Cultural, Political and Economic Hegemony of the Developed Countries

The underpinning values and beliefs of the popular western theories are hardly examined by the 'followers' or 'consumers' of the knowledge. Researchers in the developing world need to be cautious to become advocates of such models and theories.

Leadership in Pakistani Schools: Rhetoric Vs Reality

School leadership research in the developing countries such as Pakistan is influenced by the rhetoric about leadership theories, models and practices that are developed, tested and promoted in the developed countries such as North America, Canada and UK.
A study conducted in the context of Pakistan aimed to identify the differences in the leadership practices in two worlds (developing and the developed); revealed several tensions and delimmas due to transplantation of popular leadership theories in Pakistan's context.
Despite the pledge of the government of Pakistan to provide more facilities in state owned schools, the evidence gathered from a study conducted in the urban city of Lahore suggested that public schools are struggling hard to maintain the ‘status quo’. Headteachers appeared to be familiar with the rhetoric about educational leadership and ‘best practices’, but their notions of ‘best practices’ are grounded in their own ways of professional maturity and influenced by their religious/ moral beliefs. The study reports the data gathered over the period of three years at one-year interval; during which there was a shift from military to democratic rule in the country, but the conditions of school appear to had shown no signs of improvement. A comparison of educational practices was conducted which revealed that the gap between promise and practice reduces from public to private schooling. Headteachers were found to have attained no formal headship qualifications and no systems were found to address the issue. The one-off workshops offered during the summer vacations appear to be insufficient for sustainable leadership development and improved headteachers’ practices.
of many recommendations, it is suggested that a national debate for the development of headteachers’ qualification is needed, followed by comprehensive training of headteachers of the public schools to bridge the gap between ‘promise’ and ‘practice’.