Education for all vs. education for each - a case study

Albanian Journal of Educational Studies

Volume 1 Number 1 2013

This Journal is registered at the ISSN International Centre,45 rue de Turbigo, 75003 Paris, FRANCE

Web site: www.issn.org

ISSN: 2309-2769Title: Albanian Journal of Educational Studies

© Graduate School of Education & Centre for Democratic Education, Tirana, Albania, 2013

AJES JournalAims & ScopeThe AJES Journal is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal which aims to publish original empirical and theoretical studies from a wide variety of disciplines related to Teacher Education and in particular Educational Sciences. Its main focus is the Albanian context, in close connection with globalization issues, especially the European dimension in education. The journal comes out twice a year.

About the PublisherThe Center for Democratic Education (CDE), established in 2001 (www.cde.edu.al) and the Graduate School of Education (GSE), established in 2009 (http://shle.cde.edu.al) are dedicated to pre- and in-service Teacher Education. CDE plays a leading role in Albania and makes its contribution to education in Kosovo and Macedonia. With the variety of Master Degree and teacher certification courses it offers and the professional development activities it organizes, including conferences, workshops, forums etc., the CDE has earned a key place in the collaborative network of higher education institutions and professional bodies in areas such as teaching, educational leadership, education policy and research.

Publications in support of professional development area consolidated aspect of CDE’s activity. To date, numerous books and other publications have appeared in Albanian, many of them translated from the English language.

Both CDE and GSE have established a number of contacts in the region, as well as with interested partners in the EU and throughout the world.

Qëllimi dhe objektiRevista Shqiptare e Studimeve Arsimore është një revistë e hapur dhe me bord editorial. Ajo boton studime teorike dhe empirike nga disiplina të ndryshme, që lidhen me formimin e mësuesve, në mënyrë të veçantë Shkencat e Edukimit. Konteksti shqiptar është objekti i saj kryesor, por i lidhur ngushtë me çështje të globalizimit, në mënyrë të veçantë me dimensionin europian në edukim. Në një vit botohen dy numra.

Diçka për botuesinQendra për Arsim Demokratik, e themeluar në vitin 2001 (www.cde.edu.al), dhe Shkolla e Lartë e Edukimit, e themeluar në vitin 2009 (http://shle.cde.edu.al), janë të përkushtuara në formimin e mësuesve, përgatitjes fillestare dhe në shërbim. CDE ka një rol udhëheqës në Shqipëri, me kontribute në Kosovë dhe Maqedoni.

CDE me programe të shumtë master, kurse çertifikuese dhe veprimtari të tjera për zhvillim profesional të tillë si: konferenca, seminare, forume etj. ka zënë një vend kryesor në bashkëpunimin me institucionet e arsimit të lartë, organizmat profesionale në mësimdhënie, lidership arsimor, politikë arsimore dhe hulumtim.

Botimi është një nga veprimtaritë më të konsoliduara të Qendrës për Arsim Demokratik, që mbështet zhvillimin profesional. Deri më tani janë botuar libra dhe materiale të shumta në gjuhën shqipe, mjaft prej tyre të përkthyera nga gjuha angleze.

CDE dhe SHLE kanë vendosur kontakte të shumta në rajon dhe me palët e interesuara në vendet e BE-së e në mbarë botën.

CONTENTSPëRMBAJTJA

Bardhyl MUSAI ......................................................................................................Editorial

Emine SADIKU-TEICHMANN & Gladiola POPA .........................................Grammar in Teaching Albanian as a Foreign Language: Concepts, Presentations, AnalysisGramatika e shqipes si gjuhë e huaj - koncepte, përshkrime, analiza

Osman BULESHKAJ .............................................................................................Building School Leadership Capacity in Post - Conflict KosovoNdërtimi i kapaciteteve për lidershipin shkollor në Kosovën e pasluftës

Brikena XHAFERI.................................................................................................Assessment in Higher Education - A study conducted at SEEUVlerësimi në arsimin e lartë-studim i ndërmarrë në UEJL

Gerda SULA............................................................................................................Education for all vs. Education for each - a case studyEdukimi për të gjithë ndaj edukimit për çdo individ - rast studimor

Eda VULA & Teuta DANUZA.............................................................................The perception of School Principals in Kosovo regarding ParentalInvolvement in School GovernancePerceptimi i drejtuesve të shkollave në Kosovë për përfshirjen e prindërve në qeverisjen e shkollës

Albana BUSHATI ..................................................................................................Methods of Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness Metoda për vlerësimin e efektivitetit të mësuesve

Book Reviews.........................................................................................................

Conferences and events........................................................................................

4

6

22

44

56

70

86

106

110

Albanian Journal of Educational Studies 4

EDitoriAlOver many years, in my discussions with colleagues, professors, teachers, school principals and policy makers, a question would invariably be put to me: Why don’t you try publishing an education journal? When I tried to change the subject, they would insist and remind me of a previous experience from years ago, about 12 to 15 years back, when I published Mprehtësi (Sharpness of mind), an education journal that was the by-product of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking project. The journal was welcomed by university professors at teacher education faculties, policy makers and school teachers alike. The articles published were of very good quality, treating a wide variety of interesting topics, and the publication quality was excellent, close to international standards. Ten issues of the journal were published and then the publication ceased. The reasons for this were multiple, but as anyone would probably guess, the main reason was the drying up of our financial resources.

In the course of the years, The Center for Democratic Education has built up a rich experience in quality publications and we are the only one in the region to have a complete set of publications aimed at professional development in the field of education, extensively used by teachers, students, principals, policy makers and university teachers. With our forty published titles and counting (many new titles are in the pipeline or in our plans) we have legitimate reason to be proud. Our education system, as any other education system elsewhere in the world, has a need for such publications and we are doing our bit to meet that need.

All this work has prepared the ground for finally providing a positive response to my colleagues and collaborators in relation to a much needed education journal. The time has finally come and, following over six months of hard work and dedication, we now are able to present the first issue of the Albanian Journal of Educational Studies.

The Journal aims to address a wide variety of educational issues concerning pre- and in-service teacher training for Albanian teachers, in the European and global context. Our education system is going through rapid transformations due to the democratization of the whole society, European integration processes and fast changes in technology. It is our hope that this Journal will serve as a forum for all researchers, policy makers and practitioners in Albania and elsewhere. As editor-in-chief, I would like to thank all my colleagues whom I approached to become members of either the Albanian or the International Board and who accepted the invitation and promised to make their contribution to the AJES. This is a guarantee of our future success and, needless to say, greatly appreciated.

The six articles appearing in this issue have been written by eight authors, from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Germany. The first article, Grammar in Teaching Albanian as a Foreign Language - Concepts, Presentations, Analysis, is authored by Emine TEICHMANN, Bundessprachenamt, Selten gelehrte Sprachen (Albanisch), Hürth, Germany & visiting fellow

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at the University of Elbasan, and Gladiola POPA, PhD Candidate, University of Elbasan. The authors address key research issues in the field of foreign language teaching, more specifically the role and place of grammar in foreign language teaching and learning, which remains a debatable topic in the FLT community both at a national and international level.

The second article, Building School Leadership Capacity in Post-Conflict Kosovo is written by Osman BULESHKAJ, a PhD Student at the University of Calgary, Canada, who works in Prishtina. This article is part of a broader study addressing five main areas, each containing a number of sub-topics: Experience as the basis for selection, open interviews vs. ‘interviews for interview’s sakes’, demand-driven professional development, collaboration as key to effective school leadership, and perception of future change are analyzed and comparisons are made between three different international jurisdictions.

The next author is Brikena XHAFERI, Faculty of Languages, Cultures and Communications at SEEU Tetovo, Macedonia, with her article, Assessment in Higher Education: A Study Conducted at SEEU. The article focuses on the issue of assessment as an integral part of teaching in Higher Education in Tetovo, Macedonia. It describes various methods of gathering information about students’ knowledge, ability and understanding, including student projects, quizzes, reflections, coursework portfolios, research papers, classroom presentations, tests, etc.

The fourth article, Education for All vs. Education for each a Case Study, written by Gerda SULA currently a PhD student at the University of Geneva. Education for social justice, a professional learning program aiming at reducing disparities in the teachers’ teaching, mainly due to biases and negative prejudices about children, is the focus of this paper. Two authors from Kosovo, Eda VULA, Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. at the Faculty of Education, University of Prishtina and Teuta DANUZA, M.Sc., National Qualifications Authority, Prishtina, have written the article, The Perception of School Principals in Kosovo regarding Parental Involvement in School Governance. The study is based on a survey on the perceptions of school principals and aims to assess the level of parental involvement in school governance and the effect of parent-school communication on parental involvement in decision-making at the school level.

Methods of Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness is the sixth article, written byAlbana BUSHATI, Head teacher at the “28 Nëntori” Secondary School in Shkodër and a graduated student of the Graduate School of Education (SHLE). The study analyzes methods of evaluating teacher effectiveness and teacher performance in secondary schools in the city of Shkodër. The study concludes that evaluation and feedback that is constructive and fair helps teachers develop professionally.

Bardhyl MUSAiEditor - in - Chief


Grammar in teaching Albanian as a Foreign language Concepts, Presentations, Analysis

Emine SADIKU-TEICHMANN Bundessprachenamt, Selten gelehrte Sprachen (Albanisch), Hürth, Germany & visiting fellow at University of Elbasan

Gladiola POPA University of Elbasan

ABSTRACT

This paper dwells on one of the central issues of research studies in the field of foreign language teaching. Currently, this discipline has carved out its own boundaries and a clear object for itself to research and study. However, the role and place of grammar in foreign language teaching and learning still remains one of the controversial topics under its purview, both at a national and international level. Since the triumphant march of pragmatics into linguistics, a kind of disregard or belittlement of grammar’s importance in literary creations or foreign language learning has been noted. Grammar, in the sense of the system of morphological and syntactic rules, is counterbalanced by the theory of language usage, the formation of learners’ skills to speak in different styles. These theories have pushed grammar to the margins of language learning. The clash between these two fronts lasted for decades. Today, a balance seems to have been achieved: Grammar in foreign language learning is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve the end. Our paper is concerned with the concept and role of grammar as an irreplaceable component in foreign language learning. Ten years after the death of one of the most successful authors in the field of foreign language grammar, H. Kleineidam, his colleagues held a commemorative conference. The papers and contributions to this conference were put together to form a very interesting publication with the self-explanatory title (which might as well have been the title of our paper): Grammatica vivat! (Long live grammar!) (Barrera-Vidal, A. / Raupach, M. / Zögfen, E. (Hrsg): Grammatica vivat, Gunter Narre Verlag Tübingen, 1992).

Keywords: grammar; linguistics; didactics; foreign language grammar; pragmatics; grammar of the parts of speech and sentence grammar; communicative grammar; text grammar, etc.


Gramatika e shqipes si gjuhë e huajKoncepte, përshkrime, analiza

Emine SADIKU-TEICHMANN Institucioni shtetëror gjuhësor Bundessprachenamt, Selten gelehrte Sprachen (Albanisch), Hürth, Germany & Universiteti i Elbasanit

Gladiola POPA Universiteti i Elbasanit

ABSTRAKT

Punimi ka për objekt një nga çështjet qendrore të studimeve e kërkimeve në fushën e mësimit të gjuhës së huaj. Kjo disiplinë paraqitet sot me kufij, çështje e problematikë të përcaktuar. Në rrethin e problemeve ende të diskutueshme të saj, në plan kombëtar dhe ndërkombëtar, është dhe roli e vendi i gramatikës në procesin e mësimit të gjuhës së huaj. Që nga koha e marshimit triumfues të pragmatikës në gjuhësi është vënë re një lloj nënvlerësimi, ose një lloj shmangie e minimizim i gramatikës në literaturën e në procesin e mësimit të gjuhës së huaj. Gramatikës, në kuptimin e sistemit, e rregullave morfosintaksore, i kundërvihet teoria mbi përdorimin e gjuhës, mbi formimin e kompetencave folëse të nxënësve në stile të ndryshme, duke e nënrenditur deri në injorim sistemin. Ballafaqimi i këtyre dy fronteve ka zgjatur dhjetra vjet. Sot duket se është arritur një ekuilibër: Gramatika në mësimin e gjuhës së huaj nuk është qëllim, por mjet për të arritur qëllimin. Punimi i kushtohet konceptit dhe rolit të gramatikës, si komponent i pazëvendësueshëm në procesin e mësimit të gjuhës së huaj. Dhjetë vjet pas vdekjes së njërit prej autorëve më të suksesshëm në fushën e gramatikës së gjuhës së huaj, H. Kleineidam, kolegët e tij organizuan një konferencë përkujtimore. Materialet, që u referuan, u botuan në librin tejet interesant, me titullin jashtëzakonisht domethënës (që mund të ishte dhe titull i punimit tonë): Grammatica vivat! (Rroftë gramatika!) (Barrera-Vidal,A./ Raupach, M./ Zögfen, E. (Hrsg): Grammatica vivat, Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen,1992)

Fjalë kyç: gramatikë; gjuhësi; didaktikë; gramatikë e gjuhës së huaj; pragmatikë; gramatikë e pjesëve të ligjëratës dhe e fjalisë; gramatikë komunikative; gramatikë e tekstit

Emine SADIKU-TEICHMANN & Gladiola POPA


introductionInterest by foreigners to learn the Albanian language has been growing and will continue to grow as economic and cultural contacts among nations intensify. Increased contacts and various aspects of human interest propel the bearers of such interests towards learning the Albanian language. These newly created conditions present the linguists with a special challenge: to provide a theoretical and material basis for foreigners to learn Albanian. Albanian as a foreign language is emerging ever more as a new domain and a new discipline in Albanian linguistics. Exploring one’s mother tongue as a foreign language is not the same as exploring it from within its authentic environment. Consequently, linguistic literature on this newly emerging discipline has its own specific features. Perceiving and describing one’s native language as a foreign language is a multifaceted activity. Many elements concurrently come into play in this process: didactic grammar, dictionaries, whole blocks of texts, stylistic and phraseological information, phonetic input, psychological considerations, external linguistics, etc. All of these tools, or at least some of them, work in tandem in foreign language teaching. Our paper will focus on only one aspect of this broad theoretical and practical phenomenon called foreign language teaching and learning. It will only touch upon grammar and its role in this process. The function of grammar and other aids in foreign language teaching is to provide input towards the goal of a successful foreign language mastery.

Grammar in foreign language acquisitionThe role of grammar in foreign language teaching has been long discussed. The last decades have witnessed a tendency (with variable degrees of strength or weakness) to exclude grammar from the process of foreign language teaching and learning, or to give it a minimum role. The trend is due to several factors. We will mention only one of them, which in the authors’ opinion is the most important. This is the pragmatic and communicative significance that has been assigned to language recently. In the 1970s, pragmatic linguistics and the theory of text analysis made their way vigorously into the linguistic thinking, pushing structuralism and generative grammar into the margins. In line with the new trend, textbooks on foreign language teaching/learning were and are still being developed, with grammar appended at the end of thematic units, greatly reduced and presented only telegraphically. Mention can be made of books designed to teach/learn German, French, English (See also: Barrera-Vidal, A. / Raupach, M. /Zögfen, E., p. 11). However, day-to-day practice, teachers’ classroom experiences, as well as researchers’ investigation and experiments in this field have shown that the tendency to belittle grammar

Grammar in Teaching Albanian as a Foreign Language


and/or push it out of the teaching/learning process has not been successful. Rather, it was found that introduction and explanation of grammar rules contributes to an increased awareness of users on the irreplaceable role of grammar as pivotal to language learning. Grammar belongs to those methodological tools which will remain crucial in foreign language teaching/learning.

What is foreign language grammar?The concept of foreign language grammar will be clarified by comparing it with the broader concept of grammar and the more specific concepts of scientific grammar, didactic grammar, school grammar and usage grammar. We will attempt to delineate among these neighboring disciplines, notwithstanding the polysemantic nature of the word grammar (see Besse, H. /Porquier, 1984, chap. I).

Of the many meanings of the term, two will be set apart as the most important and most revealing of its features. These two meanings can be formulated as follows:

1. Grammar is the system of rules in a given language; the observance of these rules allows the members of a linguistic community to communicate among them.

2. Grammar is the explicit description of the inherent laws of a given language. (See also Kleineidam, H., 1996, p. 9)

In the first formulation, grammar is conceived of as an instinctive competence born with the speaker ultimately to become part of his communicative skills. Such a conception, applies in a way to foreign language grammar, too. Only in the latter case, it involves the grammar competence as attained by foreign language learners.

The second formulation refers to the idea of grammar as a collection of statements about the regularities displayed and possibilities provided by a given language. These statements can be intuitive meta-linguistic formulations by individuals with no specialization, or sets of rules for correct language usage designed by specializing linguists and scholars of different trends of thought.

This formulation also clarifies certain aspects of foreign language grammar. The morphological and syntactical descriptions are given in the form of written statements. In this light, the concept of foreign language grammar corresponds to the second meaning of the term grammar. Foreign language grammar, which relies on the systematic presentation of linguistic phenomena, is similar and close to the grammar in the broad and neutral sense of the term. However, foreign language grammar differs from the general term as regards the destination of rules to be transmitted to the learner under certain conditions and circumstances. Grammar, in the broad sense of the word, follows the rules of scientific presentation, such as full and adequate exposition, strong support evidence and absence of contradictions;



whereas foreign language grammar puts these linguistic rules into practice in the concrete teaching/learning process including the socio-psychological conditions of the audiences. Foreign language grammar differs from scientific grammar in several respects, one of the most important being: scientific grammar aims to present the state of knowledge without any regard for purposes of practical use, i.e., negligent of any intention to serve teachers and learners involved in the foreign language teaching/learning process. In this meaning, foreign language grammar is a kind of usage grammar. It follows practical purposes. Scientific grammar is the subject of discussions and exchanges between/among linguists; whereas foreign language grammar is the subject of communication between linguists and the concerned learners (See also: Heringer, HJ / Keller-Bauer, F., 1984, p. 68). Foreign language grammar both resembles and differs from didactic grammar. The latter one deals with linguistic descriptions for teaching and learning purposes strictly. “Given its scope of activity, its relationship to linguistics is blurred.” (Kleineidam, H., 1986, p. 11) On the other hand, foreign language grammar has clear connections with linguistics which are openly and readily visible. The new concept of didactic grammar does away with the negative connotations attributed to school grammar, such as its oversimplified and over condensed nature. Still, its boundaries remain blurry and vague. Foreign language grammar cannot be equated with the didactic grammar, in spite of the shared features. In his analysis of didactic grammar, Zimmerman talks about its widely varied forms. He distinguishes between the grammar contained in foreign language textbooks and stand-alone grammar books. He also makes a distinction between teacher’s grammar and learner’s grammar (See: Zimmerman, G., 1979, p. 96). The authors of this paper have preferred the term foreign language grammar, as Kleineidam does, to distinguish it from other grammars with which it shares similarities and common features. Foreign language grammar also resembles the school grammar; however, the following explain the differences: - A school grammar serves the purposes of both foreign language teaching/learning and native language teaching/learning; whereas foreign language grammar is designed exclusively for foreign language acquisition. -A foreign language grammar is not affected by the negative connotations often associated with school grammars. A Foreign language grammar also differs from textbooks/methods of foreign language teaching/learning. Teaching/learning methods are designed to help the teaching/learning process progressively, from the simplest phenomena to the more complex ones; whereas the foreign language grammar supports the teaching\learning process without any progressive strategy whatsoever. Given its total detachment from the progression of teaching/learning objectives, the foreign language grammars assumes less didactic claims than foreign language textbooks



and methods. In this respect, it is totally inclined to deal with classification criteria and descriptive linguistic processes.

In summary, it can be said that a foreign language grammar is a usage outcome of linguistics, i.e., it involves the consideration of a number of didactic aspects of practical significance which are as important as the linguistic information itself.

Foreign language grammar between linguistics and didacticsThe view that the best linguistic theory is the best didactic theory, too, has long been refuted. Since the time of the emergence of transformative grammar (late 60s and early 70s of the last century) which caused disappointment among scientific researchers in the didactic disciplines, doubt has been lingering when it comes to the indiscriminate embracement of any linguistic theory by foreign language learning. There is no congruence between the study objectives in the fields of linguistics and the didactics of any foreign language. Grammars of a didactic nature are connected by and depend on the complexity of factors playing into foreign language teaching and learning. Although it is extremely difficult to determine all these factors, their role is nonetheless existent. The difference between a linguistic grammar and a foreign language grammar may also be presented as a matter of differing positions: problem grammar vs. result grammar.1 Linguistic descriptions, focusing either on specific problems or general expositions, deal with real issues. They aim to justify and provide a reasoning basis to the research results and the methodological approach, just as they make reference to various sources while reviewing authors and theories; whereas foreign language grammar readily recognizes the final product of linguistic grammar, i.e., it makes use of the latter’s achievements without any research at all.2

typology of foreign language grammarGrammar types are determined by external and internal features. External features are those features that are conditioned by grammar users and its functioning in the process of teaching/learning a foreign language; whereas the internal features derive directly from the organizational principles of grammar form and content. With regard to external features the following are distinguished:

• Grammar texts are targeted at learners’ linguistic levels. Grammars for beginners 1. This term has been borrowed from Helbig. Helbig, G.: Zum Verhältnis von Grammatik und Fremdsprachenunterricht. In: Deutsch als Fremdsprache 9, 1982, H. 1, p. 10 – 182. Hausmann comments on the relationship of foering language grammar and linguistic grammar: “There can be no thinking of a foreign language grammar without the descriptions of linguistic grammar.” Hausmann, F.-J.: Zum gegenwärtigen Stand der Diskussion um Sprachwissenschaft und Sprachunterricht, Frankfurt, Berlin, München, Diesterweg. In: Neusprachliche Mitteilungen 33, 4, p. 279 - 280.



differ greatly from those designed for more advanced foreign language learners.• Grammar texts for different uses are of two main types relative to users:

informative and reference grammars and teaching/learning grammars. Informative and reference grammars are typically used by advanced learners,

while teaching/learning grammars are most appropriate for beginners. Between these two types of grammars there is often no clear cut boundary. The teaching/learning function, dominant in didactic grammar, may not be absent in informative and reference grammars dominated by such functions as repeating, completing, clarifying and processing concepts.3

According to internal features, i.e. organization of form and content, the following are distinguished:

• Sentence and parts of speech grammar, also the most common type;• Text Grammar• Communicative Grammar• Grammar with integrated exercises• Grammatical dictionaryThe first type, sentence and parts of speech grammar is the traditional grammar.

The next two types, text grammar and communicative grammar, are rather new. Here the goals and practices of foreign language teaching are arranged in pragmatic and communication patters. Grammars with integrated exercises combine in the same volume grammar descriptions with grammar exercises. One such example is the grammar book by Dreyer/Schmitt: “Lehr und Übungsbuch” (Dreyer/Schmitt: Lehr und Übungsbuch, Verlag für Deutsch, 2001).4 A most interesting type is the grammatical dictionary, which contains word-lexemes in an alphabetical order. Every word in the dictionary is given full presentation with phonetic and grammatical information. The words featured are such that they present various levels of difficulty for foreign language learners. Their didactic aim is to avoid possible grammar or usage mistakes.

Achievements of foreign language grammar in non-Albanian linguistic literature Languages such as English, French, German, Italian, Spanish etc., have a significant spread not only as native and official languages, but also as foreign languages. As a

3. H. Kleineidam deternines additional divisions and subdivisions of grammar texts according toexternal features. See also: Kleineidam, H. 1996. Fremdsprachen Grammatik, Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen, pp. 27- 30.4. Within this type, other types may be distinguished: review grammar, student’s grammar, etc. Review grammars make a brief description of grammatical phenomena. They provide the theoretical information important to do the exercises. See also: Zimmermann, G. /Wißner-Kurzawa, E. 1985. Grammatik: lehren-lernen-selbstlernen, München, Hueber.



result, the discipline behind their teaching and learning has seen a long, intense and growing development, thus, currently displaying unprecedented levels of consolidation. Research, reviews, experiences and generalizations flow from various directions, building on the wealth of the scientific didactic opinion that illuminates the teaching and learning of one of these foreign languages. In this brief overview, the focus is placed only on a fraction of thinking underpinning the discipline in question.

As shown by the recent editions of foreign-language-grammars in English and French, it can be affirmed that the dominant type is the sentence and parts of speech grammar, otherwise known as the traditional grammar. The over-two-thousand-year tradition of dividing words in sentence parts founded by Dionysios Thrax (1st century BC) is at the heart of the linguistic description employed by this type of grammar works. Of course, it is not a faithful representation of parts of speech as given in the Greek grammar and the subsequent Roman grammar. It is rather an introduction to the language through parts of speech arranged in different orders. To illustrate this point, focus will be placed on some grammar texts lately used by the authors of this paper. These grammar books were published after the year 2000. The highly successful book by Dreyer/Schmitt “Lehr-und Übungsbuch der deutschen Grammatik” starts with a chapter on the noun as a part of speech and deals at length with its grammatical features; it continues further with the article, the personal pronoun, the possessive pronoun, etc, until all parts of speech are covered. The authors address the various morphological and syntactical problems. The order and volume of coverage depends on their weight in the language. Alongside morphological and syntactical information on the sentence and parts of speech, the book provides semantic and pragmatic information, too. The authors themselves affirm: “Grammatical rules only help to understand the phenomena; usage is more important. This is attained through the abundant exercises illustrating theoretical descriptions.” (Dreyer/Schmitt, 2001, p. 3).

Morphology is a dominant component in Parts of Speech Grammar. Sentence building information is negligible by comparison with morphological information. For example, in the case of the Grammar of the French Language “Französische Grammatik” out of the total 260 pages, 205 deal with morphological phenomena (Lubka, R., 2005). Likewise, in the “Italienisch Grammatik” of the total 440 pages, only 50 deal with syntax and sentence building.The traditional type is nowadays the most preferred type of foreign language grammar. Sentence and Parts of Speech Grammars both refer to the language system. Communicative grammar came into existence as the opposite of traditional grammar. This type of grammar is not concerned with the system; it proclaims final departure from traditional grammar, tantamount to downright divorce. However, the divorce is only proclaimed since



traditional grammar is very much a part of it in various forms and at different degrees. After all, language and linguistics do not develop through “disruption”. For many linguists, communicative grammar is an offspring of Chomsky’s generative theory. According to this theory, an endless number of sentences can be formulated through transformations based on a limited number of grammatical rules. Such transforms may be new to the listener, yet understandable. Likewise, communicative grammar relies on the principle of using a limited number of language tools to construct a myriad of dialogues and conversations. Philosophical linguistics (discourse theory) created by Austin and Searle had an important role in the emergence of communicative grammar. Following the seventies of the last century, with the successful inroads of pragmatics into linguistics, it became clear that communicative grammar was a very good tool in foreign language learning. The answer to the following questions led to the emergence of communicative grammar:

• What is (in fact) communication? • What’s the use of communicative grammar? Why do we need such a grammar?• How to build it?The authors of these grammars conceive language as a means of communication

and interaction. According to them, more important than grammar rules and vocabulary, is “the development of discourse, the building of conversational sequences to achieve a certain goal.” (P.Timm, J., 1999, p. 237). The scope of study also involves the discourse context, the real situation, background setting, the roles of participants in communication, the speakers’ communicative intentions and the impact of linguistic expressions in a given situation. On the other side, the language system is reduced simply to its communicative/interactive function. Learning the language, in this case, means learning to act and interact with it. Such grammars are not conceived as inventories of forms, but as logical and semantic schemes, with their morphological and syntactical forms being underrated as superficial structures. A typical grammar of this kind is the one by U. Engel/Tertel “Kommunikative Grammatik Deutsch als Fremdsprache” (Engel, U. /Tertel, R., 1993).

This grammar avoids (the traditional grammatical) description of the categories of the language system. Instead, it gives center stage to the communication “needs”. These needs are presented as topics, for example:

• References and questions• Names of persons and objects• The expression of possibility, necessity, and assessment• The definition of objects and persons• Contents description• Degrees and comparison



• Goal presentation• Direct and indirect speech, etc. • Grammar rules are given in Appendices on:

• Numerals • Noun inflections• Adjective inflections• List of the most important prepositions, etc.

Anti- pragmatists are opposed to this approach. Thus, Müller points out that “arbitrary” rules in the field of phonetics, vocabulary, morphology and syntax are important in foreign language teaching/learning. By contrast, special language strategies considered “non-arbitrary” are not in the purview of foreign language teaching/learning, since they target learners who have already gained some degree of general discourse and communicative competence (See: Müller, RM, 1977, p. 63 - 67).Text Grammars combine knowledge of the language system with the communicative potentials provided by this system. A well-known grammar of this kind is “Textgrammatik der deutschen Sprache” by H. Weinrich. (Weinrich, H., 1993).This grammar describes the current German language as it appears in written and spoken texts. The analyzed texts are written in different styles in order to extensively and realistically represent the language. Linguistic expressions are chosen based on the criterion of “linguistic culture”, which makes this grammar a model in terms of both language and culture. The dialogue is the object of description; hence the author’s calling it “dialogisch-pragmatische Grammatik”. The Grammar is designed for teachers and learners and all those with an interest in the study of the German language. “This grammar can be used to grasp certain language issues, but it can also be read as a book for pleasure, for it enhances the language awareness of the professionals and amateurs and helps them to use the German language in a most stylish manner” (Weinrich, H., 1993, p. 17).

In summary, it can be affirmed that the grammars mentioned above support and aid foreign language learning in different ways. They analytically share what in real life communication is indivisible, i.e., grammatical form and functional use. Sentence and parts of speech grammar describes morphological and syntax rules in the system, outside the communicative context. Communicative grammar views language tools (phonetic, lexical, and syntactic) as a function of achieving the speakers’ goals in certain discourse situations, and aim to provide alternative patterns and expressions for various discursive activities. These grammars do not represent alternatives in the sense that one type “may put out of business” the other type. They serve to complement each-other in the process of foreign



language learning. While a text grammar, as conceived by Weinrich, provides yet an additional tool in foreign language teaching/learning. It serves advanced learners to further develop their language competence in text production and analysis.

The Albanian language and the foreign language grammar

The linguistic discipline Albanian as a foreign language for some time now has been unfolding its theoretical and practical values in both Albania and abroad. This field of study has seen the engagement of tens of authors. Centers of teaching/learning the Albanian language make use of the books produced by these authors at numbers and qualities both diverse and commendable. However, this paper does not cover all the publications available in the market. As has already been stated, it only deals with grammar books. This section dwells specifically on the grammar of Albanian as a foreign language. The forerunning paragraphs disclose the authors’ concept on this kind of grammar. A component of this concept is that they do not equate the grammar of a foreign language with the grammar rubric in a language method, but only with grammar books per se. While books on teaching/learning Albanian as a foreign language are numerous, grammar books are scarce. In the following, the authors deal with some of these, beginning with “Albanische Grammatik” by Buchholz/Fiedler (Buchholz, O. /Fiedler, W., 1987).In the opinion of this paper’s authors, it is the apogee of the Albanian grammar. It is a synthesis of all the scientific thought on the Albanian language plus new views, interpretations, and findings. Hardly is there any other grammar which is so observing and revealing of the language in so many ways. Hardly is there any other grammar which describes in more detail the language categories and paradigms. The illustration lists are always exhaustive. Once the treatment and theoretical explanation of a particular issue comes to an end, one may think that the information has been plentiful and comprehensive, but no, there is more to come. Observations continue to provide equally important and interesting information. An extraordinary linguistic conscience and intuition encompasses not only the essential denotative meaning of different units, but all the other semantic layers, including grammatical and/or stylistic/emotional hues. All the main linguistic theories of the twentieth century are applied in the description, classification and analysis of the language material (traditional linguistics, structuralism, generativism, pragmatism, the theory of



valences, etc.). The theories are not stated as heuristic formula, but flow naturally through the definitions, illustrations, and explanations. The deductive method of reviewing the subject matter convincingly alternates with the inductive method. The title Albanische Grammatik (Albanian Grammar) best speaks of the nature and special status of this work. It is not just about the language but, through and beyond the language, it is about the Albanian world, in which the Albanian language lives and develops. It is a unique work about standard Albanian, with the dialectical phenomena further enhancing its wealth. A quote from an article by Ardian Klosi best describes the values of Albanische Grammatik:”This work (of course unknown and unpopular in Albania) is the most complete presentation, exhaustive I would say, of the Albanian grammar, especially of its morphology and syntax. I know of no other similar grammar on our language, which describes so many categories, subcategories and sub-subcategories in such a complex system ... which in fact is no system. However, it is Fiedler’s nature to create ruthless systems, branching out indefinitely, to complete exhaustion ... “(Klosi, A.: Shekulli, 23. 08. 2005).Albanian Grammar by Buchholz/Fiedler is a genuinely scientific work. In language terminology, it is a genuinely linguistic grammar. However, the focus of this paper is not the scientific grammar, but the foreign language grammar. But In dealing with the Albanian grammar, the paper does not stray; it does not deviate from its course, for Buchholz/Fiedler’s grammar is an inexhaustible source for any kind of grammar to draw on, especially foreign language grammars. There is no way one can deal with issues and problems pertaining to Albanian as a foreign language without consulting the Albanian grammar.

One of the works that may compare with the Albanian Grammar is “Grammaire de l’albanais modern” by Henry Boissin. (Boissin, H., 1975)This grammar, too, stands out for its detailed treatment of Albanian language phenomena. As the author puts it, this work fills a gap of French linguistics with regard to albanology. “In fact, there is no grammar of the Albanian language in French, except for a small handbook of conversational phrases without any special significance; whereas the book “Manuel de la langue chkipe ou albanaise” (Handbook of the Chkipe or Albanian Language) by August Dozon, published in Paris in 1878, is no longer available. Moreover, it has become unusable due to the transcripts being very different from the current official orthography. (Boissin, H., 1975, p. 5).Boisson, too, strives to make a synthesis of the achievements of the Albanian and non-Albanian thought up to that time. He makes a detailed presentation of the linguistic phenomena in the field of phonetics,



morphology and syntax. The chapter entitled Diverse (Miscellaneous) provides stylistic information and describers the differences between the Gheg and the Tosk dialects on the phonetic, morphological, and syntactic levels. It also furnishes other grammatical details about the Albanian language. Boissin’s grammar is a voluminous work. It provides answers to many questions by foreigners learning Albanian. If translated, both of these grammars, would make available new and interesting information to the Albanian Grammatology, in general, and would be a resource for grammar sections and grammar books on Albanian as a foreign language.

Martin Camaj’s grammar, entitled “Albanian Grammar,” occupies a special place in the history of the Albanian language grammar, especially in the field of Albanian as a foreign language. In 1969, the “Harrassowitz” publishing house in Wiesbaden published M. Camaj’s book “Lehrbuch der albanischen Sprache” (Book to learn the Albanian Language), one of the first modern books on the teaching of the Albanian language. Later, when the publishing house planned to publish a revised version of this book, Camaj came up with the idea of compiling a grammar of the Albanian language. It was not a grammar in the classical sense, despite its name “Albanian Grammar” (Camaj, M., 1984). The grammar provides a synthesis of the author’s findings in his various fields of study. It was designed for the students of the Albanian language at the University of Munich, as well as for the Albanians in the Diaspora. Of key importance in this grammar is the information provided in the Notes which expands on the core information and throws light on the use of elements by the ancient and arbëreshi authors. So, the basic text together with the Notes provides a comprehensive overview of varieties of the Albanian language, on both the synchronic and diachronic plans. Comments on the Gheg dialect feature not only in the Notes, but also in the core text. For example, page 104 features the inflections of the noun + possessive pronoun according to the modern paradigms. Concurrently, the Gheg version is also explained. The Notes rubric deals with the respective deviations of the particular phenomenon in the old Albanian and the Arbëreshi dialect. Complete inflection paradigms from old Albanian are also provided. The paragraphs feature all the three variants (Standard, Tosk and Gheg) in comparison with the old Albanian and Arbëreshi. The book contains exercises, a chrestomanci, a vocabulary and an overall introduction of a scientific and linguistic character. With its original conception, its synchronic, diachronic and diatopic dimensions, Camaj’s work marks an innovation and advancement in the field



of Albanian grammar and Albanian as a foreign language. Now it’s the turn of a grammar written in Albanian, “Practical Grammar of the Albanian Language” co-authored by Mehmet Çeliku, Mustafa Karapinjalli and Rudi Stringa. This grammar is characterized by the tendency to reduce direct theory to the minimum extent possible and to provide as much description as possible of the typical structures in the standard Albanian categorized in accordance with the latest paradigms. The structure of modern Albanian is given in full, albeit in a simple and understandable form. The numerous illustrations are mainly taken from written sources, carefully representing all styles. The grammar is primarily designed for Albanians abroad, but it also serves foreigners with an interest in learning Albanian and improving their understanding of the language (Çeliku, M. /Karapinjalli, M. / Stringa, R., 1998).It is only appropriate to make a brief comment on the grammar written by the authors of this paper, “Albanisch, Fremdsprachengrammatik” (Bundessprachenamt, Hürth, 2011). Long time in use to aid the teaching/learning of the Albanian language, this text is the product of a long experience in teaching Albanian as a foreign language. It does not rely solely on one theory, but sets to integrate various theories into one whole. The grammar of the verb constitutes its central part. The ample presentation of this part of speech provides answers to all possible questions on this category. The detailed and thorough descriptions are given in a clear language.

In conclusion, it can be said that the grammar of Albanian as a foreign language is both examine and unexamined at the same time. Studies so far have given rise to such monumental works as Albanische Grammatik, Grammaire de l’albanais moderne, Albanian Grammar etj., which explore, investigate, review and analyse the Albanian language “from outside”, yet the detailed presentation of systems and paradigms takes the Albanian scholars by surprise.

The grammar chapters in the books for teaching/learning Albanian as a foreign language are, beyond any doubt, sources of great linguistic wealth and information; however they cannot in any way take the place of the Grammar of Albanian as a foreign language.

When talking on the boundaries and features of the foreign language grammar, the present authors provided their own definitin of the concept, which they had applied earlier when compiling their Albanisch, Fremdsprachengrammatik. This definition may aid other authors in their efforts to design new grammar books which will potentially meet the increased interest caused by the rising profile of Albanian as a foreign language.

As concerns the discussion on which grammar best supports foreign language learning, the



current authors subscribe to H. Kleineidam’s and the opinion of his numerous followers that: Grammar without communication cannot be the goal of foreign language learning;

communication without grammar makes learning uneconomical and inefficient. The different kinds of grammar, functional, notional, textual and otherwise, cannot replace morphology and syntax. They are highly valuable auxiliary tools.

It would be advisable for grammar books to seek the middle ground, i.e. morphological and sytactical descriptions should be made in the framework of a given sentence, in accordance with the target users, and corroborated with grammar information of the logical, functional, textual, communicative and other kinds.

Emine Sadiku-Teichmann studied Language and Literature at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Tirana University. Following graduation, she worked for several years as a members of the editorial board of the journal “Zëri i Rinisë,” in Tiranë. Later, she became a faculty member of the University “A. Xhuvani” (in Elbasan), with the Albanian Language Chair. In 1990, she defended her doctoral dissertation entitled “Observations on the expressive lexicon in I. Kadare’s prose works” and in 2002, she was conferred the title of “Professor”. She has benefited from numerous trainings at German universities. Since 1996, she has been living in Germany and teaching Albanian language at the Bundessprachenamt, Hürth. She is also a visiting professor with the Chair of the Albanian Language at the University “A. Xhuvani” in Elbasan. She has authored a number of books and articles published in Albania and abroad. Correspondence: Bundessprachenamt Selten gelehrte Sprachen (Albanisch) Horbeller Strasse 5250354 Hürth (bei Köln) Germany. E-mail: <[email protected]> Tel: +49 2222 88 51; +355 5425 31 47

Gladiola Popa studied German in Elbasan and Bohum, Germany. She earned

her double Master’s Degrees at the University of Tirana, with the thesis “Semantic Implications of the Social and Cultural Background - Review of the Phenomenon in Some of Kadare’s prose works” and at the Bohum University with the thesis: “Zur juristischen Sprache im Deutschen und im Albanischen” (Legal Discourse in Albanian and German). Her PhD thesis with the University of Tirana was “Comparative review of the lexical-semantic characteristics in some of the prose works by Kadare in Albanian and German”; whereas her thesis with the Bohum University was “Deutsch-albanische Strafurteile im Vergleich”. She has participated in numerous national and international conferences and has co-authored and authored many papers published in Albania and abroad. Correspondence E-mail, <[email protected]> Tel: +355 5424 5 444



rEFErENCES Barrera-Vidal, A./ Raupach, M./ Zögfen, E. (Hrsg) (1992). Grammatica vivat, Gunter Narr VerlagTübingen,

Besse, H./Porquier (1984). Grammaires et didactique des langues, Paris:Hatier-CREDIF (Coll.

Langues et Apprentisage des Langues).

Boissin, H. (1975). Grammaire de l’albanais moderne, Paris,.

Buchholz,O./Fiedler, W. (1987). Albanische Grammatik. VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig.

Çeliku, M./ Karapinjalli, M./ Stringa, R. (1998). Gramatika praktike e gjuhës shqipe, TOENA, Tiranë.

Camaj, M. (1984). Albanian Grammar, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden.

Dreyer/ Schmitt (2001). Lehr und Übungsbuch, Verlag für Deutsch.

Engel, U. / Tertel, R. (1993). Kommunikative Grammatik Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Iudicium, München.

Hausmann, F.-J.: Zum gegenwärtigen Stand der Diskussion um Sprachwissenschaft und

Sprachunterricht, Frankfurt, Berlin, München, Diesterweg. In: Neusprachliche Mitteilungen 33, 4.

Helbig, G. (1982). Zum Verhältnis von Grammatik und Fremdsprachenunterricht.

In: Deutsch als Fremdsprache 9.

Heringer, H.J./Keller-Bauer, F. (1984). Probleme einer gebrauchsgrammatischen

Terminologie. In: Sprache und Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht.

Kleineidam, H. (1996). Fremdsprachengrammatik, Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen.

Lübke, R. (2005). Französiche Grammatik, Bassermann Verlag, München.

Müller, R. M. (1977). Kommunikative Kompetenz und Arbitrarität. Pragmalinguistische Irrwege der

Fremdsprachengrammatik. In: Linguistik und Didaktik 29.

P.Timm, J. (Hrsg.) (1999). Englisch Lehren und Lernen, Cornelsen.

Zimmermann, G./Wißner-Kurzawa, E.: Grammatik: lehren-lernen-selbstlernen, München, Hueber, 1985.

Zimmerman, G. (1979). Was ist eine didaktische Grammatik? In: Kleine, W. (Hrsg)

Perspektiven des Fremdsprachenunterrichts in der BDR, Frankfurt.

Weinrich, H. (1993). Textgrammatik der deutschen Sprache, DUDEN Verlag.



Building School leadership Capacity in Post-Conflict Kosovo

Osman BULESHKAJUniversity of Calgary, Canada

ABSTRACT

This study, conducted using a qualitative single-case study design, examined the perception of participants on the extent to which the required qualifications, enacted recruitment process, and professional development opportunities experienced by school principals contribute to effective leadership practice in post-conflict Kosovo. Participant perceptions were examined using interviews and document analysis. Perceptions of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology leaders, regional educational leaders, municipal educational leaders, and school principals were documented and served as the basis for discussion on the current practice in Kosovo.

Five themes emerged from this study and each contained several sub-themes. Experience as the bases for selection, open interviews vs. interviews held for ‘the sake of having them done’, demand driven professional development, collaboration as key to effective school leadership, and perception on change to happen were analyzed and compared with three international jurisdictions for the purpose of international comparison.

Keywords: school; leadership; education policy; case study; professional development; capacity building; post-conflict education development



Ndërtimi i kapaciteteve për lidershipin shkollor në Kosovën e pasluftës

Osman BULESHKAJUniversiteti i Kalgarit, Kanada

ABSTRAKT

Ky studim është kryer duke përdorur një model të studimit cilësor të një rasti. Ai ka shqyrtuar perceptimet e pjesëmarrësve për masën deri ku kualifikimet e nevojshme, procesi i miratuar i përzgjedhjes dhe mundësitë e zhvillimit profesional, të ndjekura nga drejtuesit e shkollave, kontribuojnë në praktikën e udhëheqjes së efektshme në Kosovën e pasluftës. Perceptimet e pjesëmarrësve u shqyrtuan duke bërë intervista dhe analizuar dokumente relevante. Perceptimet e drejtuesve kryesorë të Ministrisë së Arsimit, Shkencës dhe Teknologjisë, drejtuesve rajonalë të arsimit, drejtuesve komunalë të arsimit dhe drejtorëve të shkollave u dokumentuan dhe shërbyen si bazë e diskutimeve mbi praktikat aktuale në Kosovë.

Pesë teza lindën si rezultat i këtij studimi dhe secila prej tyre përmbante disa nënteza. Përvoja, si bazë e përzgjedhjes, intervistat e hapura përballë intervistave të kryera “thjesht sa për t’i bërë”, zhvillimi profesional i bazuar në kërkesa, bashkëpunimi si zgjidhje për udhëheqjen efikase të institucionit arsimor dhe perceptimi mbi ndryshimin e afërt u analizuan dhe krahasuan me tre legjislacione ndërkombëtare me qëllim krahasimin me legjislacionet ndërkombëtare.

Fjalë kyç: shkolla; udhëheqja; politikat arsimore; rasti studimor; zhvillimi profesional; ndërtimi i kapaciteteve; zhvillimet në arsimin pas-konfliktit

Osman BULESHKAJ


introductionBackground to the education system in KosovoIn the last two decades of the 20th century, the Kosovo education system faced many challenges and the education leaders and Kosovo society struggled to maintain and keep the education system alive. Despite the great efforts of teachers, education leaders and the overall Kosovo society to maintain the education system of Kosovo, the quality of education, and its structural organization, suffered greatly and barely survived the challenges of the time.

In 1990, the Government of Serbia unilaterally abolished Kosovo’s autonomy (Hyseni, Pupovci, Salihaj & Shatri, 2001). This directly affected the educational system and the effects were disastrous. About 14, 500 primary and 4, 000 secondary school teachers and 862 university instructors were dismissed. Therefore, Albanian education leaders established an independent system of education, the so-called “parallel system”. This system marked the beginning of a number of significant and highly influential developments towards planning and management of education in Kosovo. It also constituted the centerpiece of Albanians’ resistance to Serbian government dominance and repression.

Post-conflict education system in KosovoSoon after a destructive war in 1999 the process of rebuilding Kosovo involved a number of international donors from different countries around the world. Kosovo leaders of that time worked jointly with international colleagues to lead and implement the necessary political, economic, legal, social and educational changes in Kosovo (Hyseni, Pupovci & Salihaj, 2001).

Education was one of the most important areas of investment in post-war Kosovo, both for the international community in Kosovo and for the local leadership of that time. It was the period when “Kosovo has undergone dramatic changes in the political, cultural, economic and social levels of its society” (Goddard, 2007, p. 200).

In June 1999, the multi-national military force entered Kosovo territory and the United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) set up an interim governing structure that included local Kosovo leaders as their counterparts. During this period, the Kosovor edcuation system was characterized by a general reform initiative that was enhanced by the presence and efforts of UNMIK, many international donors, and local counterparts (Hyseni et al., 2001). The UNMIK Department of Education and Science (DES) defined a two-layered system (at central and municipal levels) for education and training: i) the already existing Municipal Education Directorates (MED), which resulted from local municipal elections; and, ii) the Education Development Offices (EDOs), which were

Building School Leadership Capacity in Post-Conflict Kosovo


established by the DES and worked closely with school directors and teachers. In 2002, the newly established Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

(MEST) took over responsibility for leading the education system in Kosovo. The MEST restructured the education administration by establishing strong central structures as well as reorganizing the Regional Education Offices in seven education regions. It is important to state that, in line with practices in some European countries and primarily countries in the Balkans, the responsibility for finance, developing educational policy, higher education strategy, setting standards, professional qualifications, assessment, and assuring equal access to education remains under the authority of the central ministry (Trnavčevič, 2007).

In September 2002, the Assembly of Kosovo adopted the Law on Primary and Secondary Education in Kosovo (Ministry of Education Science and Technology, 2002). Section 13.5(a) of the Law on Primary and Secondary education clearly states that MEST is responsible to appoint school directors upon receiving a recommendation from a common panel with representatives from MEST and the municipality. The required qualifications for the position of school directors differ depending on the education level, such as kindergartens, elementary schools, lower secondary and upper secondary schools. Law also regulated the professional development support for the newly appointed school directors stating completion of a training program in educational management as a basic requirement.

In March 2007, the Council of Experts of Pre-University Education approved the Strategy for Development of Pre-University Education in Kosovo, for the period from 2007 to 2017 (Ministry of Education Science and Technology, 2007). Through a comprehensive and transparent process of drafting and finalizing this strategy, MEST has reached a broad political, social, and professional consensus to further develop the education sector and keep up with European trends. In terms of the education management capacities in post-conflict Kosovo, there are at least two main characteristics related to educational leadership developments; there is a strong motivation to improve performance and the quality of the education system, and there is a strong international support available to MEST.

One of the most important developments in post-conflict Kosovo is the Declaration of Independence. On February 17, 2008, Kosovo Albanians declared independence and thus became the youngest country in Europe. Despite the fact that this was not the longed for “final status” Kosovo Albanians wanted, the solution was what the international diplomats pushed for (Judah, 2008). A number of legal developments followed this Declaration, one of which was the development and implementation of the Law on Local Governance that sets the basis for decentralization and transfer of more power to municipalities when it comes to

Osman BULESHKAJ


recruiting School principals (Official Gazette, 2008).

Primary focus of this studyThe role of education leaders in Kosovo changed many times and was always critical in terms of organizing and leading the school system in dismal conditions with poorly equipped ‘schools’ during the parallel system, the immediate post-war period and nowadays. In this challenging process to rebuild the Kosovo education system education leaders in general and school leaders in particular were the driving force in reforming the education sector and building the capacity for a systemic and sustainable change processes that will improve the education sector in Kosovo.

Initially, this study will explore policy papers and their implementation, and the aspects of recruitment and training of the school directors in Kosovo. It is assumed that the Kosovo education system will benefit significantly from this study as it not only will provide a picture of the current situation, but by including practices from other places, such as Slovenia, UK and Alberta, it is possible to make some comparative conclusions.

Finally, the focus of this study is to explore the extent to which required qualifications, enacted recruitment processes, and professional development opportunities experienced by school directors contribute to effective school leadership practice in Kosovo.

The key question, which guides this study, is as follows: To what extent do the required qualifications, enacted recruitment processes,

and professional development opportunities experienced by school directors contribute to effective leadership practice in Kosovo?

research methodologyResearch design The rationale for this research utilized a single-case study approach with an aim “to capture the circumstance and conditions” of one particular situation (Yin, 2003, p. 41). This approach allowed focus on the extent to which the recruitment process and professional development for school principals influence school leadership practice in post-conflict Kosovo. The education policy implementation process was predominantly explored with an aim to identify and describe aspects of policy implementation that are directly associated with the required qualifications, the recruitment process, and professional development for school principals. The single-case study allowed for investigation and description through data collection that involved “multiple sources of information rich in context” (Creswell, 1998, p. 61).

Research siteThis case study was focused on the Peja region. This region covers five



municipalities, a mixture of Albanian, Serbian, Bosniak and Roma, Ashkalia and Egyptian (RAE) population; and schools are located in both rural and urban areas. Based on MEST statistics (MEST, 2008) for the school year 2007/2008 the number of Albanian students was 49483, Bosnian was 941, and RAE was 1375. Data about Serbian students and teachers are not available since the Serbian population run a separate education system. During this school year the total number of non-Serbian education staff was 3525, working in 138 schools including 5 pre-school institutions, 118 primary and lower secondary schools, 14 upper-secondary schools and 1 special needs institution.

Sampling The rationale for conducting this single-case study was the ‘representative’ or ‘typical’ case, and the aim was to capture and describe the key aspects of one particular project (Yin, 2003). One limitation in conducting case study research is related to the problem of generalization or ‘external validity’ (Anderson & Arsenault, 1998). This approach did not permit making generalizations regarding the findings but it allowed describing participant perceptions and the current practice in one education region. In order to ensure representation from different interest groups in this study, ‘simple random sampling’ was used as a process of selecting participants (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005; Gay et al, 2006).

Participants in the study belonged to four groups: MEST, Inspection Unit (IU), Municipal Education Directors (MED) and school principals. They were randomly selected from MEST staff list, from the staff list of the IU in Peja, from the list of five MED offices in Peja region, and one school principal from each MED teacher’s list. Ten individuals, two females and eight males, participated in this study. Participants chose to use pseudonyms throughout the conversation, and thus their real identity was not made public.

Data collectionYin (2003) describes in detail different sources of evidence and the principles of data collection in case study research. The three principles for doing high quality case studies that Yin (2003) recommends are that researchers follow in the data collection process are: “using multiple sources of evidence, creating a case study database and maintaining a chain of evidence” (p. 85). The principle of using multiple sources of evidence allowed to address a range of practices and perceptions, which are both context and process related issues, with regards to the current practice in post-conflict Kosovo.

A ’Triangulation’ strategy was used to interpret findings from the multiple sources of evidence, and a database was created to incorporate ‘multiple data

Osman BULESHKAJ


sources’, increasing the reliability of the single-case study (Anderson & Arsenault, 1998, p. 159). With regards to the internal validity of this single-case study a chain of evidence was maintained by using detailed recording and succinct description of different parts of this study research in order to enable the individual reader to easily follow the analysis, read the conclusions and be able to “know more about the bases for the conclusions” (Yin, 2003, p. 105).

While transcribing the audiotaped and digitally recorded interviews, common themes and quotes were identified. These themes and quotes where written as additions to personal notes taken while the interviews were conducted. Based on the ‘triangulation strategy’, transcripts were then sent back for member check and participants were invited to review their responses for accuracy of description, additions and omissions (Anderson & Arsenault, 1998; Yin, 2003).

Data analysisIn order to bring order and meaning to the mass of collected data, three stages of data analysis as suggested by Creswell (1998) were applied. These stages were classification, interpretation and description.

ClassificationThe initial stage of analysis began while data were being collected. After the completion of each interview notes were written and main themes, as identified by participants, were highlighted. After the final interviews were transcribed and participants had validated the transcripts, following the advice of Bogdan and Biklen (1998), the data was read three times in order to become more familiar with the data. This was also an opportunity to develop more clearly the themes discovered during the transcription phase of data collection.

InterpretationTo the extent possible, and always keeping in mind the limitations to generalizability of the case study design, thematic interpretations were used to develop generalizations (Stake, 1995). This approach to interpretation allowed seeking for patterns used in developing a framework that characterizes participants’ perceptions on the aspects of professional development and effective leadership practice. These interpretations were made while keeping in mind the aspects of required qualifications, recruitment practice, professional development and effective school leadership practice and guidelines of this study.

DescriptionNaturalistic generalizations were developed using transcribed data from participants, and themes and patterns that evolved during the initial stages of



analysis (Creswell, 1998). The next step, as suggested by Creswell (1998), was the description of the case and the detailed view of facts about this case. This was the part where patterns were used to compare and contrast them with the published policy papers, government reports, donor reports and other administrative instructions available in Kosovo.

Assumptions, delimitations and limitationsWhen selecting subjects for the case study, it was decided to interview a number of participants, educational leaders, who had been active in post-conflict education reconstruction in Kosovo. Therefore, from the outset, it was recognized that findings of this study might not be able to be extrapolated across the broad range of educational leaders working in the Peja region. However, the researcher assumed that the perceptions highlighted by the selected sample would be sufficiently representative of the research focus.

Delimitations of this research first of all include its depth in one region rather that its breadth in all seven educational regions in Kosovo. This study examined a number of themes with a representative sample from one region, rather than fewer themes with a representative sample from all seven regions. It engaged current leaders at the central, regional, municipal and school level rather than engaging a wider variety of stakeholders (e.g. parents, students, teachers, NGO in-service training providers, University, etc.). It did not include participants from all ethnic groups living in Peja Region and school principals may not have been representative of the whole sample of school leaders. Thus this study is limited to one educational region and is not necessarily representative of other regions.

literature reviewThe key aspects of educational leadership literature explored in this study describe the links between professional development of school principals and effective leadership practice. Current practices from Kosovo and examples from Slovenia, England and Alberta, provide for the local, regional and international comparison. Principal professional development and effective leadership practices were used as two facets that underpin leadership practice critical to enable the future changes in post-conflict Kosovo.

Principal professional developmentDefining the knowledge base and standards for preparation and training programs for school leaders is central to efforts to improve the quality of school leadership preparation programs. Researchers in many countries around the world share findings about professional development programs and their results in improving

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leadership practice and student learning. Brundrett (2001), Brundrett and Dering (2006), Collarbone (1998), Andrews and Grogan (2002), Jackson and Kelly (2002), King and Youngs (2001), Peterson (2002), and Wong (2004) articulate the importance of principal professional development programs offered by universities, professional associations, government agencies, and non-for-profit organizations as complementary to pre-service preparation.

As Brundrett and Dering (2006) observe, different countries have come up with different approaches to where professional development programs should be located. The USA often locates these programs within university departments; others have developed programs in specific institutions, such as the National College for School Leadership in the UK. No matter where these programs are located, it is important to mention that there has been an international trend to integrate leadership development programs and conceptions of leadership from business and industry into the educational field. However, this phenomenon cannot be seen around the globe.

In their study about innovative and exceptional leadership programs in the USA Jackson and Kelley (2002) amongst others focus on identifying characteristics of innovative professional development programs for school. Research has shown that successful approaches that support the structure and content of principal professional development programs include aspects, such as: problem-based learning, use of cohort groups and cohort graduates, collaborative partnerships - partnerships between programs and external resources, field experiences, and use of technology in program delivery (Brundrett, 2001; Bush & Jackson, 2002; Jackson & Kelley, 2002).

Effective leadership practiceResearch on principals has increased dramatically in recent years. Much of this research has generated descriptions of what principals do while other research has specifically investigated the instructional leadership role of the principalship. The literature on school effectiveness (Blase, 1987; Chapman, Day, Hadfield, Hargreaves, Harris & Hopkins, 2003; Day, Hadfield & Harris, 2001, 2003; Harris, 2002; Day, Leithwood & Sammons, 2008; Hallinger & Murphy, 1986) has offered images of principals as “strong leaders” and has linked leadership to, for example, school climate, school improvements, teacher morale, organizational performance, and social context of schools. Despite a developing knowledge base regarding the effective school principalship, definitions of effectiveness and ineffectiveness have primarily relied on test scores, and little attention has been given to the relationship between leadership practice and school context.

A research study funded by the National College for School Leadership and



lead by Harris (2002) explored effective leadership in a number of English secondary schools in challenging circumstances. The aim of the study was to collect data and describe leadership practice in schools which experienced low student achievement success, where a high percentage of students received free school meals, and which were subject to regular inspection. The findings resulted in evidence of the distributed model of leadership, a model of leadership that is primarily concerned with building positive relationships and empowering others to lead.

Fullan (2006) says the likelihood of change taking place in failing schools or schools facing challenging circumstances depend on the type of leadership styles applied by school leaders to strengthen partnerships with the school community. He further highlights that the more leaders commit to building the “collective capacity of teachers” and their leadership skills, the more they will consider parents and school community as “part of the solution instead of the problem” (Fullan, 2006, p. 42).

The Kosovo caseLeadership development in post-conflict Kosovo is strongly affected by practices found in other countries in the Balkan’s region. The southeast regional project in 2006, which took place in twelve countries in south-eastern Europe, identified many commonalities amongst the education systems in the countries in the region, one of them being the existence of School Inspection offices (Zgaga, 2006).

European standards and policy papers that guided many processes and developments in the aspects of economy, health, rule of law and social justice have also largely influenced developments in post-conflict Kosovo. Some of these policy papers and reports, such as the sixteen quality indicators (European Commission, 2000), have directly affected the school improvement planning in Kosovo.

The Strategy for Development of Pre-University Education in Kosovo for the period from 2007 to 2017 (MEST, 2007) clearly defines the vision for the Kosovor society and the education system for the upcoming ten years as. This vision clearly states the hopes of the Kosovo society to become part of EU developments by ensuring equality, providing opportunities for ongoing PD, and, thus, maintaining a sustainable system of education. Education without doubt is seen as the catalyst in this integration process. This is a major responsibility for educators in general and schools in particular. Establishing and leading professional learning communities requires a shared vision developed through collective inquiry and continuous improvement, and led by skilled leaders who are goal oriented. (MEST, 2007).

A number of professional development programs, locally or internationally lead, offered to educational leaders in post-conflict Kosovo, were aimed to address general issues of school leadership, but they lacked the depth in addressing

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particular needs of educational leaders in specific educational regions. Issues related to recruiting capable leaders, strengthening their skills through a sustainable system of PD and contributing to effective school leadership have not been explored and lessons learned are non-existent due to a lack of research in this field in Kosovo.

International comparison With an aim to compare required qualifications and professional development for school leaders, three jurisdictions were selected and their standards were examined. They include Slovenia, England and Alberta, Canada.

The National School for Leadership in Education in SloveniaThe National School for Leadership in Education (NSLE) was established in 1995 by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and is responsible for training and professional development of head teachers and candidates for head teachers. The NSLE is a public service and its implementation is of public interest. (Erčul & Peček, 2007). The core program of NSLE is the implementation of the Headship Licence Program. The program consists of six compulsory modules that cover leadership and organizational theory, teambuilding, learning styles, professional development, planning and decision-making, head teachers’ skills, human resources and legislation (The National Leadership School, 2005). A strong feature of this program is the mentoring program as it provides systematic support for school leaders by creating networks of expert groups of head teachers (Koren, 2007).

Government’s support in establishing and licensing the NSLE as the central institution responsible for offering leadership training leading towards the Headship License is a great example Kosovo can learn from. A program of school based mentoring; supporting collaboration amongst school leaders, and school networking could serve as a great model to enhance curriculum implementation in Kosovo schools.

The NCSL in EnglandThe National College of School Leadership (NCSL) in Nottingham, England, is an example of a school leadership development program and its demonstrated support of a distributed leadership philosophy. The NCSL, launched in 2000, is charged with the responsibility of preparing and developing educational leaders for England’s primary and secondary school system. The NCSL was established to bring a national focus, energy and drive to ensuring that current and aspiring school leaders receive the support, recognition and development they need and deserve (NCSL, 2008). Certification from The NCSL is now a requirement for entry into the headship. It is mandatory to hold or have a place in the National Professional Qualifications for Headship (NPQH) in order



to apply for a first headship position in the education sector (NCSL, 2008). The example of the NCSL provides a model for governments’ interventions and commitments to support education - an example, which Kosovo government could learn most from.

The PQPS in AlbertaAlberta’s Commission on Learning (ACOL, 2003) made a recommendation to the government to develop a quality practice standard and identify the knowledge, skills and attributes required by principals. The Commission noted that a quality standard for principals with clearly stated knowledge, skills and attributes needed to practice should form the basis of preparing school principals, recruiting principals, and assessing each principal’s performance.

In May 2006, a draft of the Principal Quality Practice document was sent to all school principals, superintendents of schools, school boards, school council chairpersons and stakeholder groups for their review and comments. A final version on PQPS was presented in February 2009 (Alberta Education, 2009) and it included seven standards introduced in the form of guidelines. It is the process of development, inclusion of stakeholders and consultation with the public opinion, and the mechanisms to support current and new leaders to develop the required skills to implement the required leadership dimensions that Kosovo could learn from.

results, themes and perceptionsFive themes in the data are presented and analyzed. These are: (i) experience as the bases for selection; (ii) open interviews vs. interviews held for ‘the sake of having them done’; (iii) demand driven professional development; (iv) collaboration as key to effective school leadership; and, (v) perception on change to happen.

Experience as the basis for selectionMinimum three years of teaching experiences are a condition for upcoming school principals. Some participants thought that this criterion should be changed and that school principals should have three more years of teaching prior to becoming principals. Educational leaders have a responsibility to ensure that not only years of experience should matter, but also successful teaching experience during this period of time should be considered as key in this case.

Leadership experience at any level is perceived to be of great importance and an advantage in the process of selection of school principals. Some participants were educational leaders during the parallel system of education while others were involved in leadership positions immediately after the war. Perception was that prior leadership experience has been key to later involvement in higher leadership positions.

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Open interviews vs. interviews held for the ‘sake of having them done”Participants in this study shared their personal stories when being interviewed for the position. These stories result with three sub-themes: when being interviewed, regulations on this process, and when interviewing others.

The interviewParticipants’ experiences of being interviewed were diverse. Responses varied from those who qualify interviews as short and very useless and only two that enjoyed them thoroughly. Participants remembered useless question they were asked, interview panellists and they qualifications, which many times were lower that the candidates, and the whole process sometimes being done just because they had to go through it. All participants, however, were successful in their interviews. The fact that they were successful might have had an impact on their interpretation.

About regulations on this processThe procedure to appoint the panel members and interview applicants for school principals is regulated by Law and an Administrative Instruction (AI). The panel included one representative from MEST, one from IU and one from the MED office. There is also a teacher and a parent representative from the school council, but they do not have the right to vote. Participants reported that non-voting members often get manipulated, even though they don’t have the right to vote. Membership on the panel and interview process will change once the newly developed regulation is signed.

When interviewing othersIn order to compare and contrast the participant perception when being interviewed and when interviewing others, a few questions were raised during the interview process. All participating school principals had interviewed teachers only. Because of their personal experiences, they indicated how careful they tried to be when asking questions related to classroom teaching that affects school leadership and school improvement. An important, and shared, opinion was that interviewees should be trained on how to interview candidates for school principals. Unfortunately, this is not yet happening in Kosovo.

Demand driven professional developmentSince the end of the conflict in Kosovo, in June 1999, a number of international and local partners were involved in providing opportunities for professional development for educational leaders in Kosovo. Perceptions of the participants about these supply driven initiatives and programs can be separated into three sub-themes: most useful so far, opportunities for further professional development, and



links between professional development and professional practice.

Most useful so farParticipants reiterated the fact that there had been a number of leadership programs, which directly affected the quality of school leadership in Kosovo. They highlighted the importance and usefulness of having two-week training programs, which, for them, have been most successful. They especially liked the inclusion of action research projects as they were directly linked to school improvement. Tailor made demand driven programs were highlighted as particularly useful to school leaders.

opportunities for further professional developmentThe Kosovo government does not have the capacity to allocate sufficient resources to sponsor professional development programs, but relies on external funding. Therefore, there are fewer opportunities for professional development for school leadership. Participants stated a great interest in having a Leadership School similar to some that already exist in a number of countries in the region and Europe. This would enable coordination of stakeholder efforts, implement Government’s agenda to improve school leadership, and offer demand driven professional development.

links between professional development and school practiceLinking theory to practice, making programs meet participants’ needs and allowing the possibility to connect with the school environment, seem to have been some challenges for both training providers and participants in these programs. While there were programs educators could attend some were not practical and participants were not able to make the connection with their schools. Programs were considered supply driven and dependent on what the ‘suppliers’ had to offer. A thorough needs assessment study on the needs of school leaders would help design demand driven programs in the future.

Collaboration as key to effective school leadershipCooperation and collaboration came up as key issues in school leadership practice. Establishing a tolerant climate at the school, respecting and following the school time-table and actively participating in updating it, sharing the information with the staff and keeping them informed regularly, being accountable for the work we do, establishing a collaborative and respectful relationship between teachers and parents, are some key characteristics of effective leaders and effective leadership practice highlighted by participants.

Participants said that good leaders make schools effective. Their perception of the good leader included skills and attributes such as: time management, direct

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(classroom) support to the school staff, and coordinate their own agendas and priorities with the agendas and priorities of the school staff, always keeping in mind that the only way to support students is by working, communicating and collaborating actively with the school community. In particular they stressed the important role effective leaders play in motivating teachers and students for better results.

Perception on change to happenParticipant perceptions and their vision for the future, influence their commitment to further leadership development practice in Kosovo. In terms of the selection process of school principals, the current Law should be amended and give more power to schools when selecting school principals. It was also stated that politics should not affect education decisions and that Kosovo leaders should trust selection committees when they select school principals. Finally, through an institutionally organized system, such as the establishment of the School for Leadership, Kosovo society will prove its willingness to strengthen the school leadership capacity.

DiscussionUnderstanding and interpreting emergent patterns in interview data presents the risk of faulty interpretation. When common themes reappear and are articulated by several participants, the researcher must not only consider their importance but also subject them to theoretical analysis and further research. Within a study comprising of only 10 interviews, the possibilities for generalization are inevitably limited. However, this study was aimed to provide insights and perceptions from a group of randomly selected educational leaders in Peja Region.

On the recruitment processWhat are participants’ perceptions on the current practice of recruiting school principals in the Peja region? This was the first research question posed to all participants. In essence the interest was to know more about participants’ perceptions on required qualifications for school principals and current enacted recruitment practice. Three basic requirements for school principals were highlighted: (i) teaching experience; (ii) prior leadership experience; and, (iii) education background.

All participants have had teaching experience and that was considered to be the primary reason for their selection. It was not just teaching but successful teaching they demonstrated and thus they qualified to take over the leadership role. What was not made clear was the fact that not one participant mentioned that there should be a system to track and document teaching practice of every single applicant. They only talked about numbers and the need to be successful, but no one talked about how to document successful teaching practice.



Prior leadership experience was considered critical to selection and many participants believed it was their leadership role in difficult times, including the parallel system, that helped some of them become School Principals and educational leaders in post-conflict Kosovo. It was what they considered a successful leadership experience that demonstrated, which enabled them to become leaders after the conflict.

One of the most discussed aspects of qualifications for the School Principal position was the education background of the candidate. One must be a High Pedagogical School (HPS) graduate or have a University degree to be qualified for a School Principal. Participants mentioned that based on upcoming Administrative Instruction (AI) all applicants should have a University degree prior to becoming school principals. Holding a University degree is seen as extremely important aspect of principal selection. However, a few participants did not think that this should be mandatory for principal positions since the majority of teaching staff held High Pedagogical school degree – a two-year teaching degree.

On professional developmentWhat is the impact of professional development opportunities on current professional practice? This question provided the opportunity to compare perceptions of principals, MEDs, Regional Officers, and central MEST staff regarding the extent to which professional development experienced by educational leaders, in particular school principals, contributed to effective leadership practice.

There are at least two main aspects of PD that were particularly highlighted. Firstly, PD was supply driven, with a few exceptions, and it was generally the provider’s responsibility to offer what they thought was useful for leaders. Secondly, the municipal education institutions and MEST, did not play the coordinating role they were supposed to play in order to channel the providers’ programs based on local educational leaders’ needs.

Without minimizing the importance and relevance of the available leadership training programs for educators in post-conflict Kosovo, these PD programs have generally been supply driven. There were just a few cases when a program was tailored to meet the needs of educational leaders. In these cases the program provider met with educational leaders and identified their needs and goals before offering a program that supported the process of meeting those goals. This approach was rare but, when it was applied, it was successful.

Participants reminded that there wasn’t an institutionally led initiative nor was there capacity to manage these programs. Some were specific and highlight the need for the School for Leadership that would coordinate these efforts and act as a central institution to provide PD, monitor implementation, and license educational

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leaders at the school level and higher leadership positions. There are many models Kosovo could learn from and I have only included three (Slovenia, England, and Alberta) for comparison purposes.

On effective school leadership as seen by Kosovar educational leadersWorking with and for the school is what characterized the perception of participants on the type of leadership desired in Kosovo schools. There is a shared perception amongst participants that in order to demonstrate effective leadership in Kosovo, educational leaders should establish a tolerant climate at school, respect the school time-table, plan and include others in planning, share information with the staff and keep them informed regularly, be accountable for the work they do, and establish and maintain collaborative and respectful relationships with teachers and the overall school community.

The focus on building professional learning communities and supporting staff development was another aspect highlighted by participants. It is their perception that school leaders and other educational leaders at the central level are effective only when they help the teaching staff at the school and other members of the organization to become life-long-learners. It is the responsibility of school leaders, who desire to become effective, to support staff performance and student achievement.

Based on participant perceptions it can be concluded that leadership in highly complex and diverse contexts, such as post-conflict Kosovo, need to focus on identifying and implementing forms of leadership practice, teaching and learning that are most effective to that context. It is through open dialogue, honest conversations, and collaboration that our educational leaders can support the development of education in post-conflict Kosovo and build effective leadership capacity to guide the education paths for our children, despite the language they speak and their political affiliations.

ConclusionThe aim of this study was to examine current policies and practices of recruiting principals in Kosovo. School principal recruitment and professional development have been two of the major aspects of educational reform initiatives in post-conflict Kosovo.

This study offers an opportunity to truly appreciate the role of educational leaders and the powerful influence of the post-conflict context in this particular educational region. Therefore, it is an obligation to qualify this interpretation by stating that it would only apply to the Peja region and the educational leaders interviewed, yet it offers potential important information.



Implications for practiceThere are at least two areas in which this study has a potential to offer an examination of practice. To become a school principal in post-conflict Kosovo schools, where most of them lack primary means to carry out a normal system of education, is not only a sacrifice but also a major struggle. These are places where space is limited and schools work in shifts; where classrooms are overcrowded and teaching aids are minimal; where lab work is limited, if non-existent; where teachers are low paid and cannot make a living out of their income. While considering all these specifics, educators in the Peja region and educational leaders, in particular, can take pride in their successes and share these with other regions.

This study also stands as an example for those principals and other education leaders, in other regions in Kosovo and other post-conflict environments, who wish to upgrade their skills and knowledge and open up towards new ideas of change in education. It was with open hearts and hunger to learn that educational leaders in this study welcomed new ideas on educational leadership and change in education. Other post-conflict contexts could take an example and inspiration from this study and from participants’ desire to learn, dedication to job, commitment to the cause, and leaders’ willingness to sacrifice for fulfilment of the school vision.

Policy recommendationsThe findings from this case study led to think about some key policy recommendations that would enhance the leadership sector in post-conflict Kosovo. Firstly, the current legal provisions that regulate the required qualifications and recruitment practice for selecting school principals need to be developed through an open and inclusive process of communication. The voice of stakeholders during the development phase is critical to successful policy implementation in the field.

There is an immediate need to revisit the current practice related to communication and dissemination of information from central MEST to educational regions, municipal institutions and schools as primary beneficiaries. Basic information, that includes current administrative instructions, new policies and upcoming policies, should be made available to schools and schools should have an easy access to them. Therefore, there is a need to design a Framework for Policy Dissemination that would be accessible to schools, in particular, and the public education opinion in general. Part of this framework would also be Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct for teachers, students, parents and educational leaders, which are yet to be developed in Kosovo.

Programming recommendationProfessional development experienced by educational leaders resulted with

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improved school leadership practice. Strengthening the school leadership and central leadership has been a major area of investment for international and local donors and in-service providers. Success stories were shared and exemplary cases were highlighted. It was a general consensus that practically related professional development was easy to understand and effortless to apply. Tailored training programs were highlighted as success stories and needs for similar programs were emphasized. However, gaps were identified and requests articulated.

Educational leaders in the Peja region clearly stated the need for developing a holistic framework that would enable building capacity for effective leadership practice in post-conflict Kosovo. The need to institutionalize and coordinate the leadership programs available to educational leaders in Kosovo was addressed by participants in this study. The practice in other countries such as: the model for licensing principals in Slovenia; the example of strong governmental support and commitment to strengthening the educational leadership sector in England; and, clearly articulated standards Principal Quality Practice in Alberta could serve as best examples to initiate change in this field of education in Kosovo.

Implications for continued researchEfforts to improve educational leadership practice should build upon the findings of well documented, and well-accepted research studies about school leadership that already exist in these regions. We should remind ourselves that leadership can take different forms in different contexts, and the leadership practiced in the Peja region does not necessarily have to be the same as leadership in other educational regions.

However, there are specific aspects of this study that require further examination. For example, the impact of professional development experienced by school principals in improving the teaching practice and student learning in other schools within Peja region should be examined. Another aspect requiring further examination is the recruitment of principals within Peja Region by selecting a larger sample and surveying current principals and also retired principals, teachers, parents and students. A mixed methodology approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods of research, in all educational regions in Kosovo, would provide a rich bank of data that could be then compared and contrasted. Lessons could be highlighted with an aim to affect the improvement of current practice in post-conflict Kosovo. These and other aspects call out for further inquiry and dynamic conversation among the educators, policy makers and researchers in post-conflict Kosovo.



Final ConclusionThis study has provided a wealth of information that will predictably affect leadership practice and research understandings from this point on. There is a hope that others will recognize the value of sharing perceptions on educational leadership development practices so that there are more opportunities to read about similar cases in post-conflict Kosovo. It is believed that a critical number of similar studies would help establish a stand point, an authentically created stand point and an insightful standard to which we could compare effective leadership practice in other educational regions in post-conflict Kosovo and countries in the region and broader.

NoteThe author, in three upcoming articles to be published in this journal, will

elaborate these aspects of policy change in Kosovo and how they affected the school leadership development and school improvement.

Osman Buleshkaj has initially worked as an ESL high school teacher. Soon after the war in Kosovo Osman was involved in two major education reform projects in Kosovo, with the Danish Red Cross psychosocial project funded by DANIDA, and the Kosovo Educator Development Project (KEDP) funded by CIDA Canada. He has been a consultant to the Ministry of Education Science and Technology in the aspects of professional development for teachers and educational leaders, developing education policy, developing the new Kosovo Curriculum Framework for Pre-university education, and similar projects. As a Senior Consultant, Osman is currently working with the EU IPA projects in Kosovo supporting educational leadership in Kosovo municipalities and schools. He is working on his doctoral research at the University of Calgary in Canada looking at policy implementation in post-conflict Kosovo. Correspondence: E-mail: <[email protected]> Tel: +377 44 673 777; +386 49 673 777

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Asessment in Higher Education – A study conducted at SEEU

Brikena XHAFERIFaculty of Languages, Cultures and Communications at SEEUTetova, Macedonia

ABSTRACT

The article addresses the issue of assessment in Higher Education in Tetova, Macedonia. Assessment is an integral part of teaching and it involves various methods of gathering information about students’ knowledge, ability and understanding. It is carried our through different methods such as: projects, quizzes, reflections, portfolio, research papers, classroom presentations, tests, etc. “The word assessment is used when judgments are made about a learner’s performance. This involves gathering and organizing information about learners in order to make judgments and decisions about their learning” (Grange and Readdy 2000, p. 3).

The present study investigates teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards continuous assessment at the South East European University (SEEU) in Tetova, Macedonia. The study involves 20 SEEU teachers and 60 students at the Faculty of Languages, Cultures and Communications. The research methods used are a student questionnaire and a teacher interview.

The findings show that both groups of participants, teachers and students, have positive attitudes towards continuous assessment. The majority of the teachers have been trained on using these methods; however, the biggest challenge for teachers is teaching and testing mixed-ability classes.

Keywords: assessment; Higher education; attitudes; SEEU; modern teaching



Vlerësimi në arsimin e lartë-studim i ndërmarrë në UEJl

Brikena XHAFERIFakulteti i Gjuhëve, kulturave dhe komunikimeve, UEJL, Tetovë, Maqedoni

ABSTRAKT

Ky artikull trajton çështjen e vlerësimit të vazhdueshëm në shkollimin e lartë në Tetovë (Maqedoni). Vlerësimi është një çështje integrale e mësimdhënies dhe ai ngërthen metoda të ndryshme për mbledhjen e të dhënave mbi dijet dhe aftësitë e studentëve. Vlerësimi realizohet nëpërmjet projekteve të ndryshme, reflektimeve, portfolios, punimeve hulumtuese, prezantimeve në klasë, testeve etj. “Fjala vlerësim përdoret kur vendimet janë marrë në bazë të performancës së një studenti. Kjo përfshin mbledhjen dhe organizimin e informacioneve për studentët me qëllim që të jepen udhëzime rreth të nxënit (Granzhë dhe Redi [Grange and Readdy], 2003 f.3).

Ky artikull hulumton qëndrimet e mësimdhënësve dhe studentëve ndaj vlerësimit të vazhdueshëm në Universitetin e Europës Juglindore në Tetovë, Maqedoni. Studimi përfshin 20 mësimdhënës dhe 60 studentë të Fakultetit të Gjuhëve, Kulturave dhe Komunikimit. Metodat e hulumtimit janë pyetsori për studentë dhe intervistat e mësimdhënësve.

Rezultatet e hulumtimit tregojnë se të dy grupet e pjesëmarrësve, mësimdhënësit dhe studentët, kanë qëndrime pozitive ndaj vlerësimit të vazhdueshëm. Shumica e mësimdhënësve janë të trajnuar të përdorin këtë metodë. Sfida më e madhe për mësimdhënësit është mësimdhënia dhe testimi në klasat me njohuri të ndryshme.

Fjalë kyç: vlerësim; arsim i lartë; qëndrime; UEJL; mësim modern

Brikena XHAFERI


introduction Assessment is a very important part of learning. Applying a test at the end of the term or year is very common; however, new teaching methodologies encourage on-going assessment to follow students’ progress and improvement over the term or year. Chan (2010) points out that teaching should be continuously monitored and renewed in order to ensure that teaching, course objectives and learning outcomes are up-to-date. In the academic settings, assessment is viewed as closely related to instruction. “Until recently the assessment scene in EFL\ESL classes has been dominated by summative evaluation of learner achievement focusing on mastery of linguistic points”(Shankar 2008, p.183). Nowadays, Institutions of higher education are facing many challenges due to societal changes. With these changes, universities have to change their teaching methodologies which focus more on assessing student communicative competence. The equipment for teaching is modern, practical and enables optimal services for application and interactive learning.

The South East European University where the present study is done, was established in 2001 and it is a multilingual University in Macedonia. Teaching is delivered through new methods of teaching including technology and teachers use different assessment methods to follow the students’ progress closely throughout an academic year. Investigating teachers’ and students’ attitudes is very important in making this process easier and more effective.

The research questions which will guide this study are:Q1. What are the students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward continuous assessment in Higher education? Q2. What are the challenges that teachers face while implementing continuous assessment?

literature review Assessment is a new concept introduced recently in education instead of concepts “tests” and “exams”. The term assessment began to be used in education in early 1970s and in 1986 Hurtle has distinguished five functions of assessment used in higher education in the USA (cited in Heywood, 2000). This was considered as constructive approach to assessing students’ knowledge and progress. Educators have been searching for the alternative assessments for a long time. They wanted to find other methods of assessment except the traditional ones. Interest in alternative types of assessment has grown rapidly during the 1990s, both as a response to dissatisfaction with multiple-choice and other selected-response tests and as an element in a systemic strategy to improve student outcomes”. “The field of evaluation has witnessed a major shift from strictly summative testing tools to and



procedures to a more humanistic approach using informal assessment techniques that stress formative assessment” (Shankar 2008, p. 181). Alternative assessments range from written essays, performance, portfolios of diverse work products, role plays, interviews and conferences. Alternative assessment uses activities that reveal what students can do with language, it is designed and structured differently from traditional tests, but are also graded or scored differently. “Since it will involve data gathering over a long period of time, it will yield more accurate data reaching the teachers early enough to modify instruction. This could play a vital role in diagnosing and remediating areas of learners’ weakness if properly anchored in what occurs in classroom (Ononyumolo, ND)”.

Pierce and O’Malley (cited in Shankar, 2008, p.183) state that “ assessment is any method of finding out what a student knows or can do that is intended to show growth and inform instruction and it is not standardized or traditional test”. It helps instructors emphasize that the point of language learning is communication for meaningful purposes (The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC, 2004). It also emphasizes learner-centered classroom because it promotes constructivism in learning. They are based on the idea that students can evaluate their own learning and learn from the evaluation process. These methods give learners opportunities to reflect on both their linguistic development and their learning processes (The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC, 2004). As stated by Nitko (2004 cited in Mikre 2010, pg.103),” results from classroom learning activities, quizzes, tests, class projects, assignment papers, informal observations on how well the student has attained the intended learning targets can be used to grade students for a lesson, or unit, a marking period, or course”. Nevertheless, continuous assessment has sometimes its’ difficulties as summarized by Black and William (2004) with respect to assessment for learning in higher learning institutes are the following the assessment methods that instructors use are not effective in promoting good learning, Grading practices tend to emphasize competition rather than personal improvement, and Assessment feedback, if at all exists often has negative impact particularly on low-achieving students, who are led to believe that they lack ability and so are not able to learn. (p.104)

Among the alternative methods of assessing students, portfolio assessment was found to be very applicable. As a result teachers are using the traditional methods of assessing students’ performance, and not using the other methods of assessment. The student is supposed to be the key participant in their their assessment, an element which is lacking in traditional tests. “A portfolio is an organized purposeful collection of evidences accumulated on a student’s academic progress, achievements, skills, characteristics, and attitudes over time” (Tangdhanakanond & Wongwanich

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2012,p. 72) . According to Darling-Hammond, 1997;Shulman, 1987; Sizer, 1992 “practitioners and researchers engaged in education reform suggest that teaching is becoming more complex in response to increasingly challenging curriculum expectations and growing diversity among students”,(as cited in Hammond L. D. & Synder J.,1999,p.523) . The basic idea is to identify the best methods of assessment which will foster students to learn more become motivated and to have a progress. There is the need of simplifying teaching, which means to develop learner autonomy. Furthermore in language teaching raises the question what we actually mean by language learning outcomes. We constantly thought that the outcome of the learners can be measured by using various performances or proficiency test. But there is always the need for changes even on assessing students’ performance.”Changing conceptions of learning, achievement, and curriculum have resulted in expanded notions of what constitutes real education reform”(Phye G.D.1997,p.7).

Standardized AssessmentIn every school there is a test which is administered, where the students are supposed to take these tests depending on the grade level that they belong. Test with different models, length and size, where the students have a limited time to take it .Students’ performance is evaluated, which means it makes the decision for their evaluation. If we need the assessment to have great and positive effect in education, it should be implemented properly. Everything in education is done to improve students’ knowledge and the goals of assessment should improve education.

Alternative AssessmentEducators have been searching for alternative assessments for a long time. They wanted to find other methods of assessment except the traditional ones. Interest in alternative types of assessment has grown rapidly during the 1990s, both as a response to dissatisfaction with multiple-choice and other selected-response tests and as an element in a systemic strategy to improve student outcomes”. Alternative assessments range from written essays, performance, portfolios of diverse work products, role plays, interviews and conferences. Maeroff (1991 cited in Phye 1997, p.27) believes that “expense and time may well turn to be the brakes on the alternative assessment movement, both for the development of the instruments and for their use. But thumbing through a portfolio with a student or watching a student perform a task-whatever the psychometric worth of such assessments-adds a degree of intimacy that can be refreshing in an age of depersonalized appraisal”. Students become more involved, active, and self-directed. Alternative assessments tell how well do the students understand the information given, are they improving, and the main point is that the students get the feedback all the time as a chance to



be corrected and improved. At the same time alternative assessment are a great help for the teachers who will better design instruction.

Formative assessment Formative assessment is part of the instructional process. When incorporated into classroom practice, it provides the information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are happening. In this sense, formative assessment informs both teachers and students about student understanding at a point when timely adjustments can be made (Garrison and Ehringhaus, 2007, para.4). They further state that, another feature of this type of assessment is that it involves the students as well. If students are not involved in the assessment process, formative assessment is not practiced or implemented to its full effectiveness. Formative assessment provides ongoing feedback to teachers and students. The assessment provides information on progress, and identifies and addresses areas that require further development.

Summative assessment Summative assessments are given periodically to determine at a particular point in time what students know and do not know (Garrison and Ehringhaus, 2007, para.2). Some examples of summative assessment are: state assessments, end-of-unit tests, chapter tests, mid-terms or final exams, etc. This type of assessment can also be used to evaluate school curriculum, student placement in different programs, etc.

Recent studies Carrillo-de-la-Pena and Perez (2010) conducted a study at a Spanish university, in the course of three consecutive academic years. There were two groups of the students involved: students under continuous assessment (the experimental group) were compared with those of students under traditional assessment (the control group). Total number of the participants was 903. The aim of the study was to investigate the student progress which was assessed from the first-term to the second-term evaluations in the experimental and control groups. The results of the study show that there positive impact of continuous assessment on all indices of academic outcomes considered. In addition, responses to a self-report questionnaire revealed that continuous assessment improved students’ satisfaction and was perceived by students as a procedure that promotes deeper learning.

Another study was conducted by Sharifi & Hassaskhah (2011). They focused on investigating the effect of using portfolio assessment technique and reflection activities on students’ writings. A quasi-experimental design was followed in this study, which included a class of 20 students at Shahid Sattari Air University of Iran, for a term five pretests and five posttests were conducted. A set of paired-sample t tests was run to compare the students’ tests and with this to see how much

Brikena XHAFERI


progress they made over time. The design of their study was both quantitative and qualitative. And the students were introduced about the portfolio at the beginning of the year but they dealt with the portfolio assessment on the second term of the year, and they were explained in details. So, the result of the questionnaire indicates that their attitude was positive to portfolio-based learning.

This study was conducted by Matsebatlela in 2005. It investigates educators’ and learners’ experiences of continuous assessment (CASS) in the subject Communication Skills. In spite of the fact that continuous assessment is implemented in schools and tertiary institutions throughout South Africa, this study confines itself to the teaching and learning of the subject Communication Skills at the Doornfontein campus of the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Questionnaires were distributed to learners, and interviews were conducted with educators. The results from the data collected revealed that the university did not provide the educators with sufficient training in CASS. As a result, the educators were not adequately prepared to implement CASS properly. It is, therefore, crucial that the university provides such training to ensure proper implementation of CASS.

The main advantages of continuous assessment are that it looks at the full capabilities of a student. It also requires students to keep up with their studying as they go along and it takes place over a period of time. This is why continuous assessment should be included in primary and secondary schools in Macedonia.

research methodologyAssessment is always considered the crucial factor in education. With the changes of the system of education in our country, it is also improving the way of assessing students’ performance. The present study investigates teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards continuous assessment at South East European University (SEEU) in Tetova, Macedonia. The study involves 20 teachers of SEEU who either hold MA or PhD Degree. Also, there were included 60 students of the Faculty of Languages, Cultures and Communications who study English, German or Albanian language. They were both genders male and female students where their age ranges from 20-22 years-old. The students have different levels of language proficiency. The research methods used are a student questionnaire and a teacher interview. The student questionnaire contains 17 questions and the aim is to find out the students’ attitudes towards continues assessment. It was developed based on different students and used for the purpose of the present study. The teacher interviews, on the other hand, contain 14 questions and they were done with twenty teachers. They were done at different times because they have been administrated individually in the Language Center of South East European University.



results Interview Results Interviews provide in-depth information about a particular research issue or question especially to elicit information about attitudes. They are very commonly used in education because they are a powerful means of both obtaining information and gaining insights. Some excerpts of the interview are presented below:R=Researcher P=Participant

Part 1Q1. Have you received any training in implementing continuous assessment (CASS) in your classes?P3: I have attended an intensive training organized by SEEU Quality research office and one of the training sessions was continuous assessment. P4: In fact, I am attending training sessions at SEEU and I believe that one of the topics is on continuous assessment. This shows that teachers have either received training on continuous assessment or are currently being trained at SEEU.

Part 2Q2: Do you feel that you are in a position to implement continuous assessment properly?P5: Yes, I strongly believe that I can assess my students properly. This is my tenth year of employment at SEEU and I know which assessment methods are appropriate for which groups of learners.Q3. What problems do you encounter in the implementation of CASS? P11: We as teachers know that there is always something difficult when we teach but mixed-ability classes. P 13: In my opinion continuous assessment requires a lot of time especially assessing class participation is very difficult.Generally, the results of all interview show that teachers, participants of this study are of the opinion that the move from traditional to contemporary teaching including continuous assessment was positive and most of them all teachers are self-confident in assessing their students continuously.

Questionnaire results The students’ attitudes towards continues assessment were investigated through a questionnaire which contains seventeen statements. The questionnaires ask the students, participants of this study to express their opinions about continuous assessment in their courses and assessment methods their teachers use.

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TABLE 1: Student attitudes towards continuous assessment

Always Sometimes Never

1. The lecturers clearly define the outcomes for each lecture. 51 31 18

2. Different assessment methods are used by the lecturers (i.e. tests, assignments, class-work, group work). 90 10 /

3. The lecturers invite us to actively participate during lectures. 45 10 554. The lecturers involve students in assessment (i.e. uses peer assessment and/or self assessment). 42 18 40

5. The lecturer gives us feedback on tests and assignments within a week. 48 10 12

6. I learn a lot from my lectures. 55 35 107. I learn a lot from feedback provided by my lecturer. 71 15 14

8. I clearly understand the importance of my lecturer’s assessment. 57 21 22

9. I enjoy learning through continuous assessment. 73 16 1110. The lecturers repeat aspects of the lecture that learners did not understand. 68 9 23

11. The lecturers help learners who experience difficulties/ problems in the subject. 81 7 12

12. The pace of lectures is appropriate to my needs. 56 7 37

13. Learners provide clear outcomes for each learning unit. 52 21 27

14. Course program clearly specify the assessment methods (e.g. tests, assignments, group-work, class-work, projects) to be used.

100 / /

15. The lecturers are available during consultation times. 91 5 4

16. The assessment given by our lecturers is balanced 71 14 15

17. Give any positive or negative comments

Regarding item 1 “The lecturers clearly define the outcomes for each lecture”, ninety percent (51%) of the participants reported that their teachers do that, thirty-one percent (31%) sometimes do it and eighteen percent (18%) never do it. Item 2 “Different assessment methods are used by the lecturers (i.e. tests, assignments, class-work, group work)” received ninety percent (90%) of the responses with always and ten percent (10%) sometimes. This shows that students are aware of the variety of assessment methods used.

For item 3” The lecturers invite us to actively participate during lectures”, forty- five percent (45%) reported that teachers always do it, ten percent (10%) sometimes do it and fifty- five percent (55%) never do it. On the other hand, only thirty-two percent (32%) of the participants believe that the teachers do not “include them in their assessment”, item 4. Self-assessment is considered a very powerful tool for



improving teaching and learning. If we teach our students how to do self-evaluation then we can contribute to a better learning.

Regarding item 5 “The lecturer gives us feedback on tests and assignments within a week” forty-eight percent (48%) reported that their teachers always give them feedback, ten percent (10%) often do it and twelve percent (12%) never do it. “I learn a lot from my lectures” is item 6 and fifty-five percent (55%) of the participants always learn from them, thirty-five sometimes (35%) sometimes learn from them and ten percent (10%) never learn from them.

In regard to item 7 “I learn a lot from feedback provided by my lecturer”, seventy-one percent (71%) reported that they always learn from it, fifteen percent (15%) sometimes learn from it and fourteen percent (14%) never learn from it. On the other hand, regarding “the importance of lecturer’s assessment”, item 8, fifty-seven percent (57%) of the participants reported that they always understand it, twenty-one percent (21%) sometimes understand it and twenty-two percent (22%) never understand it.

Regarding item 9 “I enjoy learning through continuous assessment”, seventy-three percent (73%) of the participants reported that they enjoy it, sixteen percent (16%) sometimes enjoy it and eleven percent (11%) never enjoy it. On the other hand, for item 10 “The lecturers repeat aspects of the lecture that learners did not understand”, sixty-eight percent (68%) of the participants reported that their teachers always do it, only nine percent (95%) said that their teachers sometimes do it and twenty-three (23%) reported that they never do it.

Item 11 asked the participants if “the lecturers help learners who experience difficulties/ problems in the subject” and eighty percent (80%) of the participants stated that they always do it, seven percent (7) often do it and twelve percent (12%) stated that their teachers never do it. Regarding item 12 “The pace of lectures is appropriate to my needs” fifty – six percent (56%) of the participants reported that the pace of lectures is always appropriate to their needs, seven (7%) percent declared that it is often is thirty-seven (37%) stated that the pace of lectures is never appropriate to their needs. For item 13” Learners provide clear outcomes for each learning unit”, fifty-two percent stated that they always do, fifty-two percent (52%) stated that they sometimes do and twenty - seven percent (27%) that they never do it.

Item 14 “Course programs clearly specify the assessment methods (e.g. tests, assignments, group-work, class-work, projects) to be used” received the highest score, one hundred percent (100%) where the participants stated that at the beginning of the course they are familiar with the assessment methods used in a certain course. This a SEEU rule where the students at the beginning of the course are informed about course requirements and tasks that should be completed

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by the students. Also, ninety-one percent (91 %) believe that “The lecturers are available during consultation times”, item 15. This is another rule at SEEU where the lecturers hold consultation hours twice a week and they are always available for the students during these times. For item 16 “The assessment given by our lecturers is balanced” seventy-one percent (71%) reported that the teachers always do it, fourteen percent (14%) sometimes do it and fifteen percent (15%) of the participants never do it. For item seventeen “Give any positive or negative comments” ten students stated that they are very happy when they work in groups but 4 of them stated that classroom presentations make them feel nervous. In addition to this, three students reported that they like the ways teachers assess them and 2 participants are of the opinion that they are not being assessed objectively.

Conclusions The findings of the study lead one to conclude that both groups of participants, teachers and students, have positive attitudes towards continuous assessment. The data obtained from the teacher interview show that teachers (sixteen out of twenty) believe that the move from traditional to contemporary teaching including continuous assessment was positive. In addition to this, all teachers are self-confident in assessing their students continuously and they select the assessment methods carefully and present it to the students at the beginning of a course. Yet, the main difficulty in implementing continuous assessment is mixed-ability classes especially in the language classrooms.

Regarding the data obtained from the students questionnaire, it is clearly stated the students enjoy learning through continues assessment (73%) and the teachers use different assessment methods (i.e. tests, assignments, class-work, group work) as reported by ninety percent (90%) of the respondents. Nevertheless, an issue that should be taken into consideration by the teachers at SEEU is giving students a chance to evaluate themselves. “The importance of self-assessment in both our formal and informal learning processes is more likely to be inversely proportional to the exhibited willingness to embrace self-assessment as an important and essential learning key” (McCrae, 1993, p.3).

I believe that the information revealed in this study will serve all SEEU teachers and beyond to provide some new insights into the implementation continuous assessment in higher education and also some issues teachers should take into consideration while assessing their students.



Brikena Xhaferi obtained her Master degree from the University of Indiana, Bloomington (USA) in 2005. In 2006, she enrolled in PhD at Alpen-Adria University in Klagenfurt where she successfully finished it in 2008 and earned the title Doctor of Philosophy. Her research interests include innovative approaches in English language teaching methodology, second language acquisition and multilingual education. She mentors many MA and PhD candidates. She teaches at the South East European University Tetovo, Macedonia where she was appointed the Best Researcher of the academic year 2011. Correspondence: <[email protected]>

rEFErENCESDe la Pena, M and Perez, J. (2012). Continuous assessment improved academic achievement and

satisfaction of Psychology students in Spain. In Teaching of Psychology. SAGE.Grange, Le L. and Reddy, C (2000). Continuous Assessment. An introduction AND

GUIDELINESS TO ITS IMPLEMENTATION. Juta and Company Limited.Garrison, C., & Ehringhaus, M. (2007). Formative and summative assessments in the classroom.

Retrieved on June 3, 2013 from the web:http://www.amle.org/Publications/WebExclusive/Assessment/tabid/1120/Default.aspx.

Hammond, L.D. and Snyder, J. (2000). Authentic assessment of teaching in context. In Teaching and Teacher Education Vol.16, 523-535.

Heywood, J. (2000). Assessment in Higher education: Student Learning, Teaching, Programs and Institutions.

Mikre, F. (2010). The roles of assessment in curriculum practice and enhancement of learning. In Ethiop. J. Educ. & Sc. Vol. 5, Nr. 2.

McCrae, J. (1993). Self-Assessment : An Essential Learning Key. The Higher Education Academy.Retrieved on July 1, 2013 from the web: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/resources/heca/heca_as10.pdf.

NCLRC joint project of Georgetown University, The George Washington University, and theCenter for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved from the web on June25, 2013 Web: http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/alternative.htm.

Ononyumolo, L. (ND). Continuous assessment in Nigeria Education System. Retrived on June, 20, 2013 from the web: http://www.wesoeduonline.com/journals/nard/ISSUES%20IN%20CONTINUOUS%20ASSESSMENT%20IN%20NIGERIA%20EDUCATION%20SYSTEM.pdf

Phye, G. (1995).Handbook of Classroom Assessment: Learning, Achievement, and Adjustment. Academic Press Limited.

Shankar, P. (2008). Teaching of English. Bajali Offset, Delhi.Sharifi, A. and Hassaskhah, J (2011).The Role of Portfolio Assessment and Reflection on

Process Writing. Retrived on June 5, 2013 from the web:http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/PDF/March-2011.pdf.


Education for all vs. Education for each – a case study

Gerda SULA, University of Geneva & Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tirana

ABSTRACT

“Education for Social Justice” is a professional learning program aiming at reducing the disparities in the teachers’ teaching, mainly due to their biases and negative prejudices towards children (International Step by Step Association, 2005). The program is designed by International Step by Step Association, and it has shown positive effects in the countries that have adopted it (Trikic & Vranjesejevic, 2009; Open Academy Step by Step, 2011). The Step by Step Centre Albania piloted the program in Kavaja, a heterogeneous town in Midwest Albania in the school year 2011-2012. This case study tries to analyse whether the intervention made a difference in the beliefs and attitudes of teachers towards the children they teach. This article attempts to outline the lessons learned and possibilities presented for fairer education for children in primary schools.

Keywords: education for all; social justice; children with special needs; disadvantaged children; parent involvement


Edukimi për të gjithë ndaj edukimit për çdo individ - rast studimor

Gerda Sula, Universiteti i Gjenevës & Fakulteti i Shkencave Sociale, Universiteti i Tiranës

ABSTRAKT

“Edukimi me drejtësi shoqërore” është një program zhvillimi profesional për mësuesit dhe specialistët e arsimit, që ka për qëllim reduktimin e pabarazive në mësimdhënie të shkaktuara kryesisht nga paragjykimet dhe besimet negative të mësuesve kundrejt fëmijëve me të kaluar me probleme (International Step by Step Association, 2005). Programi është hartuar nga Shoqata Ndërkombëtare Hap pas Hapi dhe ka treguar efektet positive në vendet ku është zbatuar (Trikic & Vranjesejevic, 2009; Open Academy Step by Step, 2011). “Qendra Hap pas Hapi”, Shqipëri e ka pilotuar këtë program në Kavajë, qytet në Shqipërinë e Mesme, gjatë vitit shkollor 2011-2012. Studimi i rastit të paraqitur përpiqet të analizojë nëse ndërhyrja solli ndryshime në besimet dhe qëndrimet e mësuesve drejt nxënësve të tyre. Ky artikull tenton të pasqyrojë mësimet e nxjerra dhe mundësitë e paraqitura për një edukim më të drejtë për fëmijët në shkollat fillore.

Fjalë kyç: arsim për të gjithë; edukim me drejtësi shoqërore; fëmijë me nevoja të veçanta; fëmijë të pafavorizuar; përfshirje e prindërve

Gerda SULA


literature reviewIt is widely agreed that school is a multi-use and multifaceted institution, the key aim of which is to develop in children comprehension and skills they will need in order to thrive as adults (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Beyond endowing children with knowledge and skills, schools carry out a delicate, although less frequently discussed, sorting function in society (Knitzer & Lefkowitz, 2005). Students who do well in schools are granted access to the higher-paying and more esteemed positions in society. By contrast, those who do least well are generally restrained to positions at the bottom of the financial hierarchy, remaining objects of the societal punishments and blaming system. And teachers play a critical role in the sorting process, whether deliberately or not. Given the significant role that schools play in shaping students’ life chances and the responsibility that teachers have to teach all students fairly, professional development strategies for teacher cannot overlook the obvious disparities in the current model’s distribution of school benefits among groups.

How does the education for social justice (or the lack of it) fit with the Albanian context? The Albanian Education system is an input-driven system, which makes it very difficult to fulfill the needs of each and every child attending school (Whitehead, 2000). The real challenge for the Albanian school system is its transformation from an input-driven to an output-driven system. Quite a high percentage of students, approximately third, have only a small benefit from the schooling (Llambiri, 2001). Responsibility for the quality of education is not clear whether it is teachers’, school directors’, or parents’. The results of the students are subjective, and there are no mechanisms to measure quality and progress of children at the primary level.

Traditionally, teachers in Albania aim at teaching the average student, often ignoring the students’ personal background factors that impede academic success, such as ethnicity, social marginalization, personal development challenges and economic disadvantages. The inequalities in fair access to compulsory education include poverty, location (rural, urban and suburban), cultural level of families and the quality of educational services (Save the Children, Albania, 2012). Roma students, children coming from families with social and economical issues, and children with special needs suffer most. This in turn becomes a black curse increasing dropout percentages in upper grades of compulsory education, reducing the incidence figures of these children in high school (CESS, 2011). A brief survey on compulsory education data confirm that children from Roma groups complete on average 4 years of schooling, compared to the national average of 9,5 years (Tamo&Karaj, 2007). Children from poor families achieve 40 % less than students from non-poor families do. Nearly 21% of students drop out due to poverty. Owing

Education for all vs. education for each – a case study


to the extent of poverty, parents are forced to sacrifice their boys’ education over girls. In the city outskirts, the dropout rate is much higher than in the other areas. Nearly one third of the children are class repeaters. Parents are mostly illiterate, with some having a few years education. Only 7.7% of fathers and 3.5% of mothers of children dropping out of school have attended secondary education (Save the Children Albania, 2012). Girls are kept out of school when they reach puberty. This is the case particularly with Roma children as well as in rural areas. In the 7th grade the number of girls who are forced to stay home in 3.7 times higher compared to 6th grade (CESS, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, 2011). The Roma and Egyptian children belong to the group widely regarded as the most deprived from the educational perspective. This might be due to economic and cultural factors. The average number of grades they attend is 4.02 for Roma and 5.05 for Egyptian children (Llambiri, 2001).

But this is not just an Albanian story. Historically, factors such as social class, race, and ethnicity have been powerful forecasters of the profit students are apt to obtain from their school experience. Some data from research in the US education system show that, compared with their white, middle-class peers, students from low-income and racial/ethnic minority groups have lower scores on achievement tests (Knitzer & Lefkowitz, 2005); they are also highly represented in special education programs and lower academic pathway; are more likely to repeat a grade and/or drop out of high school; and are less apt to enroll in and graduate from college (Peirce, 2011).

The prevailing goal of the social justice agenda in professional teacher development is to help teachers teach each child appropriately, not just those traditionally well served by schools, so that, as adults, all are able to participate equitably in economic, social and political life. Teaching that is inspired by principles of social justice is an expansive approach to education that aims to have all children reach their maximum potential of learning and to prepare each of them for active and full participation in a democratic society (Epstein, 2007).

To accomplish these goals, teachers need an expansive range of knowledge and skills, and most importantly, a positive attitude that stems from the belief that each child is able to learn. To be responsive to each child’s needs, teachers need to be aware of how children learn and develop in cultural contexts different from the one that they were brought up in. Teachers need a high pedagogical expertise, including skills for creating learning experiences that build on each child’s individual and cultural strengths while engaging them in meaningful and intentional activities. They need the ability to make the subject matter interesting for learners from varied backgrounds by using diverse instructional strategies that create different paths to learning. Skills for using relevant school and community resources to the benefit

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of student learning are also important. Moreover, they need the ability to identify sources of trouble in students’ learning and strengths on which to build instruction, skills for monitoring students’ developing understanding of new concepts and re-directing them if needed, expertise in using varied assessment practices that encourage learning for all students, and strategies for creating an inclusive classroom community that supports learning for diverse students. Equally important, teachers who are determined to teach their students equitably need to understand existing obstacles to learning that children from low-income and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds consistently come across in school. All this non-exhaustive list of characteristics of an effective professional teacher cannot be taught once and for all in the initial teacher education phase, or received as a pre-packed package in professional development. Time is ripe, that teacher development is conceived as an on-going professional learning process, rather than a conventional long-term, intentional and systemic product (Cochran-Smith, 2008).

Education for Social Justice ProgramEducation for Social Justice (ESJ) was developed with the aim to provide equal access to educational opportunities for socially disadvantaged groups. To achieve this goal, programs were designed to enhance teachers’ capacity as effective change agents within their classrooms, schools, and communities. International Step by Step Association, an umbrella organization working in 30 Central-Eastern European countries and Central Asia, Albania’s Step by Step Center among them, put together a group of experts to develop this training program, which is grounded in the constructivist philosophy of adult learning. Thus, professional development is seen as a collaborative process, believing in Borko’s (2004) concept that the most effective professional development happens when there are meaningful interactions among teachers (Borko, 2004).

In addition, ESJ builds on and extends the efforts to promote children’s abilities to make choices, accept responsibility, respect differences, and to transform the role of the entire community. ESJ recognizes the complex roles and responsibilities of students, parents, and teachers in the creation of inclusive and equitable societies. Grounded in principles of liberation and multicultural/intercultural education theory, the ESJ initiative introduces and advances the idea of the need to go beyond a mere tolerance of differences to the transformation of schools and education systems. This initiative is multipronged composed of two main approaches: for adults, and for children. We will focus on the ESJ – A Program for Adults. It presents background, theory, and activities for adults, aiming to:

• increase participants’ knowledge of, understanding of, and sensitivity



to the complex mechanisms that perpetuate and maintain systems of oppression and inequity

• promote the individual’s responsibility and capacity to intervene, challenge, and counter the personal and institutional behaviors that perpetuate these systems

The ESJ program was applied with the teachers of grades K-5 in a school in Kavaja, a small city in Midwest Albania, with a stable but diverse population, posing issues of equitability and accountability on children’s background and ability. This town was selected for several reasons: it has not been in the map of intervention on the part of government or non-governmental agencies(Instituti i Zhvillimit te Arsimit, 2011); the dynamics of biases due to changing population are active (Llambiri, 2001), and the school selected showed interest in being involved in the project. The project aimed at shaking teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards children, due to their conscious and unconscious biases, demanding greater responsibility on the part of the schooling system, the school and themselves, in order to increase school success for each child.

MethodologySampling context The ESJ training program part 1 was offered to all the teachers of the primary school (Kindergarten to 5th grade) in the “3 Dëshmorët” school Kavaja, under the framework of the project “Improving schools from within”, with the support of Open Society Foundation London. Kavaja is a small town in central Albania. Its inhabitants are mainly natives or newly settlers coming from surrounding villages. This town has known one of the highest emigration flows in the early ’90 in Albania. Many left later. During this period, Kavaja records many split families, single parent families and children in kinship care. The main sources of family income are the revenues from emigration, which has seen drastic decline due to the economic crisis in Italy and Greece, the main countries of emigration. Kavaja is mostly Muslim. Traditional rules of family and public conduct, including covering the head for girls are highly applauded in the town, but completely banned in public secular schools. There is a small settlement of the Roma and Egyptian community, mostly living from selling second-hand clothes. The Kavaja site represents extreme diversity of very rich and very poor; girls and women in headscarves as well as highly educated and emancipated ones; many living off revenues from emigration, but many who have managed to become successful entrepreneurs; families living in the slums, and others in expensive villas; a mosque and a high school in the center town which ranked very highly nationwide for the number of successful students;

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many children who drop out of school, but many who continue higher education; business women, but many illiterate women as well. The “3 Dëshmorët” School is one of the oldest schools of the city, positioned near the market and the glass factory. All the above-mentioned populations are represented in the school.

ESJ – A program for adults was held in four sequential Saturdays at the beginning of the school year 2011-2012. All twenty three K-5th grade teachers (composing the primary school cycle in Albania) of the “3 Dëshmorët” School participated. The primary school’s vice director participated as well.

The case study designThe research was designed to be a case study, because we wanted to focus at the trends and giving major interests to people’s attitude towards the concepts being implemented, rather than quantitative, number-focused evaluation. This case study research is written after triangulating the gathered information from several sources. As we were interested in finding out whether the program did in fact make a difference in teachers’ attitudes towards children, it was important to compare the triangulated information before and after the program intervention. For reasons of convenience, the data was collected three months after the intervention we triangulated the data collected from:

Intentional observation in the classroom . The observation was planned to be comparative before and after the training. The pre-intervention observations were composed of: five hours of observation in each of the primary school levels in Mathematics orAlbanianLanguage. The post-intervention observations were held in the same classrooms and for the same subject. We needed to understand how the change happened (if it happened), and if yes, what difference did it make in the lives of children and teachers.

• In depth interviews: Teachers observed were interviewed as well. The interview was based on positive approach, aiming at encouraging the teacher to feel professional and capable, rather than making her feel unsettled or worried that she did something wrong, which is the usual way of inspecting the classrooms. The teachers were encouraged to share the rationale behind their teaching strategies. The school director mainly gave insights from his point of view of where the challenges lie regarding successful integration of the children.

• Focus groupsTwo focus groups with the teachers in the training, one with the teachers of first grade, and the other with the teachers of fifth grade. The transition



grades were selected. The same teachers were involved in the focus groups three months after the training. We had an overlapping of 100% between the first and second time. Two focus groups with the children of the same teachers were held. 10 children participated. The children were selected to represent diverse backgrounds – Roma children, children from strict Muslim families, children from difficult social backgrounds (children of divorced parents, children living with grandparents as parents were in emigration, children from very poor families), and academically challenged children. These specific subgroups of children were included, as literature shows that these are the children with major difficulties in succeeding in school. The same children were included three months after the intervention, with an overlapping of 86% (children absent the day of the focus group).

• Desk review of school documentsReading of school records and data. More specifically, we looked at the school yearly objectives, how many of these objectives were focused on creating a welcoming and supportive school for each child attending it; the classrooms’ objectives.

Data triangulationData taken from participatory classroom observation, interviews, focus groups and document reviews were triangulated to develop an understanding on the way social justice was enhanced and/or impeded by this training intervention. Triangulation involved indexing and coding of the main themes around social justice education. The indexing was influenced by a quantitative survey of the implementation of the ESJ - a program for adults in Croatia (Open Academy Step by Step, 2011). In this survey, aiming at studying changes in attitudes of teachers towards diversity, participants of the ESJ - A program for adults completed a five-point Likert Scale questionnaire of 42 statements before and three months after the training (Trikic & Vranjesejevic, 2009). The statements are grouped so as to represent the typical attitudes towards: tolerance, diversity as a threat, respect for diversity, minority groups, and children from minority groups, children’s rights, role of the teacher, education against prejudices, and alliance.

Discussion of the findings

Theme: Diversity as a threatThis theme includes indexing of attitudes that express a negative connotation of the idea of diversity: that being different is negative, something that threatens and

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distorts an existing peace and harmony that would otherwise exist if there were no differences among people.

Code #1 Finding: Teachers participating in the training program started to think critically about issues in their classrooms, and in their community about which they hadn’t been thinking critically before

“Well, everybody knew about the issue, but we all just accept it. It is the first time that I consider that maybe it isn’t the Roma’s fault that he doesn’t speak Albanian when he enters the first grade, but it is just how it is, and it is the responsibility of the school to find ways to accommodate him, not the other way around.”1

Teachers participating in the program shifted their attitudes towards diversity as a threat, and considered possible that accommodation can be more fruitful for everyone in the school.

Theme: Role of the teacherThe theme consists of attitudes relating to the way in which the role of the teacher

is understood: is the role of the teacher purely educational or does the teacher have an activist role in the area of social justice (ensuring an equal treatment, equal opportunities for all children), and at the same time taking into consideration children’s rights.

Code #2 Finding: Teachers acknowledged that education is about creating equitable learning environments for each student, rather than teaching to the middle.

“I knew that nothing good would happen with that child if I failed him. All the children in the classroom decided that he is our friend and he needs help. We wrote in our classroom objectives that we all will finish successfully the third grade, and they set up support schemes to help their friend.”2

Alliance themeAlliance is an important part of education for social justice. Under this theme, attitudes towards the need for allies in the fight against discrimination, as well as the role of the teacher as an ally in the education process and the development of children were studied.

Code #3 Finding: Teachers understood that inequalities are systemic and not just individual acts, which means that changes in their classroom alone are not enough.

(Observation in a third grade classroom prior to the training) The teacher, a soft spoken woman in her thirties was skilfully guiding children to perform addition and subtraction of three-digit numbers. The classroom was bright, with child-friendly professionally-made decorations on the walls, which looked

1. First grade teacher, answering about the accommodation of the children in school.2. Fifth grade teacher on supporting schemes to help each child succeed after the training.



like they had been there for quite some time, and it had flowers -a rarity in the classrooms. Thirty-five children were sitting in groups, even though they were not collaborating. The atmosphere was very positive, and the children looked focused. At the end of the hour, the teacher asked two Roma children to stand up, and after reminding the rest of the class that their friends will come with them in the fourth grade, wrote a simple, one digit addition for each child to complete. When they managed to do so, all children applauded, and the two Roma kids were crowned the King and Queen of the Day.”3

Clearly, the teacher wanted the children to feel successful, but the underlying message was that she was expecting little of them, and the other children as well. The teacher’s patronizing was not noticed in the observations held after the training.

Code #4 Finding: Teachers’ heightened conscience towards equity vs. equitability concepts was propelled by the interventions.

When asked why she chose to do this, the teacher responded that it was a major success for these two children to be able to solve the additions, and they need to feel proud of themselves. When asked whether she believed that these two kids deserved to continue to go to the fourth grade, she said that they were very much behind in math, and they wouldn’t be able to catch up. The next time we interviewed her, she stated: “It is not their fault that they are failing, it is not my fault that they are failing, it is our school system that doesn’t allow them to be successful.”Code #5 Finding: Teachers were shifting from an equality orientation to an

equity orientation towards social justice“I had never thought that it is the school’s fault for not assuring additional support for this child (a child with special needs). It is not fair to them, it is not fair to the other children, and it is not useful to anybody. I organized a PTA, in which they agreed to come in turns and stay with me in the classroom, and help with the child. Do they come? Yes, it’s only once a month or less. If the parents can’t, the grandmother comes. This way is fairer for everybody”.Code #6 Finding: Teachers had shifted beyond the “objective facilitator” role,

and actively advocated for equity and justice.Due to several issues, such as un contextualized and cognitively burdened

school textbooks, overcrowded classrooms, ineffective teaching-learning process and inadequate school infrastructure, the teacher usually teaches to the “middle”: the average students, which would make up in the best case the majority of the students. Due to family pressure, and personal professional satisfaction they sometimes make efforts to fulfil the needs of higher achieving students, but very

3. From field notes observations in a third grade classroom prior to the training

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little effort for the success of low achieving ones. The last group can easily be labelled as marginalized, because they know too little. These children often belong to families with low cultural level, such as Roma, migrated children from rural areas, or even immigrant children coming back to Albania. Prior to the training the teachers were merely hopeless; afterwards they were angry that the school didn’t allow each child to be successful. However, we didn’t gather more intrinsic data to ensure us of the internalized change of the teachers.

Code #7 Finding: Teachers were willing to discomfort and unsettle themselves and their students

The typically traditional teaching-learning process is mostly text-oriented, leaning towards mere memorization and with a high frequency of teachers’ taking over in the classroom. The considerable lack of teaching materials and quality of life within the school, such as heating, or number of children per class add to the deterioration of educational services. But even with the same condition, the situation had shifted for better.

“There is another issue why our school has this problem: We don’t know how to teach to these children. Nobody taught us, not in University, not in the books. Besides we don’t have enough time.”4

“The teacher had prepared a work sheet for each table to work in cooperation. The children seemed very active and involved in that particular activity.”5

Tolerance themeThis theme includes attitudes towards (a) the ideas of tolerance through the

most commonly incorrect notions of what tolerance is, and (b) the possibility that tolerance is learned at a step by step pace.

Code #8 Finding: Teachers transcended the idea of education as “learning about other cultures” and “celebrating diversity”.

An interesting example to illustrate this finding is the specific, individualized, inclusive School Development Plan and Objectives prior and after the intervention. The development of the school plan describes the situation of the school, it formulates the aim and objectives over a one-year period, and it determines the relevant priority measures in attaining the objectives.

“I would take out the old Yearly School Plan, rewrite the years in the front page, and photocopy the rest of it. Then I would put it in the drawer to keep it there until some guy from the Ministry would come for inspection and ask

4. Teacher prior to the training, who was asked why so many students were having difficulties, 5. From field notes, observation Albanian language, third grade classroom after the training



for it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t use the Plan for any other reason.”6

However, not all teachers had necessarily changed their teaching style, or understood why they were making changes even after the intervention. An observation in one of classrooms illustrates this finding:

“Observation in a first class: the teacher had set the classroom tables and chairs in a U shaped manner. When asked why she chose this room arrangement she couldn’t give an answer. Finally she said that it was because she could control the children better. She started going over the alphabet, showing every picture, capital letter and small letter, which the children were parroting in a chorus. Some children were bored, some were merely opening their mouths, and some others were screaming after the teacher.7”

This example points up the major difficulties that really exist in changing the system and down to reaching individual teachers, who are products of their time. Radical change in every cell of the education system takes time, organized effort and institutional willingness to produce.

teaching toolsTeachers had the opportunity to use tools that are aimed at ensuring that every

child in their class reached the minimal level of knowledge. However, some of the teachers observed did not manage to objectify the lesson objectives:

“To recite the poem with feeling.”“To write nicely the letter “T” (it is not possible to measure objectively whether

the children are reciting with feeling, or whether their letter is nicely formed.)“To conjugate the verbs in the past tense” (too vast.)8

Other teachers reported that it takes a lot of time and effort to really master the skill of writing good objectives. Some of the teachers said that the training was too short to ensure radical change9.

To sum up the change in teachers, even though complex, intrinsic and slow to alter can be increased through the application of intervention training, such as ESJ – a program for adults. The challenges of undertaking and implementing such an initiative are immense, because at the end the project designers and implementors are proposing to change the mentality and the old teaching styles that are deeply rooted in teachers, the community and the education system. The school needs to adopt the principles of diversity at its core, a missing philosophy of 6. Interview with School Director 7. From an observation in a first class after the training8. All the objectives mentioned, which were copied from the teachers’ diaries do not follow the requirements of writing the objectives. For me to be fair, these were the only examples that I found to be incorrect.9. From the focus group with the teachers after the training.

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the Albanian society, hence the school. The assimilation principle: all are equal, the same curricula, the same evaluation, the same destiny, is a handicap of the Albanian school derived from the input-driven system.

This change in attitude shows that the participants put less blame on the children for poor academic performance and that they are more understanding towards the difficulties different children face because of their lower starting points. Examples for other groups of children (Roma, poor economic status, etc) were present as well. But this is not enough. The sentence used as the title for this article, illustrates that change did happen, and it did make a difference in the life of at least this 8 year old Roma boy, who said in the after-the-intervention focus group:

“I now like the school better, because I now am my teacher’s bunny.”

Gerda Sula is a lecturer involved in teacher preparation Master programs at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tirana, and also the Executive Director of Qendra Hap pas Hapi. She is also Ph.D. student at the University of Geneva. Her main interests are applying child-centered philosophy in Albania’s traditional teaching environment in early childhood education. She has served as a consultant for several Government and International organizations, as UNICEF Kosovo, UNICEF Albania, World Bank, Ministry of Education and Sciences in Albania, Plan International, etc. She has published several articles in national and international professional journals, and chapters in professional books. She has held innumerous trainings in local, national, regional and international levels, as well as presented at different national and international conferences. She has served as a Member of different national and international organizations, as well as in committees of several events, including scientific international conferences. Correspondence: E-mail: <[email protected]> Tel: +355 692064040

rEFErENCESBorko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain.

Educational Researcher 33(8) , 3–15.CESS, Centre for Economic and Social Studies. (2011). Mapping Roma Children in AlbaniaCochran-Smith, M., Feiman-Nemser, S., & McIntyre, S. (2008). Handbook of Research on Teacher

Education: Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts. New York, London: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Epstein, A. (2007). The intentional teacher: choosing the best strategies for young children’s learning. Washington DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.



Instituti i Zhvillimit të Arsimit. (2011). Raporti vjetor 2011. Retrieved November 14, 2012, from www.izha.edu.al: http://izha.edu.al/files/pdf/raporti_vjetor_2011.pdf

International Step by Step Association. (2005). Education for Social Justice - Training manual for adults. ISSA.

Knitzer, J., & Lefkowitz, J. (2005). Resources to promote social and emotional health and school readiness in young children and families: a community guide. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty.

Llambiri, S. (2001). Braktisja e fshtehte. Tirana: Erik Botime.Open Academy Step by Step. (2011). Change in attitudes of the participants in the Education for

Social Justice training. Zagreb: Open Academy Step by Step.Peirce, B. N. (2011). Social identity, investment, and language learning. In L. Ortega, Second

language acqusition: critical concepts in linguistics (pp. 151-172). Abingdon: Routledge.Save the Children Albania. (2012). Children’s Situation in Albania. Retrieved January 13, 2013,

from http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/countries/albania/children-situation-albania.Shonkoff, J., & Phillips, D. e. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of earlychildhood

development. Washington, D.C.: Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences, National Academy Press.

Tamo, A., & Karaj, T. (2007). Situata arsimore e fëmijëve Romë në Shqipëri. Albania: UNICEF & Save the Children.

Trikic, Z., & Vranjesejevic, J. (2009). Education for Social Justice - Evaluation of the program.Seeds of Change-Effective Investments in Early Childhood for Enduring Social Progress (p. 34). Bucharest: ISSA.

Whitehead, J. (2000). Teacher Education Reforms in Albania. European Journal of Teacher Education, 23/1 , 85-94.

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The Perception of School Principals in Kosovo regarding Parental involvement in the School GovernanceEdaVULA Faculty of Education, University of Prishtina

Teuta DANUZANational Qualifications Authority, Prishtina

ABSTRACT

The 2008 Cross-National Survey of School Principals in South East Europe (SEE) countries has documented the need to improve factors that affect communication with parents and the possibility of the participation of parents in decision-making processes. According to the results of the survey conducted in Kosovo (OSI, 2009), this communication is mainly established as one-way, “school-parent” direction, where parent is more likely to listen than to express his position.

The present study builds on current survey1 on the communication with parents’, parents’ beliefs about the relationship with their children’s schools and activities related to the school’s governance. Based on the perception of school principals, this study aims to evaluate the level of parental involvement in school governance and impact of parent – school communication on the parental involvement in decision-making at school level.

Correlational analysis and standard regression analysis were used to examine the relationship between parental involvement in decision-making as dependent variable and parent-school communication practices as independent variables. The relation of communication variables with parental involvement in school decision making seems to be modest. However, the parents’ involvement is still based more on “invitations” from the school rather than on any systematic strategy.

Key words: parent-school communication; parent involvement in school; decision-making; school principals

1. OSI 2009, http://www.see-educoop.net/aeiq/reports/kosovo_report.pdf



Perceptimi i drejtuesve të shkollave në Kosovë për përfshirjen e prindërve në qeverisjen e shkollësEdaVULA Fakulteti i Edukimit, Universiteti i Prishtinës

Teuta DANUZAAutoriteti Kombëtar i Kualifikimeve, Prishtinë

ABSTRAKT

Sondazhi Kombëtar i Drejtorëve të Shkollave në vendet e Europës Juglindore, 2008 (EJL) ka dokumentuar nevojën për të përmirësuar faktorët që ndikojnë në komunikimin me prindërit dhe mundësinë e pjesëmarrjes së prindërve në proceset vendim-marrëse. Sipas rezultateve të sondazhit të realizuar në Kosovë (OSI, 2009), ky komunikim zhvillohet kryesisht në kahun “shkollë-prind”, në të cilin prindi ka më shumë mundësi për të dëgjuar, sesa për të shprehur qëndrimin e tij.

Ky studim bazohet në sondazhin në fjalë për komunikimin me prindërit, qëndrimet e prindërve në lidhje me marrëdhëniet me shkollën e fëmijëve të tyre dhe aktivitetet e lidhura me qeverisjen e shkollës. Bazuar në perceptimin e drejtorëve të shkollave, ky studim vlerëson nivelin e përfshirjes së prindërve në qeverisjen e shkollës dhe ndikimin e komunikimit prind-shkollë për përfshirjen e prindërve në vendim-marrje në nivel shkolle.

Analiza e marrëdhënieve ndërmjet përfshirjes së prindërve në vendim-marrje, si ndryshore të varura dhe praktikave të komunikimit prind-shkollë, si ndryshore të pavarura është realizuar me shqyrtimin e korrelacionit dhe regresionit standard. Marrëdhëniet e variablave të komunikimit me ato të përfshirjes së prindërve në vendim-marrje në shkollë duket të jenë modeste, megjithatë përfshirja e prindërve është bazuar më shumë në “ftesat” nga shkolla se nga çdo strategji tjetër.

Fjalë kyç: komunikimi prind-shkollë; përfshirja e prindërve në shkollë; vendim-marrje, drejtorët e shkollave

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introduction

In the post-war period (after 1999), the UN became an important part of life in Kosovo. Through the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, the Department of Education and Science (DES) – which is a joint governing institution managed by international and local staff – was put in charge of managing all education-related issues in Kosovo. The period 2000-2001 was focused on the preparation of the necessary legal and professional infrastructure for the establishment of a new system of general, vocational and higher education. The process of establishment of the educational system institutions reached a height in March 2002 with the foundation of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST). The Ministry hasdeveloped the new educational system which aims to integrate the new Kosovo society into regional and European associations.

The Advancing Educational Inclusion and Quality in South East Europe (SEE) as part of the Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute (OSI), is focused on the issues of educational reforms and equal participation as crucial aspects of effective functioning of schools in South East Europe (SEE). The joint project of eight countries in the region investigated parental participation in decision-making, in extracurricular activities, and in the education of children in public elementary schools and its relation to school level factors and to the attitudes and beliefs of school principals. Principals report that parental influence on decisions taken at classroom level tends to be a common practice. While this is a positive development, it cannot compensate for the limited levels of influence that are being reported by Principals in the cases of teacher performance assessment, textbook choice and school budgeting.2

In the case of Kosovo, as part of the SEE countries, educational policy is more focused on legislative reforms that deal with curricula, textbooks and teacher qualifications. However, there has been progress in promoting the school-parent communication and parental participation in school governance. The parent involvement is regulated by Law on Primary and Secondary Education, which requires a mandatory establishment of the school council as a body that enables parental involvement in school governance. This paper aims to evaluate whether the parental communication with teachers and principals is related to their participation in decision-making in schools.

School-parent communication A number of studies show that the involvement of parents and families in the schooling of their children makes a significant difference, not only in improving students’ behavior and attendance, but also in promoting student achievement 2. www.see-educoop.net/aeiq/documents/raport-full.pdf

The Perception of School Principals in Kosovo regarding the Parental Involvement in the School Governance


(MetLife, 2005; Michael, Dittus, & Epstein, 2001). Parental involvement has been theoretically conceptualized in numerous ways. Some authors focus on the goal or outcome (Epstein, 1995), while others focus on the parenting role, expectations, or intent (Mattingly et al., 2002). The multiple definitions and meanings ranging from home-based to school-based activities are either child-focused or institution-focused (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997).

Regardless of income and background, students with parents who are involved in their academic careers are more likely to earn high grades, attend school regularly, show improved behavior, adapt well to school, and have better social skills (Obeidat& Al-Hasan, 2007). According to Henderson and Berla (1994) and Hatch (1998), parental involvement also has a positive impact on teachers, on schools, and on parents themselves. However, in most cases the parental involvement is not uniformly positive. Parents and educators define involvement differently; parents take a more community-centered view that includes keeping their children safe and getting them to school, whereas teachers define involvement primarily as parental presence at school. When these differences are not recognized, miscommunications can occur that lead teachers to blame families for child’s difficulties and parents to feel unappreciated for their efforts (Lawson, 2003). As Epstein said, “The difference in whether parents believe they should help or can help is shaped by what the school and the teachers do. For example, if teachers want parents to think they should help, teachers must demonstrate this with an active program of parent involvement in learning activities at home” (Epstein, 1986).

However, parents today are, more than ever, better educated and informed than their parents were, and they have a positive impact on their children’s education. Educating students can be viewed as a partnership between teachers, students and parents. If any of these variables falters or does not contribute to the education process, then students’ achievement can be compromised. Coleman (1998)called this cooperation “the power of the trio” and he argues that the involvement of children in school (or their engagement in learning) is formed mainly by parents, through “home curriculum”; but this involvement is a variable factor that may be affected by the practices of teachers and the school. Creating a learner’s sense of responsibility is a function of attitudes and practices of all members of the trio: (a) for teachers the basic elements are: beliefs about parental involvement, skills of the student, and particularly, the importance of cultivating the sense of the responsibility in the classroom; (b) for students: communication with parents about school, confidence in ability to do work, evaluation of the importance of school for their future, and cooperation with teachers; (c) for parents: evaluation of school, an “inviting” attitude by teachers, and communication with their children



about school(Fullan, 2001,). Researchers have consistently yielded similar evidence for parents’ role in

school. Involvement of parents in school life has an influence on students’ development and their progress at school. This is achieved through assistance in the classroom, during visits and participation in the meetings to discuss the children’s progress(Eccles & Harold, 1996; Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Mortimore et al. (1998) observed that the possibility of meeting the school principals by the parents was very important, and schools operating under a policy that is not rigid, but “open doors”, were more effective. School principals want open and positive communication lines with their children’s parents; they seek parental support for their policies and educational philosophy. A regular communication between school and parents is thus very important and it has appeared as an ideology or a strategy for parent-school partnership.

Parent’s involvement in school governanceParent empowerment, good communication and school climate are all significant fac tors facilitating positive family-school relationships (Griffith, 1998). Eberly, Joshi, and Konzal (2007) highlight the necessity of close collaboration between parents and teachers in order to understand each others’ values and beliefs, so that each can create supportive learning environments at home and at school that recognize the knowledge and practice of the other. In addition, few studies have attempted to explore the origins of teacher motivation for communication and the impact of this communication in decision making in classroom and school level. The advantages of enhancing teacher-parent communication have been documented elsewhere too. So, communication allows both teachers and parents to exchange information and ideas about the development and progress of the children at home and in school (Pang, 2000). It provides teachers and parents with a deeper understanding of mutual expectations and children’s needs and enables both parties to assist the children better and establish the basis of co-operation (Gallagher et al., 1997).

Of particular interest is the development of numerous parental involvement typologies that highlight the wide variety of communicative relationships that parents can create as they become involved with their child and school. Perhaps the most comprehensive and widely used typology is Epstein’s (1995) six-category model of parental involvement:

Type 1: Parenting - the development of practices that facilitate families establishing home environments to support children as students.

Type 2: Communicating - the design of effective forms of communication by schools that promote effective school-to-home and home-to-school communication about school programs and children’s progress.



Type 3: Volunteering - parents become involved by volunteering at school and serving as an audience for school performances.

Type 4: Learning at Home - parents help students at home with homework and other curriculum-related activities.

Type 5: Decision making- parents become involved in school decisions and develop as parent leaders and representatives by participating on boards and committees.

Type 6: Collaborating with Community - community resources and agencies become integrated with school programs fostering a shared responsibility for children.

As seen, all Epstein’s categories are necessarily affected by each other. Thus, learning at home is influenced by effective school-to-home and home-to-school communication, whereas decision-making by parents is related to willingness for engaging in volunteer work at school, communication with teachers, school principals and others, or cooperation with community. According to Epstein, parental involvement encompasses both the involvement of individual parents in their children’s education and the collective involvement of parents in school decision-making bodies. Other authors characterize the involvement of parents in the governance structure of public education as a struggle for control:

“From advisor to equal partner, from passive listener to decision maker—indeed, from fundraiser to hell-raiser—the role of parents in schools is changing. Parents are becoming more vocal about being involved in education decision making. The family is becoming important as an instructional partner. And market based education initiatives, such as charter schools and voucher programs, is changing parents from citizens to customers”. (Fege, 2000, p.39)

Lately, an intensive debate has developed about the most appropriate form of school government, especially for public schools. The effectiveness of the governance structure of the school is related with all processes within the school and classroom. Hoffman et al. (2002) highlight the core levels of school governance, school community, classroom culture and their impact on student learning. He particularly studies the influence of the administrative and governance structures of schools.

Many state-level school reform efforts have focused on creating governance structures that provide stakeholders with greater access to and influence over decisions about schooling (Greenlee, 2007). School councils, as mechanisms to implement shared decision-making, have become a cornerstone of the school improvement activities. They were created to bring communities and schools closer together in a spirit of cooperation to solve difficult educational problems, improve academic achievement, provide support for teachers and principals, and bring parents into the school-based decision-making process. Fullan (1997) noted that the presence of school councils per se will not improve student achievement, as



nothing motivates a child more than a climate in which learning is valued by a partnership of school, family, and community.

Participation in school councils gives parents ways to work with schools to solve problems and achieve common goals. School councils are used to institutionalize the participation of the parent in school life and ensure their input in enhancing supportive learning environments at school and home. Parent and community involvement in decision making is widely seen as an essential component of successful school improvement (Leithwood&Menzies, 1998).

The principals have a crucial role in promoting parental involvement. There are various opportunities for the principal to communicate effectively with the parents and community. Except the regular meetings with teachers, principals can use school newsletters, online communication through email, posted vision/mission statements about the school, and delivering booklets to inform parents on school expectations and the progress of the students. Strong community outreach also focuses on a desire to increase involvement from parents, development of school councils, and an enhancement of resource allocation. By involving parents, leadership capacity is growing stronger and the school builds a larger support base (Lambert, 2003).

In order to strengthen parent-school partnership in Kosovo, following the Law on Primary and Secondary Education, Kosovo Parents’ Committee for Education (KPCE) was established. The functions of the KPCE are to represent the interests of parents, inform the MEST on any aspect of primary or secondary education in Kosovo and be the main channel of communication and consultation between the Ministry and parents. One of the first recommendations of the KPCE was to establish parent councils in all primary and secondary schools in Kosovo. These ongoing efforts for the involvement of parents in school life are supporting parental involvement in school governance as well.

In order to address this issue, the Open Society Institute (OSI) has focused on research of parental participation in school life as a crucial aspect of effective school functioning. The 2008 Cross-National Survey of School Principals in South East Europe (SEE) countries has documented the need to improve factors that affect communication with parents and the possibility of the participation of parents in decision-making processes. According to the results of the survey conducted in Kosovo (OSI,2009), this communication is mainly established as one-way, “school-parent” direction, where parent is more likely to listen than to express his position. The present study builds on current survey3 on the communication with parents’, parents’ beliefs about the relationship with their children’s schools and activities related to the school’s governance.

3. OSI 2009, http://www.see-educoop.net/aeiq/reports/kosovo_report.pdf



research question

The 2008 Cross-National Survey of School Principals in South East Europe (SEE) countries has documented the challenges associated with the involvement of the parents in school life in Kosovo. These challenges are assessed by school principals, who were a target group of this research.

This paper aims to identify the relationship between school-parent communication and parental involvement in school governance, as perceived by school principals. It further examines whether enhanced school-parent communication is likely to be related to better parent participation in class/school decision-making and greater commitment of all stakeholders (parents, teachers, students) to improve educational outcomes.

In order to understand in detail the role of the parental involvement in school life and the role of school councils in our social context, our research question is:

How are the perceptions of school principals concerning the aspects of parent-school communication associated with their perception of parental participation in school decision-making?

Methodology SampleThis study uses data collected as a part of the Cross-National Survey of School Principals in South East Europe. The survey is focused on the primary and lower secondary school principals in Kosovo. The sample is limited to 225out of 539 primary schools (41 % of the total number of schools)that are a part of the Kosovo education system, and is divided into three geographic regions: Central, Southeast and West. The stratification is based on regions to accurately reflect the regional division of the school population. The school selection is made randomly following the division of schools into two categories –urban and rural schools. Within each region the survey was conducted in a number of municipalities that are representatie of primary school population. At the municipality level (and depending on rural/urban distribution) random sampling of schools was applied14. The response rate for the survey was 97.8 %.

This study focuses specifically on a number of survey questions related to parental involvement in decision-making and level of parent-school communication.

Survey variables used in the studyFrom the Cross-National Survey of School Principals in South East Europe

questionnaire, 8 variables were selected, assessing various aspects of parental



involvement in school life. The variables are:1. Evaluation of teachers’ performance2. Hiring and firing of teachers3. Selection of textbooks and other teaching materials used in class4. Setting priorities for the school budget5. Social activity planning6. Development or up-dating of school policies and regulations7. Decisions taken at classroom level8. Decisions taken at school level

All these variables are measured on a 4-point scale. The scale ranges from 1 “to a great extent “to 4“not at all’. These variables refer to the level of parental involvement in school governance as assessed by school principals. Variable means, presented in Table 1, demonstrate that principals perceive parents as most involved in the evaluation of teacher performance and least involved in hiring and firing teachers.

TABLE 1.Means of variables assessing the level of parental involvement

Mean Valid N SD

Parents’ influence on evaluation of teachers performance 1.87 225 .818

Parents’ influence on hiring and firing teachers 2.98 223 1.011Parents’ influence on the selection of textbooks and other materials 2.84 224 1.062

Parents’ influence on setting priorities for school budget 2.57 221 1.088

Parents’ influence on social activity planning 2.24 222 .869Parents’ influence on developing / up-dating school policies and regulations 2.24 223 .888

Parents’ influence on decisions taken at classroom level 2.20 225 .926

Parents’ influence on decisions taken at school level 2.05 222 .808

Summing the school principals’ responses on these variables, we can obtain the school principals assessment of the overall level of parental involvement in school decision-making. The mean level of parental involvement is 2.37 (SD= 0.67411) on a 4- point scale, indicating that school principals perceive parental influence in decision-making as being modest.

The other 9 variables were selected from the Cross-National Survey of School Principals in South East Europe questionnaire, in order to reflect the parent-school communication:

1. School principal– parents meetings organized2. Written evaluation of students’ performance sent to parents3. Information on curriculum sent to parents4. Information on school events and activities sent to parents



5. Information on school policies and regulations sent to parents6. School newsletter sent to parents7. Teachers or professional support personnel make home visits8. Surveys are carried out to find out the opinions/attitudes of parents9. School open-door days

All these variables are assessed on a 4-point scale. The scale ranges from 1 “at least once a month “to 4 “not at all’.

The Correlational analysis and standard regression analysis were used to examine the relationship between parental involvement in decision-making as dependent variable and parent-school communication practices as independent variables.

resultsThis section aims to provide an overview of the approach used in this study to

analyze data indicating the level of parental involvement in school governance and the role of parent - school communication in parental involvement. Linear regression is used to specify the nature of the relation between a set of independent variables reflecting parent-school communication and dependent variable – parental involvement in decision-making.

TABLE 2. Bivariate correlations of variables assessing parent-school communication and overall parental involvement

Mean_Dec 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Overall decision-making involvement - .005 .155* .267** .137* .259** .245** .234** .370** .163*

1. regular meetings school directors-parents - .079 .205** .153* .156* .148* .167* .155* .140*

2. written evaluations of pupils to parents - .311** .187** .323** .261** .278** .217** .193**

3. information on curriculum - .274** .331** .365** .316** .253** .184**

4. information on school events - .538** .173** .191** .112 .151*

5. info on school policies - .229** .220** .247** .250**

6. school newsletter - .368** .419** .0357. home visits - .349** .242**

8. parent surveys - .297**

9. school open door days -*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The results presented in the table above, indicatea number of modest positiverelationships between dependent variable and independent variables. The



strongest correlation is between parental involvement in decision making and parent survey (r = 0.370).

TABLE 3. Regression Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate

1 .473a .223 .186 .60336

a. Predictors: (Constant), school open door days, school newsletter, regular meetings school directors-parents, written evaluations of pupils to parents, information on school events, home visits, information on curriculum, parent surveys, information on school policies

According to the results shown in Tables 3 and 4 the regression model for decision-making using nine independent variables is statistically significant, with 19 percent of the total variance explained

TABLE 4. Significance of the Regression Model ANOVAb

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1Regression 19.680 9 2.187 6.007 .000a

Residual 68.441 188 .364Total 88.121 197

a. Predictors: (Constant), school open door days, school newsletter, regular meetings school directors-parents, written evaluations of pupils to parents, information on school events, home visits, information on curriculum, parent surveys, information on school policies

b. Dependent Variable: Overall Decision-making involvement

The results presented in following table indicate the significance of independent variables in explaining the variance of dependent variable.

TABLE 5. Coefficients beta of the predictor variables B BETA P

Q8C information on curriculum .089 .162 .037Q8E information on school policies .102 .186 .024Q8H parent surveys .160 .293 .000

4. OSI, 2009. Cross-National Survey of School Principals in South East Europe (SEE) countries. Available at: http://www.see-educoop.net/aeiq



Q8A regular meetings school principals-parents -.049 -.058 .385Q8B written evaluations of pupils to parents .018 .026 .718Q8D information on school events -.030 -.051 .516Q8F school newsletter -.032 -.046 .561Q8G home visits .044 .077 .290Q8I school open door days .001 .003 .968

According to the results presented above, only three of nine variables are statistically significant in explaining the variance of decision-making as criterion variable: information on curriculum sent to parents, information on school policies and regulations sent to parents and surveys carried out on the opinions/attitudes of parents.

Surveys on the opinions/attitudes of parents have a positive relation to parental participation in decision-making (β = .293).Thus, schools that do not survey parents’ opinions on relevant issues have lower level of parental involvement in decision-making compared to the schools that do carry out such surveys.

Information on school policies and regulations sent to parents is shown to be significantly related to parental involvement in decision-making in school according to the perception of school principals (β = .186). Thus, one can say that schools that do not send information on school policies and regulation to parents have lower level of parental involvement in decision-making compared to schools that do send this information to parents.

Information on curriculum sent to parents is also a variable with positive effect on decision-making mean scores (β =.162). Thus, schools that do not sent information on curriculum to parents have lower level of parental involvement in decision-making compared to the schools that do send this information to parents.

Discussion and conclusionThe survey of Kosovo school principals has investigated the regulation and the

extent of equitable parental participation (in decision-making, in extracurricular activities, and in the education of one’s own children) in public elementary schools in relation to the school - level factors and to the attitudes and beliefs of school principals.

An important contribution of this research to the study of parental involvement in schools is the attempt to explore the relationship between aspects of parent-school communication and parental role in decision - making in school.

The communication is the most important factor that influences other processes related with parent’s involvement in school (Griffith, 1998). In Epstein’s model, communication and decision-making are the two elements of parental involvement in school life (Epstein, 1995).



In line with the results of the previous survey5 , the relation of communication variables with parental involvement in school decision making seems to be modest. However, the parents’ involvement is still based more on “invitations” from the school rather than on any systematic strategy. According to the Sheridan and Kratochwill’s model of family-school partnership, this involvement is more traditionally oriented(Sheridan, 2007).Based on the results of this survey5, most of school principals (about 76%), have declared that schools do not have any strategy for the parent’s involvement in decision-making.

It appears that schools are mainly interested in one type of parental involvement (volunteering at school or school sponsored events). As shown in this study, information on curriculum, information on school policies and parents’ survey are communication activities between school and parents that have modest relation to parental involvement in school life. These findings indicate that principals and other actors in school should intensify their efforts in informing parents about different ways they can contribute to their children’s education. Schools can play an instrumental role in disseminating to parents meaningful strategies of involvement in their children’s education. This goal can be achieved with proactive, regular and persistent communication between home and school. With the more effective communication the involvement of parents in decision-making would probably increase. Principals and the school board, where parents and teachers have a balanced impact on school decision-making process, should foster the creation of conditions for quality governance, which can be further promoted by interventions to enhance home-school relationships. Furthermore, school principals should consult various school community members and incorporate their opinions into the school educational policy.

Other studies outline similar conclusions. For example, Murphy (1994) concluded that development of a school community should be enhanced. Moreover, a ‘team approach’ seems to be a preferred vehicle for involving others such as school staff and members of the community in the school decision-making processes. Other studies highlight the importance of the school community members’ influence on school boards’ decisions, and advocate an approach with less centralized decision-making and with more authority given to individual schools. They conclude that the policy and decisions of the school board should rely more strongly on input from members of the school community (Hofman et al, 2002).

Finally, the study indicates that principals face challenges in their partnership with parents and the community in order to improve students’ achievement and to increase the effective school governance. Furthermore, qualitative studies are needed to understand and examine variations of parental and community 5. www.see-educoop.net/aeiq/documents/raport-full.pdf



involvement in school life. A step forward in the analysis of this issue might be to take an in-depth look at parents’ perception of parent-school communication and parental involvement in school governance.

Limitations The significant limitation of this study is that it is based on school principals’

perception of parental involvement that could serve only as an approximation of real parental involvement. Additional data on parents’ and teachers’ perceptions are needed to provide a more precise analysis of the area of parental involvement in school in southeast Europe.

Eda Vula is associated professor at the Faculty of Education - University of Prishtina. She has completed her PhD in mathematics education and her general subject areas of expertise are education and training. During her career, Eda Vula has shown considerable interest for professional development,both in teaching and in educational research. She has also completed several programs abroad for teaching in higher education and methodologies for educational research. Except lecturing of mathematics teaching, Introduction to educational research and Action research, she is a trainer at the Center for Excellence in Teaching of the University of Prishtina. Prof. EdaVula is an author and co-author of several textbooks, and a number of research and professional papers. She also, has contributed and continues to contribute into many projects and committees of the University of Prishtina and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Correspondence: E-mail: <[email protected]> Tel: +377 44134203

Teuta Danuza is director of National Qualifications Authority since the institution was established (2009) and also part of the academic staff at the Faculty of Education - University of Prishtina (2006). Teuta Danuza holds M.Sc in Psychology and is an Ph.D candidate at the University of Ljubljana . She is a member of Council for Vocational Education and Training in Kosovo (2009). She has an extensive experience for more than 7 years in pre-University Education System in Kosova, member of the team for drafting of: Kosovo Education Strategic Plan (2011-2016); National Qualifications Framework in Kosovo; Law on Higher Education; Revision of the Law on VET and Revision of the Law on Adult Education. Correspondence E-mail: <[email protected]>



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Methods of Evaluating teacher Effectiveness

Albana Bushati Director of “28 Nëntori” Secondary School, Shkodër

ABSTRACT

The study analyzes the methods of evaluating the effectiveness of teachers and his performance in secondary schools of the city of Shkodra. Teachers are the key points on which standards of education are raised. To get upgraded we should make sure to have qualified teachers, supported by adequate sources and motivated to perform their work in the best way possible. Increased level of teacher performance is the direction of the policies that are likely to lead to increased levels of learning (OECD, 2005).

Proper monitoring and evaluation of teaching is very important when it comes to continuous improvement of the effectiveness of this process in schools. It is of equal importance the recognition of the strengths of teachers and those aspects of practice that need to be improved. From this perspective, the institution of teacher evaluation is an essential step to improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning and to raise educational standards. A true assessment of teachers is concerned with accurately assessment of the effectiveness of teaching, strong points and areas that need to be developed, followed by the response, training, support and opportunities for professional development.

The study shows that the positive evaluation and feedback that teachers receive is useful, fair and helps them develop professionally.

Keywords: evaluation method; evaluation instrument; teaching effectiveness; improvement function; accountability function



Methoda për vlerësimin e efektivitetit të mësuesve

Albana Bushati Drejtore e Gjimnazit “28 Nëntori”, Shkodër

ABSTRAKT

Ky studim analizon metodat për vlerësimin e efektivitetit të mësuesve dhe performancën e tyre në shkollat e qytetit të Shkodrës. Mësuesit kanë rol kryesor në zbatimin e standardeve. Për të përditësuar dijet dhe shprehitë e tyre ata duhet të kualifikohen; të mbështeten me burime të përshtatshme dhe të jenë të motivuar për të bërë më të mirën e mundshme në punën e tyre. Rritja e nivelit të performancës së mësuesit, është edhe synimi nga duhet të orientohen politikat arsimore për të rritur nivelet e të nxënit (OECD, 2005).

Monitorimi i përshtatshëm dhe vlerësimi i mësimdhënies është mjaft i rëndësishëm për një përmirësim të vazhdueshëm të efektivitetit të këtij procesi në shkollë. Po me aq rëndësi është edhe evidentimi i pikave të forta të mësuesve dhe aspekteve praktike, të cilat kërkojnë përmirësim të vazhdueshëm. Nisur nga ky këndvështrim, ngritja e sistemit të vlerësimit të mësuesve është me rëndësi për përmirësimin e efektivitetit të mësimdhënies dhe të nxënit, për arritjen e standardeve arsimore. Një vlerësim real dhe objektiv i mësimdhënies është i lidhur me saktësinë e vlerësimit të efektivitetit të mësimdhënies, në të cilin pikat e forta duhet të zhvillohen më tej, të përfshihen në veprimtari trajnuese dhe t’u jepet mbështetje më e madhe në veprimtaritë për zhvillim profesional.

Studimi nxjerr në pah se vlerësimi pozitiv që marrin mësuesit është produktiv, kur është i ndershëm dhe i ndihmon ata të zhvillohen profesionalisht.

Fjalë kyç: metodë vlerësimi; instrument vlerësimi; efektiviteti i mësimdhënies; funksion i përmirësuar; funksion llogaridhënës

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introductionMost education reformers agree that effective teaching is determined by the improvement of the learning process by the students, but they do not agree with the way how such effectiveness is measured and how teachers` performance can be improved.1 Until now, most of the debates concerning the effectiveness of teachers has been focused on test scores, but this strategy alone is not likely to increase the teachers` performance to a very significant scale. The best way how to improve the effectiveness of the teachers is to have them supported and guided effectively i.e. to support the professional development of teachers, pay attention to career development and to encourage the learning process among students. The effectiveness of a teacher is defined as an important contribution to the process of learning.

Measuring effectiveness is a matter of methodological, practical, social and political points of view. Evaluation of teachers is not something new that has been introduced recently. What is new is the fact that teachers and researchers have learned much more about teaching and how to manage it effectively. Evaluation of teachers goes back to the times of Socrates. Over the years it has apparently become a more and more serious aspect of the study of school. Researchers conceive teachers` evaluation as a mechanism to improve not only teaching but also the process of learning. Schools are increasingly paying more attention to learning, an issue which is tightly connected to the quality of teachers. Two very important conclusions have been drawn recently. First, teachers and administrators have always recognized the importance and necessity of evaluation. Nevertheless, they have had some doubts about how such evaluation is conducted and also whether it would have any effect on both the teacher and the students. Secondly, the evaluation systems help teachers increase and develop themselves professionally through formative assessment techniques which in turn result in higher levels of satisfaction and more reflective practices.

This study has been conducted to observe the current method of teachers` assessment in our schools and how it affects the professional growth. Having this goal in mind, the best practices worldwide have been studied and compared to the Albanian experience. In the course of the study it was highlighted that the evaluation system was directly related to the mission of the school and that it was an ongoing process. The teachers` evaluation procedures based on the assessment criteria directly affect the work effectiveness.

1. OECD, 2005

Methods of evaluating teacher effectiveness


MethodologyPurpose of the study To show that the teachers` evaluation has two main purposes:

• To improve the individual practices of the teachers themselves by identifying the strong and the weak points to further professional development – Improvement function.

• Make sure that the teacher performs his/her duties in the best way possible so as to encourage students’ learning process – the accountability function.

Objectives:• To present that the methods of teacher evaluation play a role in improving

its performance. • To present that the measurement of the effectiveness of teachers is a

methodological issue as well as practical, social and political.• To present teacher’s evaluation procedures based on the relevant criterias.• To provide the tools and sources of information used to assess the teacher.• To make recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of teachers

based on the assessment methods.

Methods and techniques of research Primary and secondary data were used to collect information in the study.

The first phase of the research consisted in the scrutinity of a broad selection of relevant literature. During this phase of the research objectives were defined and gaps in the literature were identified and were followed by accurate methodology of research that would be adopted for this work.

The second phase, included in-depth interviews with several school principals and RED (Regional Education Directory) of Shkodra with the purpose to get acquainted with the existing practices of teacher`s evaluation.

The third stage was the observation of teachers from one of the authors of this paper, in his quality as an external evaluator for other schools, and a headmaster of one. Observation is essential to qualitative data collection when the applicant intends to define the behavior of particular entities in a particular context.2 This methodology emphasizes the ‘logic of discovery’3 in investigative concepts, theories and generalization. Under the status of researcher, we tried to maintain flexibility in the process and to be open to the identification of the problems of this study as well as the key concepts by readdressing the problems based on the obtained information. Jorgensen (1989) advises researchers to define those concepts 2. Baker 20013. Jorgensen 1989, p. 18

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by providing qualitative descriptions of their own, in terms of what people do or say in situations of everyday life.

The fourth phase was a web – based survey addressed to students, parents, teachers and headmasters. The online survey method was chosen for its low cost and besides, it gathers information in a very short time helping in a quick analysis of the data. Furthermore, this information is easily administered when it comes to the analysis and reports that the researcher wants to draw.

The study is focused on the city of Shkodra, respectively in three high schools (Gymnasiums “28 Nëntori”, “Jordan Misja” and “Oso Kuka”) and three professional schools (“Kolë Margjini” a school on forests, the Technological School “Hamdi Bushati” and “Shejnaze Juka” a linguistic school).

Questionnaires were initially pre-tested through personal interviews with a random sample of 15 persons and then were submitted to qualtrics.com. Relevant links4 were sent via e-mail to the samples. Selected samples were not random as 200 teachers were selected and 196 completed the questionnaire. They were requested to assess themselves based on seven standards. The same questionnaire was addressed to school headmasters to assess the above-mentioned teachers.

The questionnaire was addressed to 300 parents, of whom 226 completed it (a non-random sample as the parents of the surveyed students were selected). The aim was to compare the results and determine those standards that are more important for them. In the questionnaire addressed to 300 students (a non-random sample), of whom 276 completed the survey, the separation was not done according to the standards. The purpose of this survey was to determine the standards according to the students` assessment.

SPSS program 20 was used to analyze data, after being carried from Qualtrics.com.

literature review

The design and control of teachers` assessmentThe design and control of a conceptual framework for assessing teachers

includes a number of aspects.First, the design and control should be put in the context of the overall objectives

for the school, and its development depends on a number of practices specified in the school system.

Secondly, the purpose of the teacher evaluation framework should be defined as clearly as possible. In particular, there is a need to clarify aspects that aim to improve the monitoring and evaluation of the teachers.

4. https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_87do2fXCqbHpoLG https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_39IEoSkdc0HnHbC and https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8HVC9rfkiXqhXo0



Thirdly, it is crucial to understand the best responsibilities of various actors in the field of education within the framework of the evaluation of the teachers.

Fourth, we must reflect on how the teacher evaluation addresses other components of the evaluation framework such as school evaluation, assessment of students and that of the level of the system.The three aspects below are analyzed according to the following order:

• Goals and objectives of the evaluation of the teachers;• Responsibilities for evaluating teachers;• Expression of the other components of the evaluation framework.

Goals and objectives of the evaluation of the teachersAs Donald HAEFELE (1993) emphasizes, a clear purpose must guide and

determine the teachers` evaluation system. The teachers` evaluation has mainly two major purposes. First, it aims to improve the practice of individual teachers themselves identifying strengths and weaknesses for further professional development – the improving function. Secondly, it aims to ensure that teachers perform their duties in the best way possible to encourage students’ learning process – the accountability function.

The evaluation of the teachers for improvement focuses on providing a necessary response to improving teaching practices, in other words through professional development.

Accountability function of the evaluation of the teachers focuses on what teachers held accountable for their performance by connecting it with a variety of career repercussions. It aims to impose rewarding so teachers operate maximally.

The tension between improvement and accountability functionThe combination of improved functions and accountability in a single process

of teacher evaluation raises difficult challenges. Even the efforts to achieve improvement through accountability cause tension. There are times when the emphasis of accountability makes teachers feel insecure or afraid and therefore the interest for their profession begins to fall.5 The evaluation of the teachers for the purpose of improvement is likely to benefit from conditions such as:

• A not – threatening evaluation context;• A culture where feedback is mutually given and taken in;• Clear objectives for both individual and collective terms of improving teaching;• Simple assessment instruments as a form of self – assessment, classroom

monitoring, and structured interviews;• Supportive school principals;

5. OECD, 2009

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• Opportunities to promote competence as well as the resources and tools to improve practices;

• Evaluation of teachers integrated in a self – assessment system and ensuring quality.

While the evaluation of teacher accountability is likely to benefit from conditions such as:

• An objective and independent assessment of the performance of teachers;• Standards and criteria at national schools;• An external evaluation component of the school and more formal processes;• Defined rules in connection to the consequences of the evaluation;• Individual clear objectives regarding all aspects of teacher performance;• Qualified and gifted assessors able to make assessments of teacher performance;• Opportunity to appeal to those teachers who feel they are not treated properly.

Responsibility for evaluating teachersResponsibilities for teacher evaluation are common to educational authorities,

including quality assurance agencies as inspectorates, schools and teachers.

The role of education authoritiesEducation authorities play an important role in the conception and implementation of teacher evaluation, as they are those who set their goals for the learning results at the national level. They also agree on standards of the teaching profession and establish norms governing the evaluation of teachers.

The role of inspectorateEducation inspectorates have full responsibility for evaluating teachers. Here, it comes to teacher evaluation procedures and undertaking assessments of the performance of teachers with inspectors who perform the role of assessors.

The role of schools and school principalsEffective activity of teacher evaluation depends on the way schools have defined the concept and the practice of running the school. In some countries, it can appear in the form of a simple implementation of the rules dictated by the center. In other countries, school administrators have full responsibility for evaluating individual teachers.

The role of teachersIn some systems, evaluation of teachers is based on reviews that colleagues do. Often, the most experienced and most responsible ones are chosen for this task. This type of evaluation is typical for improvement purposes. When colleagues are assessors of teacher evaluation procedures with accountability function, they



should pay attention to resolving issues related to legitimacy.

The expression of other components of the evaluation framework Since systems of school and teacher assessment and that of the responsive feedback have the aim to maintain and improve the performance, it is likely that the synergy between schools and teacher evaluation generates large benefits. To achieve greater impact, the focus of assessment should be linked to schools or have an effect on the focus of the evaluation of teachers.6

Evaluation of teachers may be related to measures taken by schools to improve the quality of teaching in a variety of ways.

First, evaluation of teachers can directly serve the purpose of improving the teaching in school when the teacher evaluation is conducted as part of the internal evaluation of the school, unlike formal assessment of individual teachers. Second, measurements of school and teacher evaluation are interconnected when the contribution of individual teachers in the school development is assessed as part of the individual evaluation of teachers.

Third, organizational measures and evaluating school teachers may also relate to the professional development activities for teachers that are planned in the general plan of the development of the school.

Results of positive evaluations of individual teachers are rarely used outside of school evaluations. Such results are reviewed by school administrators when they analyze the quality of teaching in their schools and in the development of improvement plans.

Teacher evaluation procedures The defining of the effective procedures of teacher assessment is problematic at different levels: measurement of accuracy, inclusion of all dimensions to be measured, consistency with the objectives arising from reaction, suitability to the needs of those who will use the results (teachers, school principals, education authorities), cost – effectiveness and practical feasibility.

Teacher evaluation requires setting reference standards and evaluation criteria that enable accurate assessments of performance. To measure the performance an appropriate choice of instruments and sources of information should be made.

Improving the effectiveness of teacher evaluation means to select appropriate procedures for the given objectives7 . The three following aspects analyze:

• Character and nature of teacher evaluation;

6. OECD, 20097. e.g. internal vs. external process; formative vs. summative process

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• Reference standards, evaluated aspects and the evaluation criteria; • Instruments and information sources

Character and nature of teacher evaluation Among the special features of teacher evaluation procedures we can mention:

• Assessed teachers. A special model for evaluating teachers can cover teachers in the system or a subset of teachers depending on the type of contract, career stage, level of education, and type of education.

• The character of the assessment. Evaluation of teachers can be mandatory or voluntary. However, the latter may be related to career promotion.

• The nature of the assessment. Evaluation of teachers can be mainly focused on external or internal (school-based otherwise).

• Frequency. Teacher evaluation can be performed at regular intervals, at key stages of career, or in special cases like the end of a trial period or for renewals.

Reference standards, and evaluated aspects of evaluation criteria A fair and reliable model of teacher assessment needs a standard reference to evaluate teachers based on what is considered “good” teaching. The powers and responsibilities of teaching should be listed in order to build a comprehensive definition of what the teachers should know and should be able to make in exercising their profession. The main standards of reference for teacher evaluation are:

Professional profiles of teachers (general profile of teacher competence), including specific profiles for specific types of teachers (eg. Educational level, Subject).

A group of general and professional duties of teachers, including the job description.At school level, the school curriculum, internal regulations and plan of the

annual activities .

Evaluated aspects The above standards of reference are set for key assessment areas A contribution in this field is the “Framework for Teaching”8 , which simultaneously provides a “road map” to guide new teachers through their first experiences in the classroom. Responsibilities of the teachers are grouped into four major areas separated by components:

• Planning and Preparation: to demonstrate the scientific and pedagogical knowledge, to demonstrate that you know your students , to select instructional purposes, to draft a coherent teaching, to assess learning of your students;

• Environment in the Classroom: to create an environment of respect and good relations, to establish a culture of learning, to manage class procedures ,to manage student behavior and organize physical space;

8. Danielson, 1996, 2007



• Teaching: to communicate clearly and accurately, using questions and discussion techniques, engaging students learn, reacting to them, showing flexibility and readiness in responding;

• Professional Responsibilities: reflecting on teaching, keeping accurate records, communicating with families, contributing to the school and the region, growing and developing professionally, showing professionalism.

Each of these components must evaluate several elements. An example can be found in the Professional Standards for Teachers in England9 .

Evaluation Criteria Fundamental basis for good practice in assessment is the existence of clear criteria which are applied by competent assessors (qualified and experienced). Here we need to develop appropriate guidelines for what is expected from the professional practice.

Teacher evaluation procedures require the establishment of evaluation criteria to determine the level of performance of individual teachers for each of the aspects taken for analysis. This then enables the connection between quantitative and the qualitative ranking for example: “Unsatisfactory”, “satisfactory”, “gifted”, “distinct”.

Instruments and information sources The collection of multiple sources of evidence on teaching practice meets the need to be accurate and fair assessment process, taking into account the complexity of what we need to know and make a teacher “good”. To assess teachers a variety of tools and information sources is used.

Classroom observation Practices of teaching and learning of students are likely to be important sources of information regarding the professional performance. Many of the teaching aspects are disclosed when the teacher interacts with students in class.

Target-setting and interviews with individuals Much of the valuation models require that the teacher individually sets goals regarding performance for a period of time in accordance to the school management. The assessment then analyzes how these objectives are met.

Teacher self- assessment Another widely used instrument in the assessment of teachers is self – assessment .The perspective of teachers who is in the process of evaluation is important because it enables him to express his views about the performance, and reflects personal factors as well as organizational and institutional structures that affect teaching.

9. TDA, 2007

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Teacher Portfolio An instrument that meets the best self - assessment of the teachers is the teacher portfolio that provides evidence of key aspects of teaching on his side. Other elements that can meet the teachers’ portfolio are: his diary and teaching materials, student work samples and comments on examples of student assessment, self – reporting questionnaires of the teachers.

Standard forms to mark the performance of teachers Comprehensive evaluation models for teachers have to do with the use of standardized forms to mark the performance of teachers through which aspects are evaluated. These are important tools used in the evaluation process aimed to evaluate performance across a range of areas which are under evaluation.

Testing teachers Entry into the profession or possible permanent position requires teachers to undergo testing to assess their general and scientific abilities. In some cases, the test results can be used to evaluate teachers.

Student results The Results of the pupils are commonly used as data sources for the evaluation of teachers in different countries10 .

In this regard, the development of models “value-added” represents significant progress as long as they are designed to control the results of previous students11 , and thus have the potential to identify the contribution of a teacher assigned to his student achievement. .

Accountability systems based on testing elements are supposed to strengthen incentives so that teachers are engaged in helping students to achieve standards set and meet goals in the national program level.

Student and parent surveys An instrument which is rarely used in the context of individual teacher’s evaluation is the survey which gathers the views of pupils and parents. Surveys of parents are more important than the whole school assessment to evaluate individual teachers.

Competence for evaluation and use of feedbackThe effectiveness of teacher evaluation is that the evaluators as well as teachers

10. OECD, 2005; UNESCO, 200711. The students’ learning is influenced by many factors. Here we may include skills of the students, expectations, motivation and the behavior together with the support they receive from their families and peer influence. Besides the quality of students, other factors include the organization of the school, resources and environment; the structure and the contents of the programs. The effect of teachers is also cumulative, i.e. at a given moment learning

is influenced not only by actual teachers but also by former ones .



should have the appropriate skills and competencies. Since the evaluation is very important for teachers and since the results depend increasingly on individual relations and cooperation at the school level, successful evaluation mechanisms should be given a special attention to develop powers and define responsibilities in the evaluation process. The following is an analysis of two important aspects:

• Evaluators; • Development of assessment skills.

Evaluators The role of the evaluator is played mainly by:

• Teachers (internal or external): for the teachers of the school being assessed. • External inspectors: they may be responsible for assessing individual

teachers, for assessing teachers in the role of assessors, or school principals. • School principals. In some cases, school principals assess not only the competencies

as pedagogical skills, but also other duties within the school. Participation of multiple evaluators is often seen as crucial for successful

practice, because to judge and evaluate the quality and performance of teachers, more than one person participates. Danielson and McGreal (2000) explain that “360 degree evaluation systems”, in which many assessors take part, support the idea that a teacher’s competence can be examined from different perspectives and that it should serve as a first model of all angles.

Development of the assessment skills An aspect which does not pay much attention to the different policies is the development of skills for assessment. This is an important area to ensure the legitimacy of the evaluators and effectively using assessment results. The development of skills and competencies for evaluating teachers throughout the school system takes time and a full commitment.

The success of any teacher evaluation system depends on thorough training of evaluators. Experience tells us that the assessors should have a variety of characteristics and competencies, including ; (i) teaching experience, (ii) knowledge of the theories and methodologies of evaluation in the field of education, (iii) knowledge of the concepts of quality of teaching; ( iv) knowledge of systems and procedures to ensure quality in school education and (v) developing a sense of instruments, including reliability and validity of the survey and other assessment tools (vi) knowledge of the psychological aspects of assessment, (vii) experience in quantitative evaluation classification, and (viii) perfection in communication about assessment and response capabilities. These areas should be given priority in terms

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of training should be subject to special assessors. Using the assessment findings Using the findings of the evaluation of teachers raises a number of challenges such as providing information on the performance of teachers and school principals, the development of mechanisms for improving teaching practices, particularly in terms of professional development of teachers. These challenges highlight the importance of knowledge management that takes in every part of the teacher evaluation. There should therefore be analyzed as follows:

• Formative use of the findings; • Summary use of the findings.

Formative use of the findings The main objective of the evaluation of teachers is to identify areas for improvement for each teacher, leading to the preparation of individual plans to improve teacher and school in general.

Summary use of the findings Performance and to set sanctions for those teachers who have Performance evaluation of teachers can be used to determine career advancement, better not done well in this process.

Successful implementation poses many challenges Difficulties may arise in implementation due to a number of factors. First, there may be a protective culture of evaluation, lack of experience among peer assessment, feedback and exchange of best practices in teaching. Secondly, we may face technical problems in implementation. Thirdly, there may be issues such as lack of resources for aspects related to teacher evaluation procedures, especially with the time needed for the work, and evaluation of the observations and results. Comprehensive models of teacher evaluation - as for e.g. the multiplication of instruments and evaluators - are likely to provide a solid basis to evaluate teachers.

Results and findings from in-depth interviews From in-depth interviews with teachers, headmasters and inspectors resulted that:

1. The quality of the assessment plays an important role in the professional development of teachers and the improvement of the quality of education. Quality assessment is related to the process, purpose, planning, classroom observations and feedback from the teachers taken in the assessment. Teachers perceive the quality of assessment in a higher degree than principals and inspectors.

2. The impact of the assessment should change teacher’s behavior and teaching



strategies and increase the level of teaching and learning. According to the interviews, teachers, school principals and inspectors have a different perception of the impact of teacher evaluation. Teachers and inspectors perceive assessment as an element with a very strong impact on teachers’ attitude towards work, while the principals do not perceive such a thing. Results show that teachers perceive the assessment as a strong impact on the behavior and strategies of teaching, while principals and inspectors perceive it as a low impact.

3. Self assessment has different perceptions from different participants. Teachers give higher results than inspectors. Interviews claimed that teachers tend to consider themselves higher than what their headmaster and inspectors think.

4. The perception of different assessors. Teachers and inspectors have a higher consideration for their assessments. They regard them as reliable in evaluating teachers while their principals have an account not too high. Assessor is required to be flexible and patient teachers. Assessors must be as objective and reliable.

5. Performance criterion. It was showed that teachers, headmasters and inspectors perceive the performance criteria in a positive way and not very different from each - other .

6. Feedback from the assessment. In this study, teachers and inspectors evaluate the feedback not very suitable for the development of teachers whereas their principals perceive feedback as not very convenient. Once the evaluation process is c arried out, teachers should be given the necessary feedback to help them improve teaching. this is why the quality of feedback is so important.

7. The context of evaluation. A rating system that does not provide teacher development is likely to fail. This means that the context of the assessment should be developmental by nature. The study shows that teachers and headmasters perceive the context of a successful evaluation in teacher development. The context of evaluation can be formative and summative.

Analysis of findings from questionnaires In the questionnaire addressed to 300 students, 276 of whom completed it, the separation was not according to the standards. The questionnaire contained two sections. Section I – How well does the teacher explain the subject? and Section II - Implied Curriculum. The questionnaire consisted of 30 statements and respondents were asked to rate on a Likert scale with a rating of 4 elements (1 - sometimes, 4 - always). Analysis of factors will serve to define the standards assessed by the students.

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Analysis of the reliability results in Cronbach Alpha = 0.887. This coefficient shows a good match between variables within a factor. (Hair, Anderson, Tatham & Black, 1998), we are sure that the data support the use of factor analysis and suggest that the data can be grouped into a smaller set, called factors or components. All statements are grouped into four components based on correlative links between them (see Table 2).

TABLE 1. Rotated Component Matrix

Component 1 2 3 4

The teacher is prepared in class. .826

The teacher is giving clear instructions and explains what is expected at the exercise or . . . .684

I’ve learned a lot from the teacher on this subject. .655The teacher uses such methods in classroom teaching, in order to make the subject a lot comprehensive. .593

The teacher evaluates students right. .515

Teacher is flexible about adapting to the needs of students. .854

The teacher gives feedback on homework and projects so that I may improve . . . .753

The teacher encourages his students to express themselves and to be active during the lesson. .645

The teacher is creative in developing and teaching activities. .590

The teacher gives realistic estimations in a given time. .901

The teacher manages time well. .778

The teacher has clear procedures, so that pupils do not lose time. .627

The teacher plans his time during teaching and provides students with homework as a way to help learning . . . .819

The teacher knows his subject. .709

The teacher is well organized and strict. .689

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.a. Rotation converged in 14 iterations.

Factors are named on the basis of weight related variables. For example the first factor is named on the basis of the claim of the highest correlation relationship. It should be noted that the total percentage of the explained variance is 74 189 (see Table 2). The solution satisfies both Kaiser criteria that of the selection of only those values with a minimum of 1 eigen value and that of the ”percentage of variance”



which requires that the extracted factors account for a minimum of 60% percent of the total variance (Hair et al., 1998)

TABLE 2. Total Variance Explained

Factors Extraction Sums of Squared loadings

Total % of Variances % Cumulative

1. Well-prepared teacher 6.401 40.006 40.006

2. Understanding and collaborative Teacher 3.274 19.839 59.844

3. Fair and honest Assessment 1.251 7.817 67.661

4. organized teacher 1.044 6.527 74.189

The same procedure was used even for the second part of the questions. Based on the Reliability Analysis where Cronbach Alpha = 0.914, KMO index (Kaiser - Meyer - OLKI) of 0.767 and Bartlet Test 2 which is significant (P <0.001) analysis of factors is applied to second 14 statements. All statements are grouped into three components based on correlative links between them. (See Table 3).

TABLE 3. Rotated Component Matrixa

Component1 2 3

The words and actions of teachers match. .792The teacher is willing to take responsibility for his mistakes .743The teacher is willing to teach the students. .720The teacher tries to create a model about what he expects from students .669

The teacher listens to the views of his students, though he could not agree with them, but he

.633

I believe this teacher. .598He behaves well with his students and other staff persons. .769The teacher respects his students’ opinions and decisions. .715It is a pleasure to be with the teacher. .676The teacher likes and respects students. .607The teacher is fair and firm without being too strict .596The teacher is sensitive to the needs of students.. .554Teacher helps when he is asked for help. .926The teacher is consistent and fair in discipline. .718

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

a. Rotation converged in 6 iterations.

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TABLE 4. Gives the label for each of the factors

Component Extraction Sums of Squared loadingsTotal % e Variances % Cumulative

1. Learning environment 6.927 49.480 49.4802. Collaboration and communication 1.634 11.674 61.1543. Helping of the students 1.173 8.378 69.532

As seen from the above results the students appreciate the 7 factors corresponding to 7 standards that we will use as the basis for the questionnaires to the teacher (self assessment), headmasters and parents.

The questionnaire contained also open questions. The responses were various for the question: What do you appreciate more in your teacher? Were selected three most significant and generalized responses:

The fact that not only he tries to explain learning but also he tries to be part of our general education .

It is a very good advisor and teaches us.His good preparation and teaching skills as well as being a good example .The questionnaires addressed to teachers, headmasters and parents had the

same question, based on 7 standards12

TABLE 5. Descriptive Statistics

Parents

Std. Deviation

headmasters

Std. D

eviation

Self - assessm

ent

Std.D

eviation

STANDARD 1: STUDENTS Teachers understand the development and learning of students and respect diverse

2.56 .500 2.78 .449 3.43 .496

STANDARD 2: CONTENTS Teachers know and understand elements of the content to which they have.

2.44 .500 2.79 .471 3.50 .501

STANDARD 3: ASSESSMENTTeachers understand and use evaluation criteria to guide.

2.56 .689 2.69 .606 3.43 .496

STANDARD 4: INSTRUCTION Teachers plan and provide targets that improve teaching

2.89 .316 2.53 .579 3.36 .480

12. Yamina Bouchamma, Mario Godin dhe Charline Jenkins Godin; (2008) A Guide to Teacher Evalutation; ; p 50



STANDARD 5: LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Teachers create learning environment - learning that supports high levels

2.11 .316 2.69 .492 3.14 .835

STANDARD 6: COOPERATION AND COMMUNICATION Teachers communicate and collaborate with educators

2.44 .500 2.64 .633 2.93 .705

STANDARD 7: RESPONSIBILITY AND THE PROFFESIONAL RISETeachers acknowledge responsibility

2.68 .468 3.14 .351

Valid N (listwise)

The aim was to compare the obtained results. The survey showed that the questionnaires to the parents noted that they value more school as a whole than the individual performance of the teachers. Questionnaires on this subject show that parents appreciate teachers’ characteristics that surprisingly come from the achievement of students, from the teacher skills to promote students pleasures, their civil treatment, their support for learning and effective communication and collaboration with parents.

Sayings of a parent ” My child feels often underestimated because despite her preparation she is not paid proper attention to show her values. Despite her high marks she is not part of activities to enlarge her knowledge.”The questionnaires addressed to teachers and headteachers were analyzed

together in order to compare the results. The correlation was calculated for exploring the association level between the assessment

of ”Standard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7” and the type of respondents – teacher or headteacher. The table shows the results of correlations for the variables used. (See Table

6). Thus, the assessment of standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and the headmaster or teacher have a positive correlative relationship, i.e. teachers evaluate themselves maximally, while headmasters consider them as good or sufficient. Assessment standards 5 and 6 have not or weak correlative relationships. So these two standards are almost equally appreciated by both parties.

Albana BUSHATI


TABLE 6. Correlative relationships between headmasters/ teachers evaluation and standards

Type

teac

hers

/ di

rect

ors

Stan

dard

1:

stud

ents

Stan

dard

2:

cont

ent

Stan

dard

3:

asse

ssm

ent

Stan

dard

4:

inst

ruct

ion

Stan

dard

5:

lear

ning

env

ironm

ent

Stan

dard

6:

coop

erat

ion

and

com

mun

icat

ion

Stan

dard

7:

The

rise

and

prof

essio

nal

resp

onsib

ility

Type

Te

ache

rs /

Dire

ctor

s

Pear

son

Cor

rela

tion

1 .538** .526** .562** .697** .301** .021 .612**

Sig.

(2

-tai

led)

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .623 .000

Aver

age

scor

e

Aver

age

posit

ive

corr

elat

ion

Aver

age

posit

ive

corr

elat

ion

Aver

age

posit

ive

corr

elat

ion

Aver

age

posit

ive

corr

elat

ion

Wea

k co

rrel

atio

n

No

corr

elat

ion

Aver

age

posit

ive

corr

elat

ion

Conclusions Methods of evaluating teachers play a role in improving its performance. Measuring the efficacy of teachers is a methodological, practical, social, and political issue. Teacher assessment procedures are conducted in line with the assessment criteria. The instrument and information sources are used to evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of teacher evaluation. The evaluation system is directly associated with the school mission. This system is a continuous process. The difference is between the self-assessment of the teachers and that of the directors.(conclusion of the findings).

recommendationsAssessment methods should be separated from traditional evaluation methods that rely on increasing the effectiveness of teachers. Education Departments need to do on the job training for teachers and evaluators and a proper selection of teachers.

Quick management of underperformance should be discovered that early in order to find a solution.

Measurements teacher effectiveness (e.g. Classroom observation protocols or value-added models) are not valid for determining teaching because instruments are used only for a specific purpose and their validity depends if they are used as intended. A crucial step to obtain valuable information is to determine what is important and then to fin d appropriate instruments for measuring the performance of teachers. Multiple measurements should be used to evaluate different teaching aspects.



Albana Bushati is graduated at Philosophy and Political Science in 1990 at Tirana University. In September 1990 she started the work as a philosophy and sociology teacher at the Kolë Margjini Vocational School. In Semptember 2010 she was appointed deputy director of the 28 Nëntori Secondary School and from September 2012 she is director of the same school. Between 2010 and 2012 she studied at the Graduate School of Education (Shkolla e Lartë e Edukimit). Her thesis at the end of the studies focused on methods for teachers’ evaluation. Contacts: E-mail: <[email protected]> Tel: +355 692087177

rEFErENCESBaker, Frenk. B (2001). The basic of item response theory, second edition. USA: Eric Clearing House on Assesment and Evaluation.Bouchamma, Y & Godin.M.& Godin, J.Ch. (2008); A guide to Teacher Evaluation: Structured

Observations for all Educators. R&L EducationDanielson, C. (2007). Enhancing professional practice: A framework for teaching. ASCD.Darling, H L. (1996) What matters most: a competent teacher for every child, Phi Delta Kappan, 78, pp. 193–200.Jorgensen, D. L. (Ed.). (1989). Participant observation: A methodology for human studies (Vol. 15). Sage.Hair Jr., J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., Black, W.C. (1998). Multivariate Data Analysis. 5th

ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.Haefele,D.L ( 1993). Evaluating Teachers:A Call for Change.Journal of Personnel Evalutation in

Education.pp.21-31OECD (2005). Teachers matter - atracting, development and retraining effective teachers. Brussels.Peterson, K. D. (2000). Teacher evaluation: A comprehensive guide to new directions and practices.

Corwin-volume discounts. Peterson, K. D., Wahlquist, C., Brown, J. E., & Mukhopadhyay, S. (2003). Parent surveys for

teacher evaluation. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 17(4), 317-330.Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).2007). Professional standards for teachers:

Why sit still in your career? London.

internet sources Adedoyin, O. O. (2010). Factor–Analytic Study of Teachers’ Perceptions On Self-Efficacy In

Botswana Junior Secondary Schools: Implications for Educational Quality. European Journal of Educational Studies, 2(2), 139-155. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from http://ozelacademy.com/EJES_v2n2_10.pdf

Rockoff, J. E. & Speroni, C. (2011). Subjective and objective evaluations of teacher effectiveness: Evidence from New York City. Columbia University. Retrieved September 20, 2012 from http://www.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jrockoff/papers/rockoff_speroni_feb_2011_2nd_revision.pdf.

Sawa, R. (1995). Teacher Evaluation Policies and Practices. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from http://saskschoolboards.ca/research/instruction/95-04.htm.

Sartain, L., Stoelinga, S. R., Brown, E. R., Matsko, K. K., Miller, F. K., Durwood, C. E., ... & Glazer, D. (2011). Rethinking Teacher Evaluation in Chicago. Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research.. Retrieved September 20, 2012 from http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/Teacher%20Eval%20Final.pdf


A summary of proceeding and collection of papers of the 1st Biannual Albania International Conference on Education, held on December 6-8th, 2012 at the Graduate School of Education (Shkolla e Lartë e Edukimit) in Tirana, Albania, was published in April 2103. The 2012 Albania International Conference on Education served as a forum for academicians and professionals from Education and other related areas, from Albania as well as some European countries and the USA. The main goal of the 2012 Albania International Conference on Education was to provide an opportunity for academicians and professionals to come together and learn from each other. An

1st Albania International Conference on Eduacation (AICE)

additional goal of the conference was to provide a place to meet and interact with members inside and outside their own particular disciplines.

The conference began on 6 December with five thematic workshops, all in English. Plenary Session took place on December 7 at Tirana International Hotel and then continued at the premises of Graduate School of education with parallel sessions. Keynote speakers were: prof. Dhori Kule, Rector of Tirana University, prof. Lorin Anderson, University of South Carolina, prof. Pavel Zgaga, University of Ljubljana and Prof. Ronald Sultana, University of Malta.

More information: http://www.cde.edu.al


The authors aim to present the main findings of a study of current trends and issues in higher education which was conducted in seventeen higher education institutions from eight countries of the Western Balkans.

The booklet has ten chapters. Firstly, an analysis of higher education reforms after 1990 and outline some of the key issues that have been raised is done. Then the booklet continues with a presentation of some distinctions underlying higher education in the region, theimpact of the

Pavel Zgaga, Manja Klemenčič, Janja Komljenovič, Klemen Miklavič, Igor Repac, Vedran Jakačić.

Higher education in the Western Balkans: Reforms, developments, trends

Bologna Process in the region, in particular its diverse and difficult implementation. After that the institutional diversification is obseved and then on institutional governance and, in particular on the regional peculiarity – the fragmentation of universities.

A special attention to private higher education followed on higher education institutions and their roles as perceived at the universities visited by the research team continues the study. It follows with the issues of internationalization and international cooperation and addresses the theme of equality as a discursive and normative topic in the region and concludes with on the role of students in university governance and national higher education policy making.

More information: http://ceps.pef.uni-lj.si/knjiznica/doc/hewb.pdf.


The focus of this publication is on quality of teaching and learning of those who enter or who hope to enter higher education in the future. Higher education system is a key building block of our democratic societies. The best teaching and learning environments encourage students to develop confidence in their own creative abilities, strong community engagement and a sense of ethical responsibility.This understanding of teaching as a high-priority

Mary McAleese, Agneta Bladh, Vincent Berger, Christian Bode, Jan Muehlfeit, Tea Petrin, Alessandro Schiesaro, Loukas Tsoukalis.

Improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe’s higher education institutions

contractual obligation to the students whoare partners in the co-creation of knowledge underpins their report.

This publication also explores the issue of quality in teaching and learning in European higher education. Also,in this report can find the answers of questions: Which skills must 21st century teachers have to promote high quality learning? How can be involve students as partners in teaching and learning? What is role of technology and new pedagogical tools? What can Europe do? The authors give recommendations about modernization of higher education, based on their analyses of situation.

More information: http://ec.europa.eu/education/higher-ducation/doc/modernisation_en.pdf


Private tutoring is spread in all world regions. Private supplementary tutoring is widely called ‘shadow education’ on the grounds that much of its scale and shape is determined by mainstream schooling, referred to shadow education as ‘a set of educational activities outside formal schooling that are designed to improve a student’s chances of successfully moving through the allocation process’ within school. Private tutoring may have implications for personal development and for pedagogy. It can contribute to long hours

Mark Bray, André E. Mazawi, Ronald G. Sultana (Eds)

Private Tutoring Across the MediterraneanPowers Dynamics & Implications for Learning and Equity

of study each day, leading to imbalance between academic and other sides of life among students, family members, and educators.

This collection offers a set of critical insights into the complex and contextually-situated articulations and imbrications of this phenomenon and has a regional focus, namely the Mediterranean broadly defined. It may be compared with similar collections in other regions, some of which overlap. Focus on the Mediterranean as the region for analysis fits the core objectives of the Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies (MJES), which is a partner with Sense Publishers in producing this work.

Table of contents as well as a free Preview available at: https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/comparative-and-international-education-a-diversity-of-voices/private-tutoring-across-the-mediterranean/


Workshop

leadership and Management of Qualityfor Education

Managing the quality of education and ensuring accountability is a huge task for universities and schools across the world. This interactive session will introduce UK and European approaches to the management of quality and will explore key topics including: setting and maintaining academic standards; curriculum design; staff development; information provision; and involving stakeholders (including students) in decision-making.

Catherine Owen is currently based at Durham University’s School of Education, where is she is Associate Director of the European Commission EACEA project IBAR, which is examining the implementation of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in 7 European countries. Catherine will join the University of Glasgow in September to undertake her research on exploring the impact of European educational policies, including Bologna, on academic staff working in Eastern Europe and The Balkans.

organizers: Graduate School of Education (ShLE) & Center for Democratic Education (CDE), TiranaDurham University and University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

Format: Plenary reports and parallel sessions.

Audience: Education Researchers, Education Leaders and Policy Managers, and School Principals

Number of participants: Limited, max. 90

Venue: Graduate School of Education. Rruga Jordan Misja, Pallatet Gener 2, Tirana, AlbaniaTel: +355 (04) 44509011/12/13

Email: [email protected]

For more information, visit: http//shle.cde.edu.al

16 November, 2013Keynote speaker

Catherine owenSchool of Education

Durham University, United Kingdom


learner Autonomy in Higher EducationAn international Conference at South East European

University in tetovo, Macedonia

29-30 November, 2013

PH Zug

This conference, which will take place at South East European University in Tetovo, Macedonia will focus on one selected learning concept: Learner Autonomy in Language Studies. We invite teachers and graduate students of language subjects in higher education to discuss general and also intercultural challenges and developments related to Learner Autonomy.

The term ‘learner autonomy’ is one which has gained considerable currency in contemporary language teaching. It emphasizes the diversity and individuality of learning practices both inside and outside the classroom and, fundamentally, it is defined as “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (Holec, 1981). Learner autonomy is more and more seen as a key to language learning success.

We invite papers which reflect on the theory and practice of Language Learner Autonomy and which evaluate this concept’s relevance to contemporary language education at University level. Papers which include an international comparative perspective are particularly welcome. The Conference is organized by the Faculty of Languages, Cultures and Communications at South East European University in Tetovo, Macedonia, in cooperation with the University of Teacher Education in Zug, Switzerland.

Conference languages are German and English.

More information: www.seeu.edu.mk.

This Journal is registered at the ISSN International Centre,45 rue de Turbigo, 75003 Paris, FRANCE

Web site: www.issn.org

ISSN: 2309-2769Title: Albanian Journal of Educational Studies

© Graduate School of Education & Centre for Democratic Education, Tirana, Albania, 2013

Education for all vs. education for each - a case study

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