Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales
© 2021. Universidad del Zulia
ISSN 1012-1587/ ISSNe: 2477-9385
Depósito legal pp. 198402ZU45
Portada: S/T. De la serie “RETORNO”
Artista: Rodrigo Pirela
Medidas: 25 x 30 cm
Técnica: mixta sobre tela
Año: 2009
Año 37, Regular No.96 (2021): 130-141
ISSN 1012-1587/ISSNe: 2477-9385
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7470603
Recibido: 20-10-2021 •Aceptado: 22-11-2021
Assessing the functioning of Saudi Arabian
government schools as learning organizations
Gasem Aail Alharbi
Jazan University, Saudi Arabia
d.k-alharbi@hotmail.com
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine teachers’
perceptions of school leaderships’ practices towards employing
the characteristics of Learning Organizations in public education
schools in Saudi Arabia. Methodology: Data were collected
through learning school questionnaire (LSQ) that were adapted
from Goh (2003). Main Findings: One of the most important
results of the research is agreement on the importance of school
leaderships in achieving Learning Organizations, and there are
difficulties, including centralization, the low level of administrative
support in educational departments, and the ineffectiveness of
organizational education training programs, which require
financial, administrative and training stimulation to develop
schools.
Keywords: Learning organizations; School leaderships;
Teachers; Saudi Arabia.
Evaluación del funcionamiento de las escuelas
gubernamentales de Arabia Saudita como organizaciones
de aprendizaje
Resumen
El estudio examina las percepciones de los maestros sobre
las prácticas de líderes escolares mediante la aplicación de las
características de las organizaciones de aprendizaje en escuelas de
educación pública en Arabia Saudita. Metodología: Los datos se
recolectaron a través del cuestionario de escuelas de aprendizaje
(LSQ) que fueron adaptados de Goh (2003). Principales
Hallazgos: Principalmente se encontró que hay acuerdo sobre la
importancia de los liderazgos escolares para lograr organizaciones
de aprendizaje; como dificultades, se hallaron: centralización, bajo
nivel de apoyo administrativo en los departamentos educativos e
ineficacia de la formación educativa organizacional. Se requiere
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estímulo financiero-administrativo y de formación para el
desarrollo de las escuelas.
Palabras clave: Organizaciones de aprendizaje, Liderazgo
escolar, Profesores, Arabia Saudita.
1. Introduction
In recent years, increasing attention has been given to bringing
about school improvement through the transformation of school systems
into Learning Organizations.
The research that was conducted on this subject reveals that all
educational organizations should be transformed into Learning
Organizations to survive and cope with the great changes that have
occurred in almost all fields in the 21st century. (RIINA, 2014).
Recently, there were inevitably desires for changing the
administrative strategies of Saudi schools as far as their mission and
vision are concerned. This change was due to the need for matching the
modern trends in school management to surmount a lot of problems in
several schools in the Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and in the
light of sustainable development to improve the students' learning, as
well as the school leaderships (The High Level Political Forum for the
year 2018). The school leadership are responsible for the efficient and
effective functioning of the building and the occupants in it.
(ALHARTHI, et al., 2018). They serve as a vital connecting link between
the central office/board of education and classrooms and between
teachers and parents. (KLINKER, 2006).
1.1. Research Questions
The current study seeks to answer the following questions:
First question:
To what extent are the identified Learning Organization
characteristics supported by school leaderships in the views of some
schools’ teachers in Saudi Arabia?
Second question:
What are the obstacles that hinder transforming Saudi schools into
Learning Organizations in the views of the schools' leadership in Saudi
Arabia?
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Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales. FEC-LUZ
Third question:
What are the suggestions that might enable schools to become
Learning Organizations?
2. Research Method
A questionnaire has been developed to identify the characteristics
that can be used to diagnose whether school leaderships are able to
transform their school into a Learning Organization. We depended on
many resources to identify characteristics that must be acquired by school
leaderships to be able to create a learning school, for example GOH
(2003), COPPIETERS (2005), JEREZ-GÓMEZ et al (2005).
The instrument used a five-point scale that ranged from high
score happened to low score happened.The first version of the
questionnaire, which consisted of (42) items, was originally pilot-tested
on a group of fourteen participants for clarity. Furthermore, 10 specialist
professors at Saudi universities checked the instrument as far as its
content validity is concerned. On revision, the instrument was
administered to a group of 247 leaderships from schools in Jazan region.
Reliability tests were conducted, and the instrument was further
refined and expanded. In particular, items with low reliabilities and low
factor loadings in relation to their corresponding constructs were deleted.
The threshold used for factor loadings was 0.40. In its final format, the
instrument consisted of (33) items. The overall reliability of the
instrument was measured in terms of Coefficient alpha and was found to
be 0.97. Again, only items pertaining to the earlier described Learning
Organization dimensions are analyzed in this study.
Moreover, the reduced instrument from the factorial analysis was
applied to the sample of the teachers in Saudi.
The sample included (221) teachers. This instrument was used to
judge school leaderships ability to transform their schools into Learning
Organizations.
3. Data Analysis
After the data from the school leaderships were collected, we used
principal components analysis (PCA), with varimax rotation to determine
(BROWN, 2009a) if the instrument was measuring the dimensions it was
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designed to measure and therefore empirically construct validation for
the Learning Organization dimensions investigated by the study.
For this study, the criterion used in order to determine how many
components to retain is that of Kaiser (only components whose
eigenvalues are greater than 1 are retained). Finally, the internal
homogeneity of each factor was determined by calculating the coefficient
alpha. If coefficient alpha was found to be above 0.70, the factor was
deemed reliable and exhibiting internal consistency at an acceptable level.
After confirming the factorial validity, the instrument was applied to the
subjects who were in Saudi teachers and school leadership, then the
appropriate statistical techniques were used for analyzing data and
answering the respective research questions
4. Results and Findings
The results of the statistical analyses are depicted in Tables 1
through 4. Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results of the PCA
as well as the Reliability of each factor are presented in Table 1. As
shown, the PCA that used a varimax rotation produced a five-factor
solution that accounted
For 63.5 percent of the total variance. The sample of school
leaderships used for this analysis was (247) from Jazan region.
Table 1. Principal Component Analysis and Reliability Results of
Learning School Dimensions
Factor
Eigen value
Variance (%)
Cronbach’s Alpha
1
5.672
15.33
0.87
2
5.440
14.70
0.91
3
4.475
12.09
0.92
4
4.401
11.89
0.90
5
3.481
9.407
0.89
Factor Eigen value Variance (%) Cronbach’s Alpha
As shown in the last Table, almost all factors had a reliability
coefficient in the 0.87 to 0.92 range, which provides evidence of internal
factor homogeneity. Alpha for all thirty-three learning school variables
included in this article was measured at 0.95. The variables comprising
each factor as well as the corresponding factor loadings are depicted in
Table 2 as following.
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Table 2. Factor Loadings of Learning School Constructs (75)
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
5
3
2
1
Item and Factor Description
innovation and
experimentation
.754
People who are new in this
school are encouraged to
question the way things are done.
1
.744
New ideas from employees are
not treated seriously by school
management. (r)
2
.695
Innovative ideas that work is
often rewarded by school
leadership.
3
.680
I my school encourages to
Experimentation and Innovation
in the work.
4
.608
This school encourages the
suitable environment for
constructing an open-dialogue at
school.
5
.579
My principal motivates suitable
environment for trailing new
ideas presented by the working
staff.
6
supporting research and
learning
.772
Using procedural researches
results for developing the school
work.
7
.758
Training the working employees
for employing the procedural
researches to solve problems.
8
.755
Developing the staff’s research
skills for solving school
problems.
9
.755
Supporting the mechanisms that
help in solving problems
scientifically rather than normal
and traditional ways.
10
.748
The school leadership pursuits
teachers' practices in the light of
11
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the results of the procedural
researches.
.531
Enhancing the opportunities of
the staff's continuing education.
12
.438
There are different mechanisms
for dealing with the new
employees' queries about work.
13
Empowerment and leadership
commitment
.767
Management in this school
frequently involves employees in
important decisions.
14
.720
Making decisions with the
agreement of all the staff.
15
.708
Encouraging team work groups
that are self- operating.
16
.705
Expanding the authority of
decision- making at school
settings.
17
.675
Forming team work groups for
solve-problems.
18
.648
Accepting and discussing the
consultancies and advices
presented by the working staff.
19
Knowledge Management
Writing down new information
continuously.
20
Encouraging the employees to
transmit and exchange learning
experiences among themselves.
21
Failures are seldom
constructively discussed in our
school (r).
22
Writing down and saving
knowledge via evidences,
databases, and files in order to
make use of then within new
situations.
23
Employing / using/ information
freely without setting any
restrictions between the staff.
24
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Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales. FEC-LUZ
Creating the school climate for
acquiring new knowledge.
25
In our school, there is a system
that helps us to learn good
practices from other schools.
26
Supporting the flow of
information easily among
principals, and supervisors for all
staff.
27
Using information technology in
circulating knowledge inside the
school.
28
Vision and mission of the
school
.701
In our school, there is clear
school vision and mission.
29
.820
Most of the school staff takes
part in preparing school vision
and mission.
30
.688
Unifying and mobilizing staff
efforts for achieving the vision
and mission.
31
.686
Identifying the goals and
procedural aims of school.
32
.522
Cooperating students and their
parents, and the school staff in
setting school objectives/aims.
33
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. (Brown, 2009a).
In short, the first rotated factor, which accounted for 15.33
percent of the total variance, had the highest factor loadings from five
variables, which is characterized by trial of new ideas. This factor was
thus named the innovation and experimentation, the second rotated
factor, which accounted for 14.70 percent of the total variance, was
composed of variables that collectively characterize the extent to which
the organization support use of action research for problem solving in
school and support for learning. This factor was thus called supporting
research and learning. The third factor generated dealt with the extent to
which the employees can participate in decision making in the school.
This factor accounted for 12.09 percent of the total variance and was
called empowerment and leadership commitment.
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The fourth factor, which accounted for 11.89 percent of the total
variance, pertained to the extent to which the employees have
information, knowledge in order to perform their job in a professional
manner. This factor was therefore labeled Knowledge Management. The
fifth factor consisted of variables that describe clarity of vision and
mission of school so this factor was therefore labeled vision and mission
of the school.
The means, standard deviations, and correlations are among the
factors summarized in Table 3.
Table 3. Means, Standard Deviations, and internal Correlations
N.
M.
SD.
1
2
3
4
5
6
1- Innovation &
Experimentation
6
3.51
.87
1
0.65**
0.65**
0.75**
0.57**
0.87**
2- supporting
research & learning
7
3.20
.26
1
0.59**
0.74**
0.68**
0.87**
3- empowerment
and Leadership
commitment
6
3.48
.63
1
0.67**
0.52**
0.80**
4- knowledge
management
9
3.26
.95
1
0.64**
0.90**
5- vision and
mission of school
5
3.23
.33
1
0.78**
6-Total
33
1
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
As shown in the last Table, all of the correlations between
dimensions of learning school are significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed), this
indicates internal constancy of the instrument.
Then, the effectiveness of the current study could be
demonstrated in determining the characteristics of Learning
Organizations by answering the following question:
First question: To what extent are the identified Learning
Organization characteristics supported by school leaderships from the
views of some schools’ teachers in Saudi Arabia?
In relation to this question, the answer was worked out via
identifying the minimum and maximum value of each measurement
variable and arithmetic average and standard deviation. It was done by
dividing the arithmetic rate of the maximum value for each variable after
working out the percentage that indicates the principals' support of the
characteristics of the Learning Organization in their schools. Table 4
displays the answer to the question described above.
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Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales. FEC-LUZ
Table 4. Teachers' responses about Principals’ Support to characteristics
of the learning school
The previous table, according to the teachers' responses, shows
that the total ratio of the school leadership' practices which support the
learning school characteristics is high. but this indicates the school
leaderships need to identify and support these characteristics in their
schools. This result is relatively consistent with the recommendations for
these two studies AGANDY & ALGEHENY (2018) and ALBLIWAI,
TANASH, (2017).
The table shows that the knowledge management dimension is
higher than the empowerment and Leadership commitment, but with the
Experimentation & innovation dimension is lower than the supporting
research and learning dimension,
These results can be explained in the light of some different
cultural factors, especially, for example, the high income of a teacher and
the availability of material resources is high and then made the overall
ratio to the discretion of teachers to support the characteristics of a
Learning Organization high in schools ,The central system of education
made , the teachers are interested in implementing rules more than
looking forward to develop creative students just following the
regulations and laws. Although the overall percentage of the creation of
schools as learning communities remains low, perhaps the reason behind
this is due to the legislative factors such as the central control of the
educational system in the country and some of the bureaucratic
complications that reduce the freedom of schools and weaken the sense
of independence and school-based management. (JACOBSON,et
al.2011)
N
Mean
Std.
Rank
1-Experimentation &
Innovation
221
3.51
4.08
1
2- supporting research and
learning
221
3.20
4.79
5
3- empowerment and
Leadership commitment
221
3.48
4.44
2
4- knowledge management
221
3.26
6.88
3
5- vision and mission of
school
221
3.23
3.53
4
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Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales. FEC-LUZ
Second question: What are the obstacles that hinder transforming
Saudi schools into Learning Organizations in the views of the schools'
leaderships in Saudi Arabia?
In relation to the second question, the answer was worked out via
the qualitative analysis of the school leaderships' responses in Saudi
Arabia.
5. Conclusion
The current study has shown the important role of school
leaderships in supporting the characteristics of the learning school.
However, there are some likely restrictions that may hinder turning Saudi
schools into Learning Organizations. There are similarities in these
restrictions, as stated by the principals in Saudi schools, such as the
prominent centralized administration in the educational system in spite of
the fact that there are recent attempts towards decentralization.
Furthermore, it is due to the low-level organizational support of the
school from educational administrations and the lack of the effectiveness
of the training programs for school leaderships, particularly those of
organizational learning skills. Therefore. The Kingdom seeks to develop
leadership side by side with modern trends to reach the learning
organization. Among these are expanding the authorities given to school
leaderships, enhancing continuing learning opportunities for teaching and
administrative staff at schools, financial support from the side of the
ministry and school districts, improving the school climate, and
motivating training programs that fulfil staff's needs and desires at
school.
Limitation and study forward
Selecting and examining larger samples can help in analyzing.
Acknowledgment
All thanks and appreciation for the cooperation of school
leaderships and teachers in Jazan region.
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Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales. FEC-LUZ
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Año 37, N° 96 (2021)
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