Pemimpin
Malaysia
Context
We have been partners with Pemimpin GSL since their organization was created in 2017. As GSL’s first initiative outside of India, Pemimpin serves as a model for the power of cross-country learning adapted to meet local needs. Pemimpin GSL aims to train school leaders and drive system impact in Malaysia through workshops, school visits, coaching, school self-evaluation, school improvement development plans, and networks of school leaders.
Pemimpin GSL is dedicated to providing diverse support to schools across Malaysia. Their initiatives encompass various areas such as the Pemimpin GSL Fellowship, focused on transforming leader mindsets and enhancing strategies for improved student learning outcomes. The Accelerated School Leaders Initiative (ASLI) targets leadership development in schools serving indigenous communities, aiming to enhance student attendance, outcomes, and retention. The Pintar GSL Academy offers intensive leader training, covering instructional, operational, human resource, and strategic leadership skills. They have also conducted the Pintar-Pemimpin Leadership Program for Schools, addressing the COVID pandemic crisis.
Additionally, LEAD is an online training program for aspiring principals and teacher leaders, and the Masterclass Series equips teachers with immediate classroom interventions and leadership skills. Furthermore, the Malaysia Teacher Prize is an accolade designed to recognize and celebrate exceptional teachers in Malaysia.
Through these programs, Pemimpin GSL is currently working with 279 school leaders with the potential to impact 60,067 students across Malaysia.
Project Spotlight:
Dedicated support for school leaders serving indigenous students
Even before the pandemic, Orang Asli children (children from indigenous tribes) in Malaysia were experiencing severe learning loss and large discrepancies in educational outcomes compared to the national average. The ASLI program was created to address the unique needs of these students. We worked together with Pemimpin GSL to customize their Fellowship Program specifically for school leaders who work directly with Orang Asli students, providing support to help leaders shift their mindsets and develop strategies to improve students’ learning outcomes.
The ASLI program was developed in alignment with the Malaysian Ministry of Education equity aspiration #57 on the transformation of indigenous people and indigenous education, and the design utilized best practices and international recommendations on indigenous education.
By the end of their participation in the program, participants are expected to showcase increased knowledge of indigenous pedagogy, strategic planning, strong leadership practices, build skills to plan, execute, monitor, and assess changes throughout their schools and develop a growth mindset.
GSL’s role and future work of our partnership
In our partnership with Pemimpin GSL, we provide support by offering them thought-partnership and technical support around their theory of change, areas of focus for programs, and implementation challenges. We also work to help them by vetting their curriculum and measurement and evaluation frameworks, finalizing program design for things like coaching, and designing surveys to capture program outcomes and other impacts that participants experience.
Pemimpin GSL launched a new app for teachers in late 2023 call LADAP+. In the future, they are planning on working with our team to test instruments developed for our high-leverage practices for school leaders.
Our work with Pemimpin GSL will help us to answer one of our primary learning questions, what are the most important school leadership practices in the Global South? Based on our work with our partners and existing research, we have developed High-Leverage Leadership Actions . We know that these actions are important and we are working to learn more about the feasibility of developing leadership skills in these areas as well as the extent to which these practices make a difference for students.
