Early Childhood Teacher Competencies: Perspectives of Educational Leaders of Public and Private Sector in Karachi

Abstract

In Pakistan, various teacher development and professional competency model exist and have been presented. However, there is a lack of a competency model for teachers of early childhood care and education (ECCE). This research study was an attempt in initiating a formal discourse regarding how school leaders perceive ECCE teacher competency (TC). The study approached an exploratory qualitative study with the intent to understand the perspective of educational leaders from the public and private sector pertinent to ECCE-TC. Four school leaders, two from each sector respectively were approached to share their perceptions regarding the same. The researchers used an in-depth qualitative interview with a help semi-structured interview topic guide. The findings reveal that ECCE is a specialized field and that there is a need for ample work to be done to recognize this field. The data also revealed that there are discrepancies  concerning recruitment criteria, teacher appraisal and credits for continuous professional development. More so, there is a need for national level agenda to address the gaps of competency and licensing framework. We present a policy recommendation as closure of this paper for Pakistan to have a task force on ECCE with the relevant field experts who could contribute with their pragmatic experience and align Pakistan ECCE landscape with global standards