Abstract
One of the notable educational changes in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) has been the education ministry’s requirement that all schools undertake a process of school improvement planning. This pilot study explores perceptions of a sample of RMI teachers regarding the way this exercise has been undertaken in their schools. The results indicate that school heads’ limited grounding in school improvement planning hampers this valuable undertaking. The processes which schools adopted were incongruent with those suggested in the literature as best planning practices and principles. This calls for more education and training to ensure that school heads are better prepared to lead in effective planning for school improvement. Specifically, what is needed are ways of widening the opportunities for all who have a vested interest in education, especially those at the grassroots level, to contribute to the planning process. Implications of the study are likely to be relevant to other developing jurisdictions within and beyond the Pacific region, in order to ensure better preparation for school heads to embrace and benefit from reforms that stem from elsewhere.
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Lingam, G.I., Dayal, H.C., Lingam, N. (2020). School Leadership Development for Managing Educational Change: The Case of School Improvement Planning. In: Dorovolomo, J., Lingam, G. (eds) Leadership, Community Partnerships and Schools in the Pacific Islands. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6483-3_3
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