 The National Professional Standards describe what school leaders and teachers need to know, understand and be able to do. They also provide a clear vision of the performance, knowledge, skills and dispositions that school administrators and teachers need in order to uphold the learning approach called for with the introduction of the curriculum standards and Independent Schools. Announced in August 2006, the standards will be applied starting the 2007/2008 academic year.
Here we provide information on the standards, with some help from Hessa Al-Aali, director of the Education Institute’s Professional Development Office and coordinator of the National Professional Standards Project, and others.
Q. What are the National Professional Standards?
“The Professional Standards describe the abilities and knowledge necessary for employees to play effective roles in doing their main tasks, in each stage of their professional progress, i.e. the skills and knowledge teachers should obtain in order to work as teachers, or the leaders should have to lead the educational process,”
says Ms. Al-Aali.
“In addition, they provide learning experiences, which enhance everything that can improve the learning process. These standards will also provide a common framework to describe tasks and professional development throughout the career of teachers or leaders. This will improve their participation in Qatar’s education reform initiative, which in turn improves the students’ learning quality. Moreover, the standards will provide a basis for more organized methods for managing performance and helping teachers and leaders in deciding relevant aims, and evaluating the profession for the sake of defining developing priorities and ensuring success,” says Ms. Al-Aali.
For example, a school operator should be able to design and implement curriculum and monitor and evaluate the quality of teaching and learning programs. The operator should be able to develop policies and communicate the school’s strategic vision and objectives to the community. He/she should also be able to make financial and strategic plans and administer the budget.
Q. How did the Education Institute prepare these standards, and how tailored are they to the education system in Qatar?
The Education Institute contracted Education Queensland International (EQI) of Australia to draft the standards. The standards are being implemented in a seven-stage process, which is now being finalized. The standards were established taking into account the real education environment in Qatar and the goals of the reform initiative. The Australian team met with stakeholders in the Independent Schools and discussed different issues from different institutions, universities, and School Support Organizations. The team also met officials involved in the Diploma of Primary Education, offered by Qatar University and Texas A&M. None of the stakeholders was ignored.
Q. How do the standards affect the teaching profession and school leadership?
“After these standards are adopted starting the next academic year, we will have a clear vision of the needs and performance of teachers or leaders on a given professional level, be it a beginning teacher or a school leader,” says Ms. Al-Aali. “Experience is not measured by years of work, but is related to the ability to develop one’s own professional performance, in relation to the employee’s tasks and responsibilities.”
The professional standards provide the framework for professional development policies, whether in preparing new teachers for the classroom or training existing teachers. They constitute a general framework that helps teachers and leaders plan.
Q. Is there a link between the professional standards and the SEC’s curriculum standards?
“Of course they are related, since the curriculum standards comprise a set of knowledge and skills which teachers have to impart. The teachers, in turn, should meet professional standards in order to teach these curriculum standards. That is to say, both standards go side-by-side to the benefit of the education profession, to improve and develop it,” says Ms. Al-Aali.
Q. To what extent may the professional standards benefit the teaching profession?
“What the standards for school leaders should do is increase the likelihood that the competencies in the profession are more equal and that there is a career path,” says Andrew Short, a Professional Leader at Multi Serve, one of the School Support Organizations. He adds: ”It will also clearly indicate to teachers that the profession has a set of standards that must be adhered to. This will ensure that there is consistency across schools. It also may ensure pay rates are determined by experience, qualification and ability.”
Ms. Al-Aali adds: ”These standards will positively affect educators in Qatar, making their visions clearer, and directing them to the benefit of their jobs. They also help in the professionalism of teaching. Like all elite professions such as medicine, etc., there are minimum standards, and employees are contracted according to these. This framework will help planners and PD specialists and schools themselves. The standards themselves are not static but subject to change in the light of their application by teachers and leaders and according to the changes in the national priorities.”
Q. How might the standards attract more people to the teaching profession?
“We are trying to foster the career of teaching and improve the public perception of the teaching profession. If the standards are well understood, this will surely attract more people to work as teachers,” says Ms. Al-Aali.
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