RESEARCH PLAN for Penzu

Introduction
This research intended to explore the perceptions of Principals of Government Degree colleges from urban district Sindh. The study will recognize the role or principal and investigating challenges they are facing during discharging the duties. Further more this paper included the rationale, purpose of study, significant of study, literature review, research topic and research question, methodology of study and data collection frame work, data analysis, ethical considerations and limitations of study as well.

Rationale
I joined education department some twenty years ago, worked with different principals from Karachi to Sakhar Sindh. One scholar professor of Chemistry after promoted in BPS 20 offered principals position in one Government Arts and Commerce Degree College of Sindh. He resisted taking charge, with opinion that he is the person of academics not administration. But no one listen his voice and at last he took the charge of principal. After taking the charge of Principal he did nothing just sit on the seat of principal, took pause from teaching chemistry and got retired. Some criminal minded students misbehaved one another principal in leading college of sindh. After that incident he introduced a slogan “no student no problem.” He kept him at distance from teachers and student’s class room teaching learning practices. His that attitude apparently showed that he was unable to resolve conflicts, which is one important characteristic of leadership quality. One another very honest principal was failed to bring back students in classroom despite hectic efforts. He took oaths from all Muslim and Hindu students on Kalma Tyba and Geeta respectively at time of admission that they will attend their all classes. Despite that, attendance of students not increased significantly. I witnessed few principals who mostly depend upon either on a teacher or on non teaching staff member to do his/her routine jobs. All those factors forced me to understand the perceptions of principals as leadership in higher education in Public sector Colleges.



Purpose of study
1. Exploring perceptions of college principal’s in leading Government Degree Colleges in urban district of Sindh Pakistan.

2. To understand the value do the college principals give to their role as educational leader in leading Government Degree Colleges of District Sakhar Sindh Pakistan.


3. Explore the ways Principal’s current responsibilities contribute to achieve their role as effective educational leader in leading Government Degree Colleges of District Sakhar Sindh Pakistan.

4. Investigate the challenges do the College Principals of Government Degree Colleges of District Sakhar Sindh face to perform their role as an educational leader.

5. To observe the leadership style of College Principals of Government Degree Colleges of District Sakhar Sindh resolve the challenges in their contexts.
6. To make a bridge among school, college and university level educational leadership.
7. To provide frame work for future researchers to investigate more potential area of higher education
8. To develop literature from my own context from Government Degree College level.

Significance of study
Principals as a leader have no doubt, playing very important role in the colleges affairs. Effective principals are strong educators, anchoring their work on central issues of learning and teaching and continuous college improvement. Principal must demonstrate to effectively lead college in improving student achievement, promoting collaborative problem solving and open communication, collecting, analyzing, and using data to identify college needs, using data to identify and plan for needed changes in the instructional program. Implementing and monitoring the college improvement plan. My this Study intended to understand, explore and investigate the potentials, mental models and leadership characteristics of principals and the challenges they are facing as leader in dealing with financial, administrative and academic sides. Facing the dilemmas of administration, finance and school matters simultaneously needs special skills and trainings to cope the issues. But in public sector educational institutions especially in colleges the facility of training is rarely provided the new posted principals.
Most of principal’s getting posted as principal because of their seniority instead of skills of leadership or management. “In the public sector in Pakistan, head teachers are recruited and promoted on the basis of their teaching rather than their leadership and management experiences or qualification.” Memon & Zubeda (2005). My experiences working with different principals in Government Colleges of Sindh revealed that most of them given the charge of principal near to their retirement age around 55 plus. One can not ignore their experience as teacher/professor in their respective subject(s) they used to teach through out their lives. However, offering them charge of principal might create tensions and stresses among them because responsibilities that are new or very different from their previous practices are difficult to handle. Starting something new or making strategic changes, fixing problems created by someone else or existing before you took the assignment., dealing with different stake holders of different nature and keeping varying point of views on issues, influencing teaching and non teaching staff, higher management or other key political figures over which you have no authority are complex tasks. In Government Girls degree Colleges in Sakhar Sindh mostly female principles are leading colleges however large number of male teaching staff is working due to non availability of female teaching staff, so working with people of both genders and different racial and ethnic backgrounds are not easy task. Managing the interface with community, outside the college such as journalists, different political party’s student wing leaders need special skills of communication. My study intended to explore such complexities the principals are facing in their routine job and to suggest some practical solutions about issues. My intention is to find the answers of following questions at College level education in urban district Sakhar Sindh.
“1.What does it mean to be an educational leader?
2. When and how does leadership occur?
3. What is the source of leadership power?” Zubeda (2010).



Research topic and Research question
Title
Exploring perceptions of college principal’s in leading Government Degree Colleges in urban district of Sindh Pakistan.

Main Research Question
1-What value do the college principals give to their role as educational leader in leading Government Degree Colleges of District Sakhar Sindh Pakistan?

Subsidiary Questions
2- In what ways Principal’s current responsibilities contribute to achieve their role as effective educational leader in leading Government Degree Colleges of District Sakhar Sindh Pakistan?

3- What challenges do the College Principals of Government Degree Colleges of District Sakhar Sindh face to perform their role as an educational leader?

4- How do the College Principals of Government Degree Colleges of District Sakhar Sindh resolve the challenges in their contexts?

Explanation of terms
Perceptions
Understanding of Principal about his own Educational Leadership style
Challenges
Dealing with dilemmas of hindrances, difficulties, conflicts, lack of resources etc

Methodology and data collection
I shall apply a grounded theory. Three principals from urban district of Sindh will be case studies for my study. Comprising three college principals from Government Boys Science Degree College from morning shift, other will be Government boys Arts and Commerce Degree College from evening shift and third one will be the Government Girls Degree College of morning shift. I shall use the semi structured interviews and observational tool for gathering the data. I shall develop five open ended short questions for regional director college’s sakhar region sakhar, principals, teachers and students as well.

Data analysis
After gathering a raw data from interviews, reading available documents, observations and by field notes shall transcribe the interviews on paper, and will sort out entire gather material. I shall code the data and will categorize all and then maintain analytical memo of the field notes, which I shall write during my observation. I shall keep all useful data and put rest a side. For further reduction of the data I shall make categories according to theme emerged. I shall utilize the Buckley’s (1985) model for categorization and analysis.

Ethical consideration
I shall get written consent from Regional Director and principals and teacher to conduct my research. I shall negotiate with principals, teachers and Regional head for date and time venue. I will give value to their contribution and shall not put such questions which will heart them especially focusing on religious or ethnicity. I shall respect their values, cultures and customs as well. I shall ensure confidentiality of the research to my research fellows. The research shall be based on the following key principals of AKU research ethics:

• Voluntary consent of related authorities as Regional Director Colleges, principals and teachers will be sought. Privacy, confidentiality and anonymity of the research participants have been considered and will be considered during the analyses and at the time of reporting.
• Reciprocity
• No nominal harm assessment.