Abstract/Summary

This study aims to investigate the perceptions of classroom teachers, heads of department and head teachers of the effectiveness of recent reforms of education policy implemented in middle schools in a school district in Kuwait between 2005 and 2015. It focuses on three aspects of the reforms: teachers' professional development, curriculum design and ICT implementation in schools. This project is of particular importance, as it contributes to an understanding of the various challenges faced by schools in implementing reforms and of how practitioners cope with such challenges when translating the policies into practice. This research took a mixed methods approach, using quantitative questionnaires and qualitative interviews to collect data from five case study schools. It was found that implementation of the reforms had little or no effect on schools. The results indicate that policymakers lacked clarity of purpose, had not involved teachers and schools in the change process or in decision making when developing the curriculum and had not provided adequate support to schools. Moreover, there was no effective framework for planned and continuous professional development for teachers, nor an appropriate ICT infrastructure. Some of the factors that participants considered to have affected implementation of the reforms were lack of autonomy, external intervention and increased dissatisfaction with the policymakers, who were perceived as having disempowered schools and their stakeholders by exercising control too tightly and as having adopted strategies that did not meet the needs of the schools. Participants suggested that improved communication and coordination were necessary for effective implementation of the reforms. A significant finding is that schools were taking their own initiatives for providing teachers with opportunities for professional development.