BOOK REVIEW REFLECTION

A book on leadership “Educational Leadership in Pakistan: Ideals and Realities” was

reviewed in group of six course participants as a part of our Pedagogical Leadership (PL) course.
This paper discusses the rationale of selecting the book, introduction of book and authors, key
learning from the book, group work (process, my role, what worked, what not worked) and my
learning from this whole process.

Rationale of Selecting the Book

In our very first group meeting we all group members, with a mutual understanding, set
some criteria for selecting a book for review as a part of our PL course. First, the selected book
meet the set criteria of the assignment as well as it may be relevant to our PL course. Second, the
book should cover context of developing countries, particularly of Pakistan, as a lot work is done
on leadership in western/ developed context. Third, it should contain indigenous and contextual
case studies about pedagogical leadership. Our focused search provided us with an access to the
book “Educational Leadership in Pakistan: Ideals and Realities” (2010).

All about the Book

This is the first ever book on educational leadership, published in Pakistan. Dr. Jan-e-
Alam Khaki1 and Dr. Qamar Safdar2 are the editors of this book. The book consists of a series of
empirical studies undertaken by qualified educational researchers in Pakistan, associated directly
or indirectly with AKU-IED. There are various thought provoking and insightful topics in this
book; each complements our learning experiences. The book is divided into four sections and
fourteen chapters; each section and chapter is intertwined with each other and illuminates issues
and its remedial measures. Section one describes the development of education leadership in
Pakistan. The second sections deals with the Diversity of Leadership: perceptions and practices
of leadership in Pakistan. The third session looks at the role of the educational change agents,
and the fourth sections explores the future prospects of educational leadership in Pakistan. In

1
Dr. Jan-e-Alam, PhD, along with three Master’s degrees, is an associate professor and coordinator, PhD
progrmmes at AKU-IED. Dr. Khaki is a pioneer in offering educational leadership and management programs in
Pakistan. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award of the Aga Khan University (2007).
2

Qamar Safdar, Ex. Assistant Professor, AKU-IED, is General Secretary of Aga Khan Education, Pakistan
(Southern). She has been awarded the Star Laureate By South Asian Publications in 2008.

1
order to get in-depth insights from the book, we decided to focus on first two sections and
reviewed initial six chapters.
In first chapter, Dr. Sajid Ali and Muhammad Babur highlight the issues and nature of
governance during pre and post independence. Structure of education during British and after
independence is analytically compared. Chapter indicates that involvement of educational
leadership is missing in both periods, causing various issues in education system, ineffective
management and indistinct teaching methodologies, etc. In the second chapter, Zubaida Bana
reflects upon the understanding of effective leadership. Using the Katha (storytelling) approach,
she starts the discussion pints of a headteacher who imaginatively discovers the meanings in
allegories and metaphors in order to understand the roles and responsibilities of an effective
education leader in his/her school. Katha of leadership described in this chapter stimulates our
minds that every person has the capacity to lead. Some may lead in wider space; others may lead
in smaller landscape.
The third chapter is all about of a female pedagogical leader’s journey in a traditional
context in Pakistan. The writer reflects upon the critical incidents, she came across in her
personal to professional life, which helped or impede her way to become a pedagogical leader.
The notion of ‘leader as a bridge between management and stakeholders’ and ‘leader as a life-
long learner’ is evident from her story. In the fourth chapter, Qamar Safdar explores the roles of
two effective headteachers of early years in two private schools. The writer reflects on the
capacity and ability for the overall development of children. The chapter 5, deals with an
ethnographic study conducted by Mola Dad Shafa in a rural context of northern areas of
Pakistan. The author discusses the challenges the headteachers faced and the way addressed
them. The chapter six, ‘Effective School Leadership Practices’ is a doctorial research of Dr. Jan-
e-Alam Khaki. In this case study, Khaki explores the roles and beliefs of three effective
secondary school headteachers and their influences on the teaching and learning practices in
schools.

2
Key Learning from the Book
Being a student of Teacher Education, I was very unfamiliar with different kinds of
leadership and its characteristics. The very first time, in our PL course, I heard the terms
instructional, moral, transformational, participative, managerial, contingent and pedagogical
leadership. But these terms were not much clear to me; I mostly thought them as just theories
with no connection with practical life of a leader. This book review provided me with access not
only to understand and differentiate in different kinds of leadership, but also relate it with real-
life situations.
I have learnt many new things about effective leadership from this book, but due toe
limited word limit I will describe some crux of it. While analyzing the first chapter of the book, I
feel the same that governance and planning has the role in deteriorated education system in
Pakistan. It takes a lot of time in planning and framing the policy, then sending it to the national
assembly and senate for debate and translating it into the law. Then piloting of the policy takes
long time and when it comes to be implementation, the government gets changed and so the
policy. It creates the environment of despair, but when I go through the second chapter (Katha of
Leadership), it gives a hope. Here, I learnt that nothing is unachievable in this world. Every
person is capable to contribute in the process of change and everyone has capacity to lead. We
should not stay waiting for any cosmos power to come to help us; it is high time for everyone to
come forward and lead.
The third chapter of the book was the most inspiring and learning factor for me. Here, I
learned that how a person (particularly a woman), with her/his strong will, sincerity and zeal
breaks the chains of traditional rules. While reading that article, I was deeply thinking that
someone has to initiate and take the first step toward the collective development. This article
took me in my own context, where female is still considered as the property of the man and only
the reproductive machine. Education, even the good food is the sole right of male child. Here,
my elder sister (who could not get education herself) by sending her daughter into school, proved
herself as traditional rule breaker. Some of other females start following her foot-steps by
sending their daughters to the schools. Ten years back, there was no single literate girl in my
village, but due to that small step, more than forty to fifty girls have completed their primary
education so far. Besides it, I also learnt that leader is life-long learner. He/she learns through

3
self-reflection and negotiating and discussing the issues with others and seeking guidance from
them.
Overall, this book serves as a pioneer of exploring our thinking about our own role as a
leader and proves to be a best resource for the policy makers to develop alternative approaches to
deal with school and teaching and learning practices.

Experience of Group Work

Working in group, as it was the need of the task, gave me a great insight to communicate
effectively and to learn from others’ experiences. Since, I was from TE background, so, many
leadership terms (caring-interventionist, passionate vision, prophetic leadership, etc.) were new
for me but the colleagues from leadership made them simple for me.
For assigned task, we set our own criteria for book selection and segregated the tasks
according to their capacities and interests. In this process, we met six times and each time there
was a president of the meeting; one of us (in cyclic way) was responsible to note the meeting
minutes and call the next meeting. In this way, we all were the leaders and the followers at the
same time. The chapters were selected with mutual consent and understanding. All the members
shared their understanding of their selected topics and brought some critical points to discuss in
the group. As I was in contact with all the members and was sharing my points and calling and
recording the meeting, I consider my role was of a distributive leader as well of a follower.
Prior to final presentation, in order to get grip on the critical points and to manage time,
we did rehearsal for two to three times. One of our members suggested to present book review in
any innovative way before the class. After long debate, we all agreed to do panel discussion; at
the end of the day, it was appreciated by the majority of the audience.
While working in the group we came across some challenges as well. Time was big
challenge for our whole group because most of the group members were engaged in proposal
writing and it was not possible for the group members to meet every day or twice a week. The
second big problem I found was the talkative group. We all loved to be heard rather giving others
sometime to speak. Most of the times, it took too much time to come to one consensus. It was
positive in the way that we got opportunity to understand the different terms very thoroughly.
Some of the friends had the first acquaintance with book review, so it was challenging for them.
To overcome the time constraint we met informally during tea and lunch breaks, at library and

4
even in hostels, we also communicated through e-mails. It also helped the friends, who had less
expertise in book review.

Conclusion
This book very obviously describes the role of leadership and management in an
educational organization. A leader being a role model should motivate and encourage the staff
because performance and commitment of people employed in any organization makes it
effective. Through critical analysis of the book, I came to know that this book possesses stories
and cases from Pakistani context so many of the ideas suit my own. So, it would be easier for my
future role as a teacher educator to deal with the school management and leadership related
issues in an effective manner.

5
Reference:

Khaki, J., & Safdar, Q. (Eds). (2010). Educational Leadership in Pakistan: Ideals and Realities.
Karachi: Oxford University Press.