Teachers’ beliefs about their leadership practices and leadership opportunities: lesson from the correlation study in Urban Pakistan

This paper reports on the findings from a quantitative study regarding the correlation between teachers’ beliefs about their practices as leaders and the available leadership opportunities in six dimensions: developmental focused, recognition, collegiality, communication, autonomy and positive environment. The data were collected by administering a survey questionnaire among all the 220 teachers working in different schools under the umbrella of a private school system in Karachi, Pakistan. The analysis has revealed the existence of a significant correlation between teachers’ beliefs about their practices as leaders and available leadership opportunities in the six dimensions to a varying extent–strong in the dimension of positive environment, moderate in collegiality and communication and weak in developmental focus, recognition and autonomy. The existence of significant correlation implies that teachers’ practices as leaders can be enhanced through intentional intervention by providing them with opportunities in the schools. Further analysis of teachers’ responses toward the items has revealed that teachers’ practices as leaders can be improved through developing a positive environment in the school, providing teachers with ongoing professional development opportunities and involving them in the decision-making process.