Priority Area Two
Strengthening the quality of front-line education provision
Introduction
What works to strengthen the quality of front-line education provision through building teacher and school system capacities?
The research in this priority area focuses on strengthening the quality of front-line education provision, both at the local and the policy systems levels, through improving teaching effectiveness, teacher management systems, and school leadership. It focuses on research aimed at identifying what works to improve teacher effectiveness for all children in Pakistan, especially in multi-grade and multilingual settings, whether and how strategies to support teacher well-being can improve teaching effectiveness and student outcomes, and how adaptive school leadership can respond to disruptive events.
Sub Themes
Improving teaching effectiveness in diverse educational contexts of Pakistan
The research under this sub-theme explores the interventions and approaches that can improve teaching effectiveness in the varied marginalised contexts within Pakistan. The topics range from specific pedagogical to other innovative approaches and strategies aimed at improving student learning. The specific considerations may include, but are not limited to, the challenges and benefits of teaching in a multilingual context, in a multigrade setup, with SLO-based practices, in diverse educational settings.
Improving teacher workforce quality
This research under this sub-theme aims to investigate the efficacy of various teacher management and professional development policies and practices in Pakistan’s education system and explore their implications for teacher education, motivation, accountability, and pedagogical quality. It encompasses aspects such as teacher training modalities, transfers, rationalisation, motivation, and accountability mechanisms.
The sub-themes also explores teachers’ performance management practices, including the annual appraisal system and promotion criteria and aims to study their effect on teacher performance and student learning outcomes. It also includes a focus on teacher professional development, with research aiming to collate/identify/evaluate or examine what has worked to improve teaching effectiveness and student outcomes.
Improve quality of education through supporting school leadership
The research conducted under this sub-theme specifically focuses in identifying key reforms focused on school leaders that have potentially led to improvements in autonomy and performance (e.g. enrolment, attendance, participation, teaching and student learning outcomes). Research will focus on the effects of policies such as the designation of head teacher posts and the provision of greater autonomy to school leaders with an aim to identify practical strategies to optimise the performance of school leaders in terms of higher teacher motivation and improved student learning outcomes
It will also examine the relationship, between effective school leadership and school, teacher and student level outcomes, to identify ‘what works’. Importantly, research focuses on the role of adaptive school leadership in developing student resilience in times of crises and when faced with disruptive events (e.g. floods, natural disasters etc.).
