The Leadership Behaviors of Principals and Teachers Across Public Schools in Morocco

EasyChair Preprint 9264

Abstract

This thesis investigates the leadership behaviors of principals and teachers across public schools in Morocco. The focus of the study is twofold: the leadership behaviors of principals and teachers, and the structural characteristics of the schools where they function. These two major variables are assigned equal importance, and the goal is identifying how each variable influences and is influenced by the other. Specifically, the study aims at determining (a) the extent to which principals and teachers demonstrate leadership for school-wide improvement, and (b) that to which the structural features of public schools enable or constrain the leadership activity. Based on both the quantitative and qualitative results of the study, the extent of leadership that principals and teachers exhibit across public schools in Morocco is largely weak while the structural characteristics of the schools where they operate severely constrain the leadership practice. The data obtained from the questionnaire survey of 205 teachers and 44 principals from several regions of the country reveal a lack of basic infrastructure, equipment, and decision making authority, large staff shortages, and weak and unproductive relationships between and among principals and teachers. The information gleaned from the interview survey of eight teachers and seven principals from different parts of the country confirm the quantitative results, and bring forth new insights such as the education authorities’ antagonism to school-based leadership and unwillingness to share decision making with actors within schools. To illuminate the different reasons underpinning the lack of leadership across public schools in Morocco, a discussion of the wider context regarding the socioeconomic order in the country and across the globe is conducted.

Keyphrases: educational change, educational leadership, educational policy, school reform

@booklet{EasyChair:9264,
  author    = {Abderrahim Amghar},
  title     = {The Leadership Behaviors of Principals and Teachers Across Public Schools in Morocco},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 9264},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2022}}