Abstract:
This research explored instructional leaders’ perceptions of how they raised Cambodian students’ underachievement in low-level English studies at general English programmes in English language schools (ELS) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Five instructional leaders from five ELS in Phnom Penh participated in this study. The study employed qualitative semi-structured interviews triangulated with document analysis to collect data on the perceptions of leaders, who had self-reported an issue with underachievement and developed successful strategies to address it. The study indicated five perceived reasons for the underachievement, with three most common reasons being low parental involvement, teacher problems and student problems. Low parental involvement included the failure of parents to teach children and attend school events. Teacher problems involved limited English teaching methodology and teaching responsibility issues, and student problems involved lateness and missed homework. Leaders reported using five major strategies to improve student achievement, which were generally consistent with their perceptions of the causes of the underachievement. Their strategies for increasing parental involvement included raising parents’ awareness of their responsibilities for children’s learning and communicating with them about children’s learning problems. Leaders were involved in resourcing such as the provision of teacher aides and teaching resources. They enhanced teachers’ teaching methodology using such strategies as providing professional development, addressed student problems and teacher responsibility issues and created a safe and clean school environment. This study, however, indicates these strategies were not necessarily effective. For example, leaders did not provide specific help to parents regarding how to support children’s learning, and professional development provided did not necessarily change teachers’ classroom practices. Strategies for increasing homework completion focused on punishment, rather than reinforcing positive behaviours, and the strategy for student questioning was ineffective. A limitation of the research is its small number of participants. Future research may include further schools and leaders. The findings suggest it is important that leaders in ELS in Cambodia be aware of ways to further improve student achievement. These include the education of parents about how to support children’s learning, the inclusion of effective features of professional development and the addressing of teacher resistance, homework completion and student questioning.