Theme Three: School offers learning for all

Headteachers

All of the participants claim that their school is a place where everyone is a learner. The school “… has a culture that promotes learning at all levels, from headteacher to support staff everyone is a learner” (Headteacher Private School 3), and they “like to learn from their mistakes” (Headteacher Private School 2).

“Over the last fifteen years, I have realised that unless we as teachers and headteachers be willing from inside to understand that there is so much to learn, every school may become an „old‟ school - our younger generation may consider it obsolete”. (Headteacher Private School 2).

All headteachers of the public schools also agreed that school was not a place of learning only for students. Headteachers and teachers “should” be engaged in the process of learning throughout. These headteachers appreciated the government arranging training programmes for the teachers and school heads. However, they also shared that most of the contents were

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about the practices that they “already are doing” and “already know it”. School-based training, reflective practitioners or the concept of learning organization seemed to be unknown to them. Contrary to this, headteachers of the private schools talked about “monitoring and evaluation” (Headteacher Private School 1), “quality assurance” (Headteacher Private School 2) and “INSET” (Headteacher Private School 3) as regular practice. 2/3 headteachers of the private schools also mention the rewards and benefits offered to the teachers for enhancing their qualifications. Headteachers‟ ability to keep staff motivated through appreciation of any initiative they take to improve learning outcomes is considered important by the majority of the headteachers. They consider that “challenging” existing practices and providing “support” to experiment new things in classrooms make schools a learning place for all. The data, however, reflects that the concept of headteachers‟ professional development and reflective sessions is not a common practice, particularly in public schools. The school calendars mention different meetings where headteachers have to attend, but on investigation it was informed that these meetings are to share certain changes planned at the senior level in the government offices or in the head office of the private schools. However, private school headteachers appreciate that the policy makers do take their recommendations into consideration. Two of the private school calendars also mentioned „Heads‟ Conference‟. The headteachers appreciated such initiatives that provided them a platform to share and learn from each other.

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Teachers

Majority of the teachers (18/30) talked only about learning opportunities for students in the schools. However, the majority of the teachers from the private schools (11/15) also appreciated the way school encourages learning at teachers‟ and students‟ level. This learning takes place through “… formal and planned courses” (T 18 Private School 1), or through “daily experiences” (T 22 Private School 2), through “discussion with fellow teachers who help as critical friends” (T 27 Private School 3) or through “reflective practice” (T 26 Private School 3). Headteachers‟ ability to create this environment with a “no blame culture”, “proper acknowledgement in form of appreciation letters” is considered one of the main factors by the majority of these teachers. When a school has this learning environment, “learning takes place in and out of classrooms, in curricular, extracurricular and co- curricular activities” (T 24 Private School 2).

Public school teachers who talk about the learning experience in terms of learning for students mostly evaluate the learning outcome in terms of examination results. They consider it important that most of the learning activity is linked with the exam results. To enable students to get good results in exams, teachers must have up-to-date knowledge (T 9 Public School 2, T 13 Public School 3).

“Teachers show commitment towards their profession and work with their students to improve their grades, meanwhile learning themselves too, an atmosphere of mutual learning is created”. (T 11 Public School 3).

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Interestingly none of the participants mentioned any formal learning activity for the headteachers in their school. However, the majority of the private school teachers (9/15) and few of the public school teachers (5/15) acknowledged the role of headteachers to promote and create an environment of learning for all of the students and teachers. Teachers‟ lesson plans in all three private schools have a space to evaluate the lesson at the end of the class. However, one of the participants says:

“The lesson should be evaluated right after the delivery of the contents, but teachers have to run from one class to other, and additional workload to substitute teachers on leave is also given. Then copy checking and different type of paper work ... sometimes I feel guilty, am I doing justice with my real role?” (T 19 Private School 1).

School calendar and logbook, newsletter and calendars indicate spaces for „curriculum review meetings‟, „subject co-ordination meetings‟ (Private Schools 1 and 3). There is deficient evidence in the public schools of any such activities.

Parents and Students

There are no findings directly linked to this area at this part of the questionnaire, however, relevant and important information arises from questions 2 and 3 of the questionnaire. 55% of the students and 48% of the parents from public schools disagree that teachers try out new things to improve learning outcomes in schools. 55% of the students and 49% of the parents from the public schools disagree that teachers or headteachers like to know and develop

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learning and leadership skills among students. Whereas 54% of the students from the private schools agree that teachers and headteachers are keen to discuss how to make learning outcomes better. Parents from the private school have a different opinion and 43% disagree here. The documentary analysis, school log books, calendars have very little evidence of any such activity in all three public schools other than results days when parents can come to collect reports. In the private schools, all three schools have parent teacher meetings scheduled in calendars. However, these meetings are more examination result oriented. Two of the private schools have seminars for parents and students on career counselling and subject choices. One of the private schools has a monthly school newsletter, which gives up to date information on different initiatives and relevant activities.