An Evaluation of the Issues Associated with Student Centered Leadership in

Egyptian Schools
1. Introduction
School leadership can play an important role in addressing the issue of student centered
learning. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in how important school
leadership is in improving the learning of all students, and what the significant practices
of effective leadership are.

Although the student-centered approach is well supported in education, traditional

teacher-centered education may still be dominant. This preference might result from the
loss of interest on the part of leaders to share their power with teachers, student and
the external community.

I became interested in this topic after being worked as a teacher in Egypt for five years.
From my experience, I realized that one of the main obstacles facing Egyptian's schools,
particularly government schools, is promoting students' performance and shifting from a
very traditional approach of learning toward student-centered learning. Such change
depends on promoting teaching quality and learning practices.
A number of researchers have sought to identify school leadership as important in
improving student learning (Hallinger, 2003; Heck & Hallinger, 2010; Leithwood & Jantzi,
2005; Louis, Marks, & Kruse, 1996). Therefore, this essay assumes that facing the
challenges in Egyptian schools depends on school leaders who positively implement
student-centered approach (Barth, 1986; Leithwood, 1994).

This essay presents a theoretical evidence of student-centered leadership and explores

the role of student-centered leadership in achieving common learning goals.

The specific objective of this essay was to identify how school leaders can implement
and lead a student-centered school in order to raise the quality of instruction for all
students.

This essay is intended to provide a short overview of the challenges and difficulties that
faces the implementing of student-centered leadership in the Egyptian school. It is
structured in three broad sections; a reviewing of the literature of school leadership,
student-centered approach and student-centered leadership, a discussion of the main
concerns and challenges specific to student-centered leadership, and an exploration of
the effective leadership practices to establish a successful student-centered school in
Egypt based on the literature evidence.
2. Literature Review

1.2 School Leadership

Numerous studies have attempted to describe the effective leader (for example, Bennis,
1989; Clawson, 1999).

Up to now, there are as many definitions of leadership as there have been individuals
who have investigated the notion (Hoy and Miskel, 1991; Yukl, 1994). According to Rost
(1991, p 4), leadership is "one of the most studied and least agreed phenomena in the
world".

For Northouse, (2007) Leadership embodies a multitude of concepts, practices, and

abilities that can be taught and developed.
Likewise, Locke (1991) suggests that leadership refers to the process of encouraging and
directing people to take action towards shared objectives.

In this way, many studies distinguished leadership from management. Zaleznik, (1977)
suggests that the leaders set the visions and strategies while the managers implement
those visions and control the processes to attain the objectives established by the
leaders. On the other hand, Kotter (1990) suggests that management is about the ability
to cope with complex sustainability problems by developing a plan and leadership is
about the ability to deal with change by demonstrating a vision.

In the field of education, there is a growing body of literature that recognises the
importance of the school leadership (Hallinger, 2003; Heck & Hallinger, 2009; Leithwood
& Jantzi, 2005).

For instance, in his major study about what makes a successful leader, Leithwood (2008)
argues that there is a clear evidence that "school leadership is second only to classroom
instruction as an influence on student learning" p.3.
Leithwood (2008) further claims that the most of effective leaders draw on the same
elements of essential leadership actions. These essential leadership actions lie in four
key areas; sitting visions and establishing direction; understanding and improving other;
structuring the school, and leading the teaching and learning processes. It is then the
methods in which these actions are implemented, rather than the actions themselves,
which empowers school leaders to respond strongly and effectively to context.

Educational leadership has underlined the significance of building clear pedagogical

objectives, designing the curriculum and evaluating teaching and learning activities. It
perceives the leader’s principle role as responsible for supporting student performance,
highlighting the significance of teaching and learning and improving their quality.
(Robinson et.al, 2009).
Robinson, et.al, (2009) in their useful study suggest that the more leaders focus on
teaching and learning, the greater impact on student performance. This assumption has
its roots in a study of Bossert et al. (1982), which also has been criticized on the claims
that it is an unreliable expectation that school leaders should be proficiency in all
aspects of teaching and learning, especially at the secondary level. However, in order to
practice leadership of learning, school leaders need to be educated about it.
As this would appear to be a difficult task for one person, it shows a reasonable ground
for sharing the leadership practices and highlights the leaders' duties of directing and
guiding people. Thus, Heifetz, (1994), highlights this point as he argues that leadership is
frequently identified as a characteristic of initiative schools where involving the broad
collaboration of stakeholders and staff ensures that the students can learn and improve
in response to the difficulties it faces.

2.2 Student-centered pedagogy

The terms 'learner-centered', 'student-centered' and 'child-centered' are frequently

used by educational researchers and scholars to refer to all practices that strengthen
student's learning. The three concepts have a similar pedagogical background; however,
'child-centered' was the oldest, building on the literature of 18th century scholars such
as Rousseau and Locke (Darling, 1993)

A generally accepted definition of student-centered is lacking, although a considerable

amount of literature has been published on this term (Mohammed and Harlech-Jones,
2007).
This must be considered when reviewing the concept of student-centered in all its
possible meaning and all its related notions.

On the other hand, despite this lack of definition, it appears to be some agreement that
student-centered refers to the theory that the student is at the center of the learning
process (Crumly, 2014). This is a concept which supports all effort at studying the
student-centered learning pedagogy. While this expects that the student is the heart of
the learning processes, the role of the teachers remains vital, especially when one takes
into account that students are not all similar.

This differs from the traditional pedagogy which also called teacher-centered learning.
Teacher-centered learning considers the teacher as the controller of the learning
processes where students are motivated by marks and achievement scores (Hannafin &
Hannafin, 2010).
According to MacLellan and Soden, (2004), traditional teacher-centered pedagogy is
commonly used in learning contexts like lecture, theater, or laboratory.
In addition, within teacher-centered learning, the educators choose what the students
will learn, design the curriculum and establish the exams that used to assess the
students' performance.

Recently, the teacher-centered approach has been criticized by many researchers and
educators with the growth of other learning theories. Johnson, (2013) argues that the
student-centered pedagogy contrasts in its nature with the concept of the traditional
approach of learning as the teachers act as instructors not as facilitators. Therefore,
student-centered learning enables learners to invest in their own learning and
encourages them to participate actively in learning processes (MacHemer and Crawford,
2007).

In this case, student-centered learning highlights every learner's interests, strengths, and
attitudes, considering the educator's role as to facilitate learning for each student rather
than for the whole class.
3.2 Student-centered leadership

The term of student-centered leadership is almost new in the educational literature,

having emerged from the studies that have intended to investigate the relationship
between school leadership and student achievement (Leithwood et al. 2004; Robinson,
et al, 2009).
Levin, (2008), suggests that the student-centered leadership was emerged from the
justice, inclusive and moral leaderships.
Ladwig (2010) likewise argues that it is expected from the school to afford many more
things than just academic results. Therefore, recent evidence suggests that the primary
goal of learning in an excellent school is to offer the spirit of leadership which means the
ability and responsibility to act for shared goals (Fullan 2013, p. 9).

As equity and diversity are critical factors at the school, it has been argued that student-
centered leadership produces an instructional context that appreciates students'
differences and increases equity. Leaders support students' equity and justice by
extending opportunities to face and reject the practices of discrimination. School leaders
are stewards who are encouraged by the responsibility to serve the needs of their
students (Danzig et al. 2005).

In addition, there is evidence that school leadership plays a crucial role in promoting
students performance. Golding et.al, (2009) reports that the leadership that aims to
focus on students provides greater impacts on student outcomes.
In the same vine, Robinson et al.’s (2009) draw the attentions to the impact of the
different leadership styles on the student's outcomes. Robinson et al.’s (2009) argue that
transformational leadership, for example, has a poor influence on student performance,
while instructional leadership where the leaders participate directly with teachers has a
greater effect on students' outcome. Robinson et al.’s (2009) further suggest that the
greatest impact was observed when leaders were most closely incorporated into
teaching and learning practices that were concentrated on enhancing student
achievements.

Robinson (2011) argues that the effective educational leadership should not only focus
on management and financial works, but it must also incorporate the high-quality
management and a focus on creating a system that delivered high-quality teaching and
learning practices. Student-centered leadership recognizes that school leader needs to
cooperate with teachers to improve students’ formal and informal learning. Although
many studies have revealed that teachers are judged by meaningful impacts on student
outcomes (Hattie & Anderman 2013), the school leaders are required to afford the
conditions where teachers could perform their best teaching practices (Dinham 2009;
Leithwood et al. 2004).

Leading student centered school considered teaching and learning as the core of
education. As Robinson,et.al (2008) suggest that ‘the more leader focuses on teaching
and learning, the greater impact on student achievements' (p. 636) Yet, the purpose of
the student-centered leadership extends far beyond the classrooms. Danzig et al. (2005)
argue that student centered leaders must be positively involved in improving leadership
capacity and sustainability through their society, supporting equity and diversity in
leadership to satisfy the students requirement and enhancing academic performance
through research and sharing the good practices. The arguments presented thus far
supports the idea that school leaders need to provide extended Learning opportunities
in order to create a substantial impact on the student learning.

Understanding these characteristics of student centered leadership reflects that the old
meaning of school leader as the captain of the ship is no longer support the today's
proposes of learning (Danzig, 2004).
With this in mind, Pont et.al, (2008) argue that student centered leaders are encouraged
to think about the community prospects, especially prospects around educational justice
and diversity. If the need for changing culture is to be considered seriously, then the
leaders of future's schools will be more engaged in outlining objectives and building
visions than in preserving the current practices.

3. Challenges face the leaders at the Egyptian schools.

Being an experience teacher and educator from Egypt, I assume that one of the main
challenges facing Egyptian schools is increasing student performance and reducing the
achievement gap. Therefore, there are two primary aims of this essay:
First; to discover the obstacles that may restrict the implementing of students centered
approach in Egyptian schools.
Second; to explore the effective leadership practices that may help establishing a
successful student-centered school.
However, before discussing the challenges that face the leaders in Egyptian schools, we
will briefly describe the Egyptian General Education System.

An overview of the Egyptian educational general system

Egypt is one of the Middle East countries that known as the “Mother of the World” and
the “Land of Civilisations,” referring to its ancient civilisation and 7,000-year history
along the Nile River.
Egypt also considered as one of the most influential political and cultural centre of the
Middle East and North Africa.

The education system in Egypt consists three levels: primary education (six years),
preparatory education (three years), and secondary education (three years). Education is
obligatory for the first nine academic years between the ages of six and fourteen.
Moreover, all levels of education are free within any government-based schools.

Pupils in Egypt take several unified exams through their school stages that determine
the path that they will take. The primary school exams are conducted at the end of the
year six to assess basic knowledge. The middle school exams at the end of the year nine
determine which school a student moves on to. Students with high marks could move on
to a general secondary school, which qualifies them to attend university later. Others
with low marks will continue to polytechnic schools, where they study commercial,
industrial, or agricultural education.

According to UNICEF report (2012), "ninety six percent of the Egyptian people aged
between six and eighteen years old are enrolled in school". However, although the high
enrollment percent, UNICEF states that “the quality of education remains a major
challenge that hinders the capacity of children to develop to their full potential.”

Building on the above review of the Egyptian educational system along with my practical
experience, this section will shed some light on the factors that may inhibit the leaders
from adopting a student-centered approach based on three aspects as the following;
social and cultural, facilities and resources and teaching quality.

1.3 Social and Culture

According to Windschitl, (2002) the efforts to apply a student-centered approach in
schools are usually met with cultural, social, and governmental challenges that my make
reform more difficult

The pedagogy of Egypt’s school system has long been influenced by different cultural
and social aspects (Cochran, 1986). The religious and social beliefs in Egypt focus on
family values and respect for teachers and old people.
In addition, as mentioned above, the education system in Egypt is heavily controlled by
the government supervision as it has been claimed that this would promote the national
identity and the coherence of the community (Sobhy, 2012).

Teachers in Egypt used to draw student's pathway, they are always right, and the
students can not contradict them. Egyptian Students allowed speaking only when asked
to do so by their teachers, they required to follow strict rules and to give all the
attention to the teacher giving lectures without having much opportunity to a real
participation or engagement inside the classrooms. (Kandeel, 2011).

In addition, the government in Egypt provides a special curriculum that aimed to be

massively politicised and directed pupils toward particular political and cultural values
and views. As a result of this centralized and tight system, school leaders have very
limited choices to implement their own learning approaches and pedagogies (Osman,
2011). Moreover, this vertical hierarchy system shapes and influences the way of
thinking in the Egyptian educational system, where the school principal in the top of the
hierarchy, and the teachers are responsible for providing all the knowledge that the
students need in their learning life.

With this in mind, one can perceive that the leadership style in Egyptian schools is
similar to what Wallace and Wildy described in their study about the traditional schools.
Wallace and Wildy, (1995) argue that the traditional school style increase seclusion;
where the leaders have the authority and power over all the teachers, school policies,
and classroom decision.

2.3 Lack of Resources

It has been reported that the Egypt's population growth rate with the lack of the
facilities, created overcrowded schools as the classrooms usually contain about fifty to
sixty students (Hartman, 2008). This problem could be a significant obstacle toward
applying a student-centered approach in the schools. It has been explored that the big
size classrooms lead to decrease the amount of time that can be spent on instructions
and dealing with the individual student. According to Blatchford et.al (2007), the size of
the class contributes to the severe criticism which some teachers express about their
own teaching. In a sense, once the class size passes a certain point, the teachers are
bound to ‘fail’ because the demands on their time cannot be met.

In addition, Osman, (2011) found that facilities like playgrounds, technologies, art rooms
or even labs are very rare in the majority of the Egyptian schools. This lack of resources
has been seen to have a great impact on the learning practices for both the teachers and
the students.

According to Marzano, et.al,(2005), providing sufficient resources in the school is a

fundamental requirement for an effective implementation of student-centered
approach in education. Therefore, I think that one of lack of resources such as
technologies, laboratories, library, and books is those obstacles toward applying
student-centered approach in Egyptian's schools.

3.3 Poor teaching quality

According to Kandeel, (2011) "The major defect that has affected Egypt’s educational
system is lack of quality". p.12

Likewise, (Hartmann, 2008) argues that teaching methods in Egyptian schools are a
problematic issue. Instead of being supported to learn in an effective and critical way,
students usually depend on memorization and examination.

The main reason for the lack quality of teaching in Egypt is the heavy load of textbooks
and the heavy examination-based system (Osman, 2011).
From my experience as a teacher in Egypt, I found that the Egyptian education system
mainly focuses on examinations, a focus that extends the whole education system. In
order to meet a very heavy standard of examinations, teachers usually have to race
through a great deal of material in each lesson. Because the grades attributed to the
examination results are crucial for a student’s future's opportunity; students need to
memorise and reproduce these heavy materials in a unified examination at the end of
the year (El-hennawy, 2012).
As a result, this caused a growth of 'forced' private tutoring which emerged to fill the
gap left by the poor teaching quality in the schools. According to CAPMAS (Egypt’s
Central Statistics and Mobilization Agency), over sixty percent of the education budget
are spent on private tutoring (Sobhi, 2011). However, this issue takes us again the
insufficient resources as the majority of teachers in Egypt claims that they force students
on private tutoring because they are not paid enough. However, this issue takes us again
the insufficient resources as the majority of teachers in Egypt claims that they force
students on private tutoring because they are not paid enough. According to Varkey
Gems Foundation Global Teacher Index Status (2013), teachers in Egypt are the least
paid among 21 countries as the overall salary of teachers in Egypt which is around 2000
GBP per year is less than one-tenth of what teachers in Switzerland get.

Thus, the examination system could be a factor that inhibits leaders from adopting a
student-centered approach as many teachers tend to not complete their lesson plans in
order to force students to participate in their private classes. Thereby, the private
tutoring reduce the quality of teaching and learning in the school because the teacher
focuses his or her effort on private tutoring rather than on the lessons in the formal
classes Brat, (2007).

4. Student-Centered Leadership: Moving from theory to actions

In moving toward the discussion of the possible suggested practices of student-centered

leadership in the Egyptian schools, the leaders practices will be classified relating to
three groups; teachers, students, and community. This classification is based on the
hypothesis that the school leaders' influence on students is almost indirect (Wahlstrom
& Louis, 2008).

1.4 Teachers

Many Studies have been demonstrated that student-centered leaders must do

considerable efforts to assisting teachers in their endeavors to improve the quality of
teaching and learning (Conley, 1991; Leithwood & Jantzi, 1990).

According to Davis & Bottoms, (2011), “it is neither teachers alone nor principals alone
who improve schools, but teachers and principals working together” (Davis & Bottoms,
2011, p. 2)

Thus, the leader's role start from recruiting the staff as they should plan to employ
excellent and highly qualified teachers in which their background and values are
harmonious with the goals and the ethos of the school (Levine and Lezotte, 1990;
Teddlie and Stringfield, 1993).
According to Clark, et.al, (1980), student-centered leaders are responsible to provide the
teachers with guidance and supervision which includes an ongoing professional
development. Despite some educators argue that with student-centered approach
teachers are no longer firmly in control, a really student-centered approach does not
aim to take out of the learning processes, but to play a vital role in teaching and learning
as a coach and guidance.

Moreover, as implementing student centered approach in the Egyptian's school

considered to be a kind of change in the Egyptian beliefs and practices about teaching and
learning, part of bringing about real change is creating an environment in which change is
less difficult.
Many studies indicate that teachers' professional development supports the change (David
Collins, 1998). Therefore, School leaders who are aiming to implement a student-
centered approach must provide sufficient professional development opportunities,
workshops, and trainings on the subject. This should include both the deeper
pedagogical understandings along with a strong lesson plans and appropriate teaching
methods.
According to Robinson, (2007) teacher professional training in student-centered schools
should be both theoretical and practical in order to empower teachers to blend their
training with their own practices.
Teachers should also be provided with training on using individualised classroom devices
like tablets or mobile devices to create a personalised learning sitting.
Clark and Hollingsworth, (2003) argues that the school leader must do a critical role in
outlining the teachers learning activities along with the overall professional
development scheme of the school based on their needs. This planned strategy is
distinguished from the more common method where teachers simply choose training
from a list of choices.

Moreover, Studies reported that supporting teachers is also about finances. Marzano,
et.al, (2005) argue that the student-centered leader should ensure that teachers have all
the required resources which supposed to be strongly powerful instructors. Thus,
student centered leader should yield access to new sources of education and insure that
teachers have the good opportunity to increase, improve, and promote their
instructional ability (Cawelti, 1997).

However, (Robinson, 2007) argues that student-centered school required more than just
providing professional training for teachers' development or resources. She suggests
that the effective school leaders must act as a role model and engage with teachers as
the leaders, learners or both.
Such practices can take direct forms such as staff meetings or professional training or
indirect form like staff discussions about teaching difficulties.
The influence of this engagement highlights the importance of school leaders as the
‘leading learners’ of the school.

However, regarding the problematic issue of the forced private tutoring, student
centered leaders should play more powerful role in controlling this phenomenon.
Although Reeves,(2009) in his book about leading the change reminds us that
collaboration between teachers and school leaders considered to be an effective and
fast way of communication to share successful practices in a way that hierarchical
leadership cannot do, I agree with Fullan, (2003) who asserts that there is a need-
sometimes- for top down leadership to some degree. So, in my opinion, to control the
problem of private torturing, school leaders need to structure a code of ethics to guide
teachers on ethical standards and the impacts of involving in private tutoring with their
own pupils. These policies should be combined with a greater monitoring of teachers by
school leaders to secure that teachers are fair and are not tutoring their own pupils.

In the same time, banning private tutoring is not the best solution as this phenomenon
became a cultural belief in Egypt. In (1978), Hyde asserts that “the phenomenon of
private lessons [in Egypt] has become a characteristic of almost every household
containing a student in any of the levels from kindergarten to the university” (Hyde
1978, 52). Therefore, as the Egyptian parents themselves believe that private tutoring
provides their children with the best possible education, in this case, school leaders
could implement after-school tutoring sessions, which could be funded by the schools
and to a smaller degree by parents at a lower-cost than private tutoring. These sessions
will be easier to be monitored and would provide the same service as private lessons, in
a regulated way, while promoting the students' achievement and provides teachers with
additional income for their extra work (Dang and Rogers, 2008).

2.4 Students
Supporting the best interests and needs of all students is a fundamental key in the
student-centered leadership. As mentioned above, student centered leaders should
support the different needs of students inside and outside the school. They therefore
need to plan and implement the policies that do not prohibit or restrict students from
learning.

Moreover, student-centered leaders should acknowledge that each student brings

different perspective to schools. They required raising the student voice and building on
existing capacities to reach desired learning outcomes.
Learning objectives, practices and assessment are not unidirectional. They are obtained
by effective cooperation between the school leaders, teachers and students who
together decide what should be the learning aims, how to achieve them and how it can
be improved within each individual (McCombs and Whistler, 1997). This philosophy
regards leading student-centered school is a life-long process and leaders aim at
exposing students to activities that have the potential of structuring students’ autonomy
extending well beyond the walls of the school (Lambert and McCombs, 1998).

Leithwood and Jantzi, (2005) identified school leaders' responsibilities in terms of

establishing goals, evaluating the curriculum, and evaluating instruction, as the principle
purposes of instructional leadership. Thus, student-centered leaders should monitor the
teaching quality, ensuring the balance between the high-quality teaching and curriculum
coverage (Eubanks and Levine, 1983).
Monitoring teaching quality and learning activities will provide students the
opportunities to learn high-quality content at all educational levels (Leithwood and
Jantzi, 2005). Thus, leaders could monitor learning process through regular classroom
visits to ensure that students are engaged and involved in lessons. Windschitl, (2002)
investigated that ineffective school leaders were less likely than leaders in successful
schools to improve the quality of teaching through ongoing observations.
Students-centered leaders must also support their students to evaluate their own
learning which is a useful tool that encourages teachers to provide proper teaching
quality during their classes in the school.

Also, a good way to enhance student centered approach in the school is to involve with
the teachers in supervising and monitoring the assessment practices at the school. Such
method is important to enhance the personalized learning and to track the teaching and
learning practices. According to Waters, and McNulty, (2005), student-centered leaders
support teachers use data to enhance and accelerate learning, differentiate learning
according to students need, recognize and fill gaps in the curriculum and allocate
students to classes or groups.

Although with a student-centered approach test scores should not be the main learning
measurement. However, in a complex education system like the Egyptian system, school
leaders still need more realistic approach in order to tie competency to examination
standards. Kotter, (1996) argues that planning and creating short-term wins is a step to
successfully leading change. Thus, In my opinion, applying flipped classrooms pedagogy
where the students lead the majority of their learning activities along with quizzes and
examination, this may be a helpful and useful solution, especially in terms of collecting
highly specific data to identify where students need support which is important to
assure that learning is still on track.

3.4 Community

As we stated above, there are some social and cultural aspects that may prohibit leaders
from establishing student centered approach in Egypt. However, Butty, t.al, (2001) argue
that students-centered leaders need to advocate on behalf of pupils and their parents to
the governmental society and the educational bureaucracy.

Scholars assert that student-centered leadership associated with the community in

three stages. The first stage includes the outside community of parents and families, and
employs the accessible resources outside the school context. The second stage includes
a community of learning within the school amongst teachers and staff where learning is
improved and appreciated. While in the third stage leadership focuses on improving the
personalised learning communities among pupils. Thus, all these three stages imply
leadership that is flexible and open in which people are empowered through discussions,
conversation, and effective engagement.

Student-centered leadership is built around the capability to recognize, express, and

exhibit community culture and traditions and the ability to make sense of different
approaches and cultures. To this end, student-centered leadership offers equal
involvement, reflects new thoughts, and implies differences.

Student-centered leadership expects an increase in student responsibility, motivation

and engagement. Theoretically, a student-centered approach will intrinsically develop
these abilities out of pupils. While practically, many pupils need guiding and assistance
at home, especially in younger levels, thus, leaders required ensuring that parents are
aware with the student-centered approach and its benefits.
Student centered leaders must work closely with parents and outside community to
make them conscious of the positive impacts of student centered learning approach on
their children by organizing awareness campaigns and establishing better
communication mechanisms. For example, school leaders in Egypt need to redefine the
metrics of educational success. Although achieving high marks still an important
measure for student-centered school, it is required that the meaning of success is
widened to cover raised school enrollment rates, as well as any other implication of
development. This point applies beyond student-centered reform and is essential to
keep in mind for any major change to an educational approach.

Moreover, in their discussion of leadership for change, Loucks, at.al, (1982) argue that
effective leaders play vital roles in communicating with teachers, parents and all
stakeholders inside and outside the school. Similarly, Manasse, (1985) suggests that
student-centered leaders regularly share their visions with students, teachers and
community” (p. 447). This communication practices provide a clear and focused
articulation of the objectives of the student-centered approach (Leithwood &
Montgomery, 1982).
After all, Fullan argues that "The moral imperative of the principal involves leading deep
cultural change that mobilizes the passion and commitment of teachers, parents and
others to improve the learning of all students." (Fullan, 2003, 41).

Although shifting schools in Egypt from teacher based to student based is challenging
and may take time, it is achievable and worthwhile. This can be seen in the case of the
Kotter and Rathgeber (1995) who found that ninety percent of schools were either
neglecting cultural changes or were attempting to change in ways that were not meeting
their goals. They further argued that school leaders were wasting time and money to
achieve too little goals, with too much pressure and disappointment all-around. In the
same vine, Reeves, (2009) suggests that changing policies without changing culture is a
frustrating exercise in futility. Thus, the first step toward successful teaching and
learning practices is recognizing that everyone involved must share the responsibility for
ensuring their success.

5. Conclusion

This essay has discussed the potential challenges that may restrict school leaders in
Egyptian schools from implementing a student-centered approach. Returning to the
hypothesis posed at the beginning of this paper, it is now possible to state that student-
centered leadership plays a vital role in supporting teachers, students and community to
apply a successful student-centered approach. This essay has identified some factors
that hinder leaders’ opportunity to apply student-centered approach such as; the
cultural and social beliefs, lack of resources and poor teaching quality.

Due to these issues, this essay assumes that student-centered pedagogy may require a
rethinking of the leader role.

As we stated earlier, the old idea of one man leadership who has overall responsibility
for the school’s operation has no longer meets the need neither for high quality teaching
in a complex world nor for learning that substantively prepares students for the 21st
century challenges. Therefore, this essay concludes that leading student-centered school
in Egypt has new challenges that ask for effective skills, sufficient awareness, and well-
examined core commitment.
Overall, this essay supports the view that the first step toward successful teaching and
learning practices is recognizing that everyone involved must share the responsibility for
ensuring their success.

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