Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemPerspectives of regional teacher supervisors on their changing roles and practices in a stage of educational reform in Oman( 2009)For almost a decade, the Sultanate of Oman has been undergoing reform that has resulted in enormous changes in all aspects of its education system. As a result, the roles and practices of regional teacher supervisors have been affected by the adoption of democratic views. Thus, teacher supervisors have been called to replace their traditional inspectional styles with more supportive and facilitative approaches in order to assist classroom teachers and schools to cope with the implementation of the emergent educational innovations. It is imperative, therefore, to investigate the perspectives and realities of those in supervisory positions in term of their roles as change-agents and implementers. This study examined the perspectives of teacher supervisors with regard to their emerging roles and practices in a time of educational reform in Oman. It took place in the Educational Supervision Directorate in Muscat. Two research methods were used: a survey that was distributed to 125 supervisors in the Directorate, followed by twenty-seven, semi-structured interviews with the General and Deputy Directors and selected regional supervisors. The supervisors demonstrated an awareness and knowledge of the reforms, and there was some evidence of democratic and supportive practices among them. However, a number of techniques that are considered by the literature in supervision to be autocratic were also found to co-exist with the new methods in the supervisors' daily duties. Furthermore, there was a lack of adequate training and preparation for teacher supervisors to f~lcilitate their transition through the reform process.