Pakistan: School Leaders as Agents of Change for Equity and Inclusion
In this blog post, Freda Wolfenden, Professor of Education and International Development at the Open University, and Khalid Naeem, member of the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC), Pakistan, offer their insights and learnings, highlighting GPE KIX applied research uptake and outcomes in Pakistan.
In many parts of the world, marginalized children continue to face barriers to quality education. GPE KIX research has demonstrated that school leaders can act as agents of change to foster equity and inclusion in education. But how can evidence-based strategies drive education reforms, particularly in addressing gender equity and inclusion in Pakistan?
Last December, at the 5th GPE KIX Global Symposium, we shared how a consortium of partners has been at the forefront of researching how to strengthen school leaders’ agency to problem-solve local inclusion challenges in Pakistan, Nepal, and with Afghan Refugee Schools.
In this blog, we share key learnings and strategies that encouraged pathways to scale for this work in Pakistan, led by the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in partnership with various government agencies and the National Commission for the Rights of the Child (NCRC).
The Approach: Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) with School Leaders
We took a bottom-up approach and started with the site of the challenge – the school – and key agents best placed to address them – the school leaders. In many countries, including Pakistan, school leaders have historically focused predominately on administrative functions with little encouragement to experiment with innovative, inclusive practices. Additionally, they have received little professional development on issues related to education inclusion. Our GPE KIX research sought to challenge this position by exploring how school leaders could be empowered to identify and address minor challenges of exclusion within their schools and communities. At the start of the research project, most school leaders were aware of disparities in students’ access to education and some were taking steps to address these through attending to students' basic needs – school uniforms, shoes and books. However, these practices were often ad hoc; few school leaders were investigating, analyzing and promoting inclusion.
We worked with local school authorities to set up small groups of school leaders known as Networked Improvement Communities (NICs). These peer communities met regularly in person, emphasising continuous learning, collective problem-solving, and data-driven decision-making, all in relation to inclusion in access and learning participation.
NICs have the following key features:
- Collaborative Inquiry: School leaders work together to identify and address local education inclusion challenges.
- Evidence-Based Problem-Solving: NICs use research and real-world data to test and refine solutions.
- Facilitator Support: Trained facilitators guide discussions and ensure productive collaboration.
- Open Learning Courses: School leaders engage with structured online resources to deepen their understanding of inclusion and equity.
In Pakistan, we observed school leaders gaining confidence to implement small but impactful changes in their schools, particularly in addressing issues of enrollment, attendance, and learner engagement for street children, working children, children with disabilities, girls, and refugee children. Key strategies adopted by school leaders included community advocacy and collaboration with parents and religious groups, school-wide attitudinal shifts to prioritize inclusion and changes in school management practices to promote equity. School leaders developed increased confidence and competence to use student data.
“Now, we have created individual portfolios for each student. [...] This is really helpful because we can open a portfolio, pinpoint a problem and solve it”.
– School leader member of a NIC in Pakistan
Pathways to Scaling NICs: Lessons from our collaboration as researchers and policymakers
Our work has generated evidence that school leaders can play an important role in changing learning cultures. However, such changes need to be locally driven, based on locally generated evidence, and achievable with available resources.
What did we learn from this process? Firstly, one of the most critical lessons from this process is that successful adoption depends on multiple factors: alignment with national education goals, the nature of the education governance system (degree of decentralisation), and the professional networks of the key project actors. These networks were instrumental in opening doors, convening workshops and exploring innovative ways to exchange knowledge.
Perhaps most importantly, we shifted to framing our project findings as recommendations to stakeholders for changes to school leaders’ working conditions and the types of professional learning opportunities made available to them. We framed these changes as necessary conditions for school leaders to exercise agency to move their schools towards more inclusive education. Thus rather than merely advocating scaling of the innovation, our recommendations for policy makers focus on increasing autonomy for school leaders and opportunities for professional development through social learning with local peers combined with e-learning.
Throughout the project, AIOU engaged in close dialogue with numerous stakeholders, sharing the resources and emerging findings and inviting stakeholder participation in project events. These interactions led to several different pathways for scaling the NICs model in Pakistan:
- Program Adoption: Government agencies in Lahore, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi are adopting and adapting the model to fit existing structures.
- Product Dissemination: The open course and other learning materials were publicly available to advocate for gender equity and inclusion in government forums.
- Practice Integration: The open course's practice-based learning approach was integrated into teacher professional development programs, for example, at AIOU and Sightsavers.
Looking ahead, we plan to expand and share this initiative with Sindh and Baluchistan provinces while continuing to scale open teacher professional development courses at both provincial and national levels.
Learn more
- Watch us discussing this research during the 5th KIX Global Symposium Day 2: Thematic Breakout Sessions on Gender Equality and on Data Systems
- Explore our policy brief:
About the 5th Annual Global GPE KIX Symposium
The 5th Annual Global Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (GPE KIX) Symposium online event, ‘Promoting a Culture of Evidence-Use in Policymaking—Challenges and Opportunities,’ brought together over 700 participants for two days of discussions on evidence-based education transformation. It highlighted how GPE KIX initiatives successfully influenced policy, addressed local education challenges, and drove meaningful change.
Watch the full broadcast:
Explore Expert Insights:
Read other blogs from our distinguished speakers to deepen your understanding of the symposium's key themes. These blogs provide comprehensive coverage of the Thematic Breakout Sessions and their most valuable takeaways.
