Whose School is it Anyway? A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis of How "Success" is Constructed and Contested Under Contractual Leadership in Rural Sindh

Abstract

Success in educational reform is frequently presented by state machineries as an objective, quantifiable metric, yet at the ground level of school implementation, it is a fluid and contested narrative. The paper presents the argument that success in schools with new contractual leadership in Pakistan is not an objective fact but a social phenomenon that is negotiated between various stakeholder groups. This study, based on the unique multi-stakeholder dataset of twenty-nine interviews with head teachers, teachers, students, parents, School Management Committee (SMC) chairmen and Taluka Education Officers (TEOs) will examine the perceptions of head teachers, teachers, students and parents about the performance of merit selected IBA head teachers. Analysis proves that all stakeholder groups implement various evaluative criterion based on their particular interests and institutional positions. To bureaucratic bosses, compliance and aesthetic order are visible results of success. To teachers, it is professional respect and provision of resources. To students, it is pedagogical involvement and prospects, and to parents, trust and conspicuous nurturing.

The results indicate some crucial points of coincidence, including that a new testing regime should be universally valued, and some major contradictions, especially those concerning parental cooperation and official support. The research findings contribute a methodological model of multi-stakeholder research and an argumentative feature that a sustainable reform must focus on the political and negotiative nature of school improvement.