A COMPETENCY-BASED APPROACH TO DEVELOPING PEDAGOGICAL LEADERSHIP IN EFL TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMMES: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Abstract
This conceptual paper proposes a competency-based theoretical framework for developing pedagogical leadership competencies (PLCs) in pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher preparation programmes. International policy documents — most notably the OECD's Results from TALIS 2024, which surveyed close to 280,000 teachers and school leaders across 55 education systems — together with national reform agendas such as Uzbekistan's State Educational Standards of 2022, identify teacher leadership as a central driver of educational quality, yet the operational question of how such leadership should be cultivated during initial teacher preparation remains substantially under-theorised. Drawing on Weinert's three-component competence concept, the OECD DeSeCo framework, and contemporary teacher-leadership research, the paper articulates a six-block PLC structure — cognitive-reflective, communicative-interactive, creative-innovative, organisational-managerial, social-ethical, and metacognitive — each defined through operational descriptors, EFL-specific manifestations, and measurable indicators. The proposed structure is triangulated against recent quantitative evidence, including a 539-teacher correlational study conducted in Ethiopia and a 408-respondent structural equation model from Indonesia, both of which report statistically significant associations between pedagogical leadership practice and teacher performance. A comparative analysis of knowledge-centred and competency-based curricular approaches reveals five fundamental dimensions of difference concerning educational goals, curriculum design, assessment focus, student role, and quality indicators.
Keywords
competency-based approach; pedagogical leadership; EFL teacher education; conceptual framework; six-block PLC structure; pre-service teacher preparation; teacher professional development; instructional leadership; Uzbekistan; higher education curriculum design; TALIS; teacher autonomy.How to Cite
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