteachers should be involved in making educational decisions. They highlighted the fact that the number of citizen schoolteachers is less than the number of expatriate schoolteachers in schools and that citizen and expatriate schoolteachers have different criteria related to their hiring and promotion policies. In addition, some citizen teachers have more significant positions than expatriate teachers as all principals of Independent Schools must be citizens, with a background in education, in order to gain policy influence. The SEC usually provides professional development to these citizens to enable them to carry out their duties according to the specified principles and policies. Other citizen teachers have more prominent roles, such as participating in most meetings organized by the school administration and the SEC to discuss educational issues and make educational decisions. Therefore, it may be that expatriate teachers would

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like a larger role in the decision-making because these decisions could possibly have an impact on their retention, contracts, and job security. One school administrator stated that expatriate teachers would like to be more involved in making educational decisions to prove themselves in their jobs and to keep their contracts for a longer time than citizen teachers who do not have such concern regarding their job security.

It is worth noting here that one of the most important goals for the “Education for a New Era” reform was to promote an autonomous approach in Independent Schools in hiring, recruiting, and retaining schoolteachers where school principals and schoolteachers in the past system were assigned to their positions by the Ministry of Education. However, the population of Qatari nationals is small (278,000) representing a mere 12 per cent of the total population in Qatar (Snoj, 2014). This makes it difficult to provide the human capital needed for the educational reform. As a result of the 2003 Iraq War that forced many expatriates to leave their jobs in Qatar returning to their home countries, the government initiated the Qatarization to decrease dependence on foreign labour (Al-Subaiey, 2010). The program is designed to provide employment for Qatari male and female citizens by replacing expatriates in critical positions in the private and public sectors. The government’s main objective is that at least 20 per cent of employees in all sectors should be Qatari and that “a vacant position must be offered first to a Qatari national and, if it cannot be filled by a Qatari national, then to a non-Qatari Arab, followed by a non-Arab foreigner” (Winckler, 2000, p.24). The Qatarization program also favoured citizens in terms of their benefits and salaries in order to encourage them to seek education and increase capacity, especially, in the teaching profession.

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One of the challenges faced by Independent Schools was the perception of some citizen teachers towards the working conditions and demanding work in these schools compared with the past Ministry schools. The school year, which is divided into two teaching semesters of 17 weeks each, begins in September and ends in mid-July. Teachers attend school for more than seven hours per day, are required to engage in several professional development activities after school, and to be experts in using educational technology. These teachers are also required to deal with students’ different learning abilities, engage in curriculum planning, keeping informed about new teaching strategies, working with curriculum and professional standards, additional paperwork created by the educational reform and a need to focus on meeting the learning needs of individual students unlike teaching in the past in Ministry schools (Romanowski, 2015).

Al-Subaiey (2010) describes Qatarization as “quantity Qatarization” instead of “quality Qatarization.” This means that some citizen schoolteachers are placed into various positions yet they might be unqualified. However, there is a large number of expatriate teachers who have the qualifications and are able to meet the needs and requirements of Independent Schools, yet they receive considerably lower average salaries than teachers who are Qatari citizens.

Al-Obaidli’s study (2010) revealed that expatriate teachers have concerns regarding a lack of job security and the effect of Qatarization on their job permanency in Independent Schools. Expatriate teachers are sponsored employees who could lose their sponsorship and be deported; their employers are thus in a powerful position over their employees. This often creates a tension between citizens and expatriate teachers and also creates a system where citizen teachers and

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administrators have all the power. This system clearly impacts how expatriate teachers express their voice on many issues and would seem to impact on the degree to which they think they should be involved in making decisions and how they may respond to any change for decision-making.

This could create a situation where a transactional leadership style emerges and teachers agree with the administrators in return rewards, resources or the avoidance of negative consequences (Bass, et. al., 2003). The situation that occurs in the Independent Schools is where expatriate teachers are willing to engage in school and support reforms and the principals for additional benefits (supplemental pay), job security or other benefits.