oa Female ESL teachers’ perceptions about their roles and professional development needs in Qatar's ‘Education for a New Era’

Research shows that successful educational reform is multi-faceted, requiring rigorous planning and investment in teacher professional development.

The focus of this study is female ESL teachers in Qatar's public school educational reform, Education for a New Era, which created 36 publicly funded Independent Schools with a standards-based curriculum using English as a Second Language as the medium of instruction in mathematics and science. The research investigated the perceptions of female ESL teachers regarding Qatar's reforms and their experiences using new approaches to teaching ESL. Professional development needs were also identified.

A mixed method approach was used. A questionnaire was distributed to 233 female ESL teachers and 18 semi-structured interviews conducted. Generally, teachers valued increased freedom, but expressed a lack of support, and noted increased workloads and conflicts between professional roles and private lives. Change facilitators were seen as supportive. Views about school administrators varied.

After analysis and presentation of the findings, I concluded that while educational reform in Qatar had been largely conceptualized from the top down, close attention is still needed regarding the role of female ESL teachers in the process of implementation. In particular, since reform is dependent upon sustained professional development for ESL teachers.