The Fourth Major Theme: Support

The fourth major theme to be presented is that of ‘support’. Many of the responses were associated with this theme. This theme includes sub-themes which reflect blame regarding a lack of support. The head teachers’ responses to this theme indicate the extent to which they receive support, encouragement and assistance from supervisors to satisfy their ongoing professional learning, development and support needs on the one hand and to develop their administrative skills on the other, and the sub-themes include ‘initial support’, ‘not supported’, ‘lack of standards for supervisors’, ‘insufficient support’ and ‘don’t ask supervisors’ as shown in Figure (23) below.

Figure 23 The sub-themes of the fourth theme: Support

The overall view concerning the major theme of support was that the school head teachers were not adequately supported. In their own voices the head teachers expressed their views and claimed that their professional learning, support and development needs were not met by the supervisors, that the supervisor’s role is more that of an inspector than that of a developer of their skills, and that there is no specific standard for supervisors to follow in supporting them. In other words, some supervisors when they visit a school will say the school is excellent and the head teacher’s administrative skills are successful, while others might claim the opposite is the case for the same head. According to the head teachers, this is the direct result of the absence of any set standard for supervisors to follow, which in turn affects the amount of support the head teachers receive. In addition, the discrepancies between

the head teacher’s job and that of the supervisors mean that it is difficult for them to communicate effectively. Thus the supervisors are unable accurately to identify the head teachers’ development needs and then to find appropriate development courses for them, and this is one of the ‘barriers’ to development mentioned under the third major theme discussed above.

Within this major theme, the sub-theme ‘not supported’, which relates to the amount of support and mentoring they receive from supervisors, was referred to highly negatively.

The problem was that nobody visited me after I had completed the programme, and nobody supported, advised or encouraged me when I was in the head’s chair. (Head teacher 10)

I ordered a computer two months ago for my deputy to write reports, and up until now we have not received it. Imagine what it’s like with my deputy not having a computer, so whenever he wants to write anything, he has to come to my office and do it on my computer! How can heads develop under these kinds of conditions? (Head teacher 11)

The theme of ‘support’ may be linked to the conflicting directives the heads receive from the supervisors. The head teachers who participated in this study stated that supervisors are appointed on the basis of their experience or because they are acquainted with someone in authority, and not on the basis of their having had any particular qualification:

Sometimes the head who has not gone on any developmental programmes is promoted to work as a supervisor because he knows somebody at the Education Administration Centre, and he is benefiting from favouritism. (Head teacher 10)

When the supervisors first came to my school, they tried to help me develop, but the problem was that they just made a few comments and they wouldn’t tell me how to sort out the problems. So I asked my colleagues and my deputy to help me

because I had never taken part in any training programme. (Head teacher 12)

The sub-theme of the ‘centre in Jeddah city develops heads’ was found to be a crucial factor in terms of developing heads professionally and fulfilling their professional learning and development needs. Thus, the heads talked about the amount of support they needed from the educational administration centre in Jeddah and also mentioned that a gap exists between the supervisors who visit the schools and the training centre. According to the heads, the fact that they do not receive the support they need from the supervisors might be because the supervisors themselves are not adequately supported by the Ministry of Education:

Sometimes you want to apply for useful things at your school to develop teachers and students, you will encounter a lot of obstacles from the Education Administration Centre and they will say you are not allowed to do that at your school. (Head teacher16)

Fulfilling ‘ongoing needs’ is another theme developed to identify the extent to which school head teachers receive sufficient support in terms of satisfying their current development needs and developing their administrative skills. The heads said the amount of support they have received for certain learning and support needs differs from supervisor to supervisor because there is no standard for the supervisor’s job. They said supervisors only transfer their own experiences, and this is linked to the sub-theme of ‘lack of standards for supervisors’ discussed above.

I don’t think my ongoing needs are fulfilled. I think the supervisor’s role aim when he comes is to see how the daily work is going. This aim means we focus more on how tidy we can make our schools look. Then, if we have ongoing needs, in many cases, these are not fulfilled because that will open the door for further inspection. (Head teacher 13)

The head teachers try to avoid contacting the supervisors because on the one hand they believe the supervisors are too busy and on the other hand they want to avoid an inspection. While conducting this research I was visiting one of the head teachers and happened to meet one of the educational supervisors by chance. This supervisor only

asked the head about the students’ achievements and did not enquire about his professional learning, development and support needs or about any obstacles he might be facing. The supervisor wanted to see the students’ homework without going to the classroom and asked the deputy to bring some of the students’ books. This is exactly what used to happen when I was a pupil at primary school twenty years ago. Hence, there has been no development in supervision styles:

We heads have a common concept among us, which is ‘try to solve problems at school by yourselves and don’t send us anything unless you have a big problem’. (Head teacher 11)

I receive more support and development from my colleagues [heads] than from official supervisors. (Head teacher 12)

The overall picture that was obtained of this theme is that there is a lack of support in terms of fulfilling perceived learning, development and support needs. Furthermore, this theme overlaps with the themes discussed above in terms of the link between the challenges to head teachers’ development and the ‘barrier’ of the lack of support they receive from supervisors.

5.4.5 The Fifth Major Theme: Professional learning, Development and Support