The school principal’s role as an instructional leader has sustained to revolutionize since the last four decades. The understanding of the complexity and ambiguity of the role has developed and the focus shifted from management and supervision to instructional leadership. This study, however, was undertaken to uncover perceptions of Omani principals have concerning their view and practice of teacher performance evaluation and challenges that affect teacher performance evaluation in Oman. This study aims to explore the school principals’ practices in carrying out the performance evaluation of teachers in selected Omani schools. Data reported in this study were gathered from three schools located in Southeast region in the Sultanate of Oman. Selection of participants is critical in qualitative research; therefore, the researcher used purposeful sampling to identify the three instructional leaders whose total experience was not less than 3 years in the same school that involved in school performance evaluation system. The sample was selected from those schools where a school level doorkeeper accepts to take place in the study. Semi-structure interview approach is used as the prime source of data, direct observations and document analysis. Interviews were recorded and transcribed literally and translated from Arabic to English. Transcripts were iteratively read and coded, then analyzed using the constant-comparative method. Codes were grouped into 8 units: (a) the conception of teacher’s performance evaluation, (b) goal setting process, (c) monitoring teacher performance, (d) feedback on teacher’s performance, (e) professional development, (f) Favored teachers (g) the principal’s motivation (h) summative evaluation. Once unitized and coded, explanation were then entered into the database for analysis. The study, however, came up with implications for practice and theory. Recommendations were taken directly from participants and the researcher added his recommendations based on the research findings and the need to improve teacher performance evaluation in Oman school.

The school principal’s role as an instructional leader has sustained to revolutionize since the last four decades. The understanding of the complexity and ambiguity of the role has developed and the focus shifted from management and supervision to instructional leadership. This study, however, was u...