Training Needs of Senior Teachers in the Sultanate of Oman: Perceptions, Demographic Patterns, and Implications for Professional Development Theory

Abstract

The senior teacher position in the Sultanate of Oman is a hybrid role combining instructional delivery, onsite supervisory oversight, and educational leadership within a single job description. Institutional evaluation data show a decline in trainee satisfaction with training content, suggesting that programme design has not kept pace with role demands. This study examines the level of training need across four domains (teaching, supervisory, leadership, and research practices) as perceived by 485 senior teachers, and whether need varies by gender, experience, and qualification. A mixedmethods design was used: a 32item questionnaire (α = .963) provided the quantitative strand, and 12 focusgroup interviews provided the qualitative strand. All four domains showed high need (overall M = 3.85), with leadership highest (M = 3.95) and teaching lowest (M = 3.71). A small but significant gender difference favoured female participants in supervisory practices (t = 2.05, p = .040, d = 0.19), and a small experience effect emerged for teaching practices (η² = .025); qualification produced no significant differences. Thematic analysis yielded four themes, including a reflectivepractice deficit and a demand for participatory programme design, neither captured by the questionnaire, which add interpretive depth to the quantitative findings. The results are broadly consistent with the teacherleadership literature's claim that pedagogical seniority does not automatically confer leadership or supervisory readiness (Wenner & Campbell, 2017; Abrahamsen & Helstad, 2024), and may be relevant to other developingcountry contexts with similar hybrid teacherleader roles, though this singleinstitution sample limits generalisability beyond Oman.