Teacher professional development in public and private school: A comparative study

• In Event: Teachers’ sustainable professional development

Proposal

Many researchers explored educational opportunities and challenges during COVID-19 (Chaaban et al., 2021; Crompton et al., 2021; Hargreaves & Fullan, 2020; Harris & Jones, 2020). However, there is dearth in studies related to private schools’ teachers during the pandemic especially in the Middle East and North Africa (Chaaban et al., 2021). This qualitative study compares between teacher leadership for learning in public and private schools to explore to what extent teachers were supported during before and during COVID-19. Six school leaders and 16 teachers working in primary public and private schools in Qatar following ecological framework. Although Qatar is very wealthy country, results showed that teachers in most private schools did not have professional development opportunities which affected the students’ performance dramatically. Ministry of education provided intensive training for public school only. In addition, school leaders in 2 private schools mentioned the impact of lack of resources on teachers and students’ performance. Interestingly, results showed that school leaders and teachers need to review their use of data and how to provide equitable opportunities for teachers and students. This study helps researchers and practitioners to identify main areas for future research and school improvement.

Author

• Rania Sawalhi, Eduenterprise