English abstract
The study aimed at investigating the current situation regarding planning for decentralized professional development programs for teachers in the training and professional development centers in the educational governorates in Oman. The study also sought to identify the challenges facing the process. In order to achieve these objectives, the study followed a qualitative research approach. A semi-structured interview protocol was designed to guide the interview questions about the way decentralized professional development programs for teachers are designed and the challenges they are facing. The study sample consisted of 18 participants from three educational governorates: Muscat, Dhofar and South Batinah, in addition to representatives from three bodies in the Ministry of Education concerned with decentralized professional development programs which are the Rehabilitation and Training Department, the Training Assessment Department, and the Main Training Center.
The results of the study revealed the emergence of several main themes related to the questions of the study. Several issues related to the reality of planning decentralized professional development programs for teachers were highlighted. These included the construction of the plan of the decentralized professional development programs, the Guidelines of professional development programs, the role of the ministerial follow-up teams. Also, several key themes emerged concerning the challenges facing the planning of decentralized professional development programs for teachers: namely the limited role of training and professional development centers in building the professional development plan, the lack of time for educational supervisors to build a decentralized professional development plan, poor coordination between the operational plans of the training and professional development centers and the five-year plan of the Ministry of Education, poor training on building decentralized professional development programs, overlap between the three bodies mentioned above, and inadequate identification of teacher's training needs.
In the light of these results, the researcher suggested a set of measures that may contribute to the improvement and development of the planning of decentralized professional development programs for teachers. Suggestions for future studies in the filed were also provided.
