oa Assessing the contribution of principal instructional leadership and collective teacher efficacy to teacher commitment in Oman

The past decade has witnessed dramatic change in the direction of education in the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). During this period, national leaders in this region accepted that the long-term economic growth of their societies required diversification beyond oil and movement towards the development of knowledge-based economies This recognition resulted in renewed investment in education in concert with the adoption of reforms that have sought to reshape the aims, structure, and content of their education systems One consequence of these policy-driven reforms undertaken by the GCC States has been an unprecedented focus on the ‘leadership’ role of school administrators This trend has been notable, for example, in Oman where educational reforms have resulted in new expectations for school principals Whereas Omani school principals previously functioned primarily as ‘administrators’, recent reforms have recast them as ‘leaders of learning and change’ This reorientation from ‘administration’ towards ‘leadership’ is reflected in the redefinition of the principal»s role the content of training programs and on-the-job practices. Scholars in Oman have sought to document and analyze the nature and effects of this redefinition of the principalship in studies of instructional leadership, transformational leadership, servant leadership, and distributed leadership The study reported in this article focused on the ‘instructional leadership’ of primary school principals in Oman. The article was published in the Teaching and Teacher Education Journal (IF, 2.1). The study results showed that: Relationship of principal leadership and teacher commitment partially mediated by teacher efficacy. Strongest effects of principal instructional leadership through collective teacher efficacy. Confirmed importance of principal instructional leadership in Oman during era of education reform.