Examining The Roles of Head Teachers of Community Schools in Kathmandu DISTRICT: An Exploratory Factor Analysis.

Abstract

Head Teachers are the academic and administrative heads and the leaders of the schools. As academic leaders, they engage themselves mainly in instructional roles whereas as administrative heads, they are focused on the overall managerial activities of the schools. The role of the head teacher as a leader is not just associated with the successful operation of the school but also with the academic achievement/ performance of students. Head teachers are engaged in a plethora of activities to achieve the mission of the schools. This study seeks to explore the roles of school head teachers of Kathmandu district, examine the nature and extent of their engagement in such roles and also explores how such engagements differentiate in terms of gender, experience, and number of students in school. The study prepared the questionnaire on the engagement of school head teachers in various roles using Delphi method. A cross-sectional survey method was used to collect the data from 170 school head teachers from community schools of Kathmandu district. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) as a statistical tool was used in order to determine the underlying dimension that defined the role of school head teachers in the study site. In line with various educational leadership theories, the study identified five key roles of head terachers in the Nepali context: instructional role, administrative role, monitoring role, internal relation role, and external relation role. Interestingly, the study identified monitoring as a specific dimension, which is often embedded within the administrative role of a school head teacher. It can be argued that head teachers found themselves stretched along these major roles. As the literatures suggest, head teachers' engagement in various roles has the potential to impact student achievement. This study argues that there is a need to rethink on the role of school head teachers which is usually taken as 'administrators' in the Nepalese school context. Further, the study revealed that female head teachers were more engaged in instructional roles whereas male head teachers were more engaged in administrative and external relations roles. The findings of the study revealed that while the education regulations considered school head teachers as the ‘administrative head’ of the school, head teachers found other roles also meaningful to them including instructional role, internal relations role, and external relations role as well. Further, the results from factor analysis could not establish the professional self-development role as a significant dimension in the Nepali school leadership context. Functions and duties that were not mentioned in the Education Regulations but were thought to be meaningful by the head teachers in this study were mainly related to instructional roles which included focusing on student learning and by planning academic activities according to the academic goals set by the head teacher and stakeholders for respective schools. School head teachers can be informed of their roles by this study which would help them reflect on their engagement and encourage further necessary change in their roles for the overall improvement of the school.