Exploring principals' professional development : a case study of public madrasahs in Indonesia

Abstract

The quality gap between public general schools and public madrasahs remains an issue of concern. Madrasah principals as the backbone of madrasah are required to enhance their competences through continuous professional development to bring about improvement. Regarding this matter, the study aimed to investigate: 1) the professional development of public madrasah principals; 2) the public madrasah principals’ perceptions on the professional development; and 3) the benefits of professional development in improving the public madrasah principals’ leadership duties. The study is significant because it sheds light on leadership professional development particularly in Indonesian public madrasahs. In addition, the study promotes knowledge sharing and idea generation among madrasah principals. Employing qualitative case study design, the study obtained the data from semi-structured interviews and documents issued by Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA). Three public madrasah principals from a city in Indonesia were interviewed to explore the professional development they have done as well as their perceptions on its implementation and benefits. The documents examined were the guidelines of madrasah principals’ appointment, continuous professional development, madrasah principals’ forum and training modules. The data were analyzed through a six-step thematic analysis that consists of getting familiar with the data, coding, searching themes, reviewing themes, defining themes and making the report. The findings revealed that: 1) The public madrasah principals developed their professionalism through a series of learning programs conducted by MoRA or other institutions, postgraduate study, madrasah principals’ forum, research and collaborations; 2) The public madrasah principals considered professional development important for upgrading skills and knowledge and they found MoRA’s trainings useful and applicable despite its limitations; 3) The public madrasah principals thought that the professional development has benefited them in executing their daily tasks, such as supervision and administration. To conclude, professional development is crucial in enhancing public madrasah principals’ competences. The results indicated that the public madrasah principals had their own comprehension on the leadership areas that were enhanced through professional development. It was also found that the public madrasah principals perceived the advantages of professional development based on their individual needs. The study provides important insights to governing bodies on better management and need assessment of professional development programs for Islamic-based schools’ leadership. The madrasah principals are suggested to maximize their potentials and resources in developing their professionalism and competences. Since the study only focused on public madrasah, future studies can explore further from the perspective of private madrasah and hire more school members as participants to yield various findings.