Perceptions and applications of teachers’ evaluation among elementary school principals in the Arab education system in Israel

This paper addresses perceptions and applications of teacher evaluation by Arab elementary school principals. Analysis of semi-structured interviews with fourteen Arab principals showed that most of the principals identified teacher evaluation as a strategy to improve teaching and learning levels and consequently to improve students’ achievements. Nevertheless, it was found that there were constraints that restricted Arab principals in their evaluation of teachers, including the “political context,” while more personal considerations gave rise to dilemmas and tensions expressed in deliberation between collegial loyalty and authoritarianism and between fairness towards students and concern for teachers as colleagues. The paper concludes with practical and empirical recommendations.