Abstract:

Education in Bahrain has been through several changes in the past and must continue to do so in its pursuit of excellence. The Quality Assurance Authority for Education and Training (QAAET), one of the latest reform projects, was established in 2008 as an independent entity, with the remit of reviewing the quality of the performance of education and training institutions in light of the guiding indicators developed by the Authority. Within the QAAET, the School Review Unit (SRU) is responsible for: assessing the quality of provision and its impact on learners, identifying strengths in performance and areas for improvement, spreading best practices, and providing recommendations to help schools improve. Even though school reviews is seen as an external quality assurance process, since 2008, SRU planted the seed of internal self-evaluation and considered the school’s evaluation of their performance as the starting point of the process. A review framework and guidance was established, self-evaluation form (SEF) was created, and training on the whole review process, the framework and the self-evaluation was offered.

This paper focus on assessing the SRU contribution to the building of Bahraini schools capacity to self-evaluate performance, by allowing participants in this continuum process the opportunity to present their perceptions about the effectiveness of SEF and its impact on their daily professional life. After finishing the first cycle (3 years) of reviews covering a total of 202 government schools, principals, assistant principals and leaders of self-evaluation internal committees’ perceptions were surveyed. With a return ratio of 70%, the data collected was analysed using SPSS and triangulated with the narratives provided by participants.

The main themes of analysis focuses on the perceptions of teachers about the understanding of self-evaluation, acceptance and practicality of the process. Initial findings indicate that the culture of self-evaluation had been established and embedded in day to day practice of Bahraini schools. Moreover, most schools found the outcomes of the process is of importance mainly to the schools. Additionally, the self-evaluation forms provided by the SRU proved to be effectively serving several purposes including: forming the starting point for the self-evaluation process, preparation for the school review visit, and build the school’s strategic plan accordingly.

Keywords:

Educational Quality Assurance, Educational Leadership, Self-evaluation.