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TIS
History |
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Established in 1996, The International School (TIS) based on self conducted survey
of the prevalent education in the city of Karachi, Pakistan and influenced by “Knowledge
yielded by love. Education should have as its priorities the training of character
to be fearless and affectionate and development of intellect in which interest and
accuracy and usefulness and disinterestedness are balanced’ (Bertrand Russell) opened
for admission as the first school in Pakistan offering the educational programs
of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). By October of the same year,
the school was awarded authorization to offer the Middle Years Program (MYP). With
this authorization, The International School became the third school in Asia offering
this newly conceived innovative education system, which incorporates the latest
trends and philosophies in education. Following the successful implementation of
the MYP, the school attained authorization from the IB to offer its pre-university
high school Diploma program in August 2001. Most recently we registered with Cambridge
and Ed Excel boards (2004) to offer the International General Certificate of Secondary
Education (IGCSE) program Then, TIS was a new day coeducational private school with
no track record, tradition, or societal position trying to admit students of parents
with lack of knowledge and understanding of the at offer educational programs of
IB. In a land influenced by its British colonial past, the people of Pakistan opt
for either the national Pakistani Matriculation system or the prevalent British
GCE O-level and A-level system. Faced against many obstacles, the first challenge
for the leadership was building the capacity of a locally hired staff and determining
the suitability of local resources for administering the IB programs. The second
challenge was the formation and “alignment of culture, structure and leadership
to both produce and interrogate change” (Gunter, 2006, P151). In spite of the apparent
dissatisfaction of the prevailing education systems as evident by own survey, the
leadership had its third challenge in convincing parents on the academic benefits
and future of the innovative education systems of the IBO which incorporates the
latest trends and philosophies in education.
What is the old structure & culture of the school?
Approved by the Board of Directors on the recommendation of the leadership, the
original bureaucratic hierarchal structure with defined roles, responsibilities,
policies and procedures formed the structure of the school to achieve the objectives
of TIS. The Head of school reports to the Board about the academic and non-academic
developments of the school and the three academic program coordinators (Primary
Years (ages 3 to 11 years), Middle Years (ages 11 to 16 years) and Diploma Years
(ages 16 to 18 years)) report to the Head on their academic findings from the respective
department heads and teaching staff. The Business Manager reports on the non-academic
issues to the Head on findings from the support staff. The TIS community recognized
the existence of ‘legal or statutory right’ or authority associated with each node
on the organizational chart (Structural – Hoyle ’96) thus creating a Role Culture
(p86, Handy & Aitken86). Contingent to the unfamiliar situation of establishing
an IB world School in Pakistan and time-pressure in opening for admissions in a
few months, the chosen structure complimented the leadership which in time of establishing
the institute was closer to “leader tells people what to do” on the Tannebaum and
Schmidt Continuum (1973) and concerned more about the outcome than people (Blake,
1978). The choice of managerial leadership with top-down decision process from one
key leader, the head of the school, is first rationalize by the lack of trust in
the founding staff hired months prior to the opening of the school for admission.
As described by Hersey (1985) this existed primarily due to the uncertainty of the
commitment and the absence of any experience in the IB programs of the founding
staff. The collective teaching and administrative experience of the staff was of
either the local Pakistani matriculation or British GCE O and A-level, both assessed
taught content through examination only. In contrast TIS adoption of the inquiry
based learning and criterion referenced assessment of the innovative IB system meant
the previous experiences of the staff was void and they needed to change the manner
in which they taught, assessed and administered learning. The lack of trust was
further compounded by the lack of opportunities available to the leadership for
the development of staff capacity due to constrained time frame and absence of necessary
funding. Even if the budget was made available for professional development opportunities,
there was no time for sending staff for external training opportunities. The paltry
funds made available by the governing body in the preoperational stages of setting
up the school body only secured the attendance of the Head of School to IB conferences
and workshops. The concentration of the technical know-how and responsibility of
training the teaching and administrative support staff, by the founding head, did
further alienate the already structurally and culturally distant relation between
the led and the leader. It was imperative to educate the staff in the pedagogy of
the IB for its visible and effective implementation in school for parents to recognize
and value the difference from the status quo, and the entire success for achieving
this was central to just one person.
In contrast to Glatter’s ‘Change can not be bulldozed’, the acceptance of managerial
leadership by the initial hired staff to launch the school allowed the leadership
in achieving the requisite change in record time for the implementation of the IB
programs: the outcome. This collective behavior by almost all teaching and non-teaching
staff was congruent to Hofstede’s classification of a Pakistani culture. According
to Hofstede’s study, low individualism, relatively high Power-Distance, high Masculinity
and high uncertainty avoidance index in the national culture of Pakistan would suggest
the preference of a more authoritative managerial leadership style by a passive
led who would rather be told what to do than put in a situation where they could
exercise their will or input. Clearly there was an alignment of structure, culture
and leadership to be authoritative. However there was tension caused by the friction
between the cultural acceptance of doing as the leadership demands and the individual
sense of threat associated by the demands for unfamiliar or high-risk change. Thus
creating Morrison’s (1998,PP130-1) list of emotional negativities amongst members
of the staff: “increased workload” , “loss of status and control”, “fear of the
unknown”,” lack of clarity of purpose” , “uncertainty and ambiguity”, “vulnerability”,
“reluctance to let go of the present” “threats to expertise and established skills”,
“fear of failure and threats to self esteem”, “concern about the ability to cope”
and “stress” which lead to staff turnover, lack of collaboration, inconsistencies
in acceptance of the IB teaching methodologies and finally more importantly sporadic
visibility of the IB fundamentals by the parents.
What is the new culture of the school?
TIS leadership realized “school culture is organic rather than static” (RickDufor,
2002, p22) and “change concerns people” (Morrison, 1998). Recognizing the intrinsic
link between the change in ‘the very people who make a school great or not – the
teacher” (Leithwood,92,p8) and the school. The formation of a volunteer group of
teaching staff empowered to participate in deciding the future of the school was
a transformational shift from autocratic to participatory leadership. This effort
changed the structure by flattening the hierarchy and the culture by increasing
interaction for a common goal which helps “staff members develop and maintain a
collaborative, professional school culture” (Leithwood,1992,P9). On this “retroactive”
(Levacic et al.,1999) strategic platform there is a sharing and balancing of different
thoughts in creating a consensus by a representative group not an individual to
decide on the direction of the school. This transformation is indicative of a transition
from the isolated transactional culture of a previous Type A organization (Ouchi,’81)
to the participatory and collegial culture of Type Z organization (Ouchi,’81). The
new invigorating energy from a “redefinition of a people’s mission and vision, a
renewal of their commitment, and the restructuring of their systems for goal accomplishment”
(Leithwood,1992,P9) has increased “confidence and motivation” (Leithwood,1992,P9)
of staff in their transactional leadership practices. Both transformational and
transactional leadership are complimentary with the former leading the change both
at an individual and institutional level. ‘The alignment of the leadership, structure
and culture’ (Gunter, 2006, P151) to be collaborative and participatory is an initial
first in the process of making staff take ownership of the institute for its improvement
and effectiveness. The visionary is no longer the founding board members but the
collective school community and the change agent is no longer the Head of the school
but the members of the teaching staff. Collectively they intend on bringing in improvements
to reach their following agreed objectives focusing on the learner, parent and teacher
– its people and community.
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Time line |
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1996 – 1997 |
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Set up infrastructure |
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Developed Academic program |
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Developed Administrative procedures |
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Opened Admissions for grade 1 to 7 |
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Authorization visit by IB inspector |
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Authorization letter for MYP from IBO |
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Teachers sent to Bangkok for training |
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Dawn supplement
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School Carnival |
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Developed academic program for grade 8 |
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1997 – 1998 |
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Opened grade 8 for admission |
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Developed Design and Technology workshop |
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Principal attended Heads of School Conference |
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Halloween Carnival |
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Introduced annual cricket match between staff and students to be played on 14th
August (Independence Cup) |
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Developed academic program for grade 9 |
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1998 – 1999 |
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Opened grade 9 for admission |
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Introduced security deposit |
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Students trip to North Pakistan & Afghanistan |
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Swimming Gala, Olympics introduced as annual events |
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Organized first Drama festival |
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Developed curriculum for grade 10 |
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1999 – 2000 |
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Opened grade 10 for admission |
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Graduated first MYP batch of 21 students
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Student trip to Moenjodaro |
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Dawn supplement |
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Added second building |
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Developed academic program High school(DP) |
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2000 – 2001 |
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Opened grade 11 for Admission |
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Set up infrastructure and procedures for High School |
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Teachers sent to Bahrain and Hong Kong for Diploma training |
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Students attended Model United Nations(MUN) Program in Sri Lanka |
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Authorization letter for Diploma Program from IBO |
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2001 – 2002 |
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Set up infrastructure and procedures for pre-school |
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Authorization letter for Diploma Program from IBO |
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Set up College advisory service |
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Graduated first IB Diploma batch of 30 students to College and Universities across
the world including Pakistan |
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2002 – 2003 |
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Graduated MYP and Diploma batches to College and Universities across the world including
Pakistan |
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2003 – 2004 |
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Registered with Cambridge International Examinations, UK |
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Registered with Edexcel International, UK |
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2004 – 2008 |
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Graduated MYP and Diploma batches to College and Universities across the world including
Pakistan |
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Introduced Rowing and Sailing as sporting events |
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Participated in the first Inter-School Rowing Regatta |
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2008 – 2009 |
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Organized and hosted the first TIS Model United Nations Conference |
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2009 – 2010 |
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Many teachers register for the 6-week IB authorized online workshops |
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