HRAF Global Scholar: Aklilu Alemu Ambo, Ph.D.
Title: Assistant Professor of Education Policy and Leadership
University Affiliation: Madda Walabu University
Research Topic: A comparative study of education systems and cultures
Aklilu Alemu Ambo received his Ph.D. in Education Policy and Leadership from Addis Ababa University in July 2020, and he is currently an assistant professor of Education Policy and Leadership at Madda Walabu University. His dissertation is entitled “Quality Management Policies, Practices, and Challenges in the Secondary Schools of Ethiopia. Open System Theory and Multilevel Organization Theory guided the study. In the study, experts from all levels of education management, school principals, teachers, and students were involved to pinpoint quality management practices and challenges. It is a novel study because it involved multilevel management systems to acquire a complete picture of quality management problems.
Aklilu received his second degree in Human Resource Management and Organizational Development from Addis Ababa University in July 2011. His thesis is entitled “An Assessment of Instructional Leadership Practices in the Secondary Schools of Sheka Zone, Ethiopia.” He also got his first degree in educational planning and management from Addis Ababa University in July 2009. Finally, he obtained his advanced diploma in educational planning and management from the same university in 2004.
Aklilu has leadership experience. A live example of this is that he led primary schools for more than 5 years. He has also participated in different committees and coordinator positions at Madawalabu University since 2012. He coordinated the then-Institute of Pedagogical Science’s research practices at the university level. He also acted as a representative of the teacher association for the institution’s faculty and led the college discipline committee.
From his dissertation, Dr. Aklilu has published three articles in peer-reviewed journals. The first article, entitled “Stakeholders’ Perception of Political Influences on Quality Management of Secondary Education in Ethiopia,” was published in the Journal of Educational Planning. The main aim of the article was to expose the political influences on students learning and data was collected from educational experts from the Ministry of Education, Region Education Bureau, Zone (management level that bridges between region and district) Education Department, and district education offices. The study employed a qualitative case study. The study revealed that politics affects the education system in three ways: by assigning political leaders to lead the system, by mandating the abolishment of dropouts and repetitions, and by inappropriately using collaborative learning (1–5 networks).
The second article is entitled “Experts’ Perception of Secondary Education Quality Management Challenge in Ethiopia.” This study also involved experts from the ministry, region, zone, district, and cluster supervisors to incorporate unheard voices. The study employed a qualitative case study to examine experts challenges to discharge their responsibilities. The study revealed that various factors hinder the effectiveness of the experts: lack of expertise at all levels, lack of accountability, lack of budget, ineffectiveness of the teacher licensing program, and lack of commitment and motivation were serious problems.
The third article, entitled “Secondary school teachers’ perception of quality management practices in Ethiopia: Implications for quality education for all,” was published in Emerald Open Research. The study was guided by Open System Theory and Multilevel Organization Theory. The study employed a multilevel mixed-methods design. Secondary school teachers were asked to rate their principals leadership practices in their respective schools. The study looked into the availability of school inputs and the proper interaction of these inputs to produce outputs. The study revealed incredibly insufficient input, process, and output management in the study context.
As a scholar, Aklilu has been contributing a lot to the scientific community. He has presented various research findings at 17 national and international conferences. Besides, Kennesaw State University (USA) invited him to make a speech on the KG-12 education system of Ethiopia, and he delivered a lecture for 30 minutes for Ph.D. students while they were taking the course International Comparative Education. He also acted as the chair of the examiners board for second-degree students’ theses at Wollega, Metu, Ambo, and Madawalabu Universities. Finally, he has been participating in consultancy work (JaRico Consultancy, TIMOD Consultancy, and Fountain Management Consultancy).
Finally, Aklilu garnered useful certificates such as the master of training of trainer program from the Ministry of Labor and Skills, grant writing certificate from the Addis Ababa University in collaboration with Cologne University, project management certificate from Addis Ababa University, completion of intermediate course at B1.2 at the British Council, Research Academy on Campus Certificate of Attendance for Author Workshop at John F. Kennedy Library on Tuesday, June 11th, with the coordination of ELSEVIER, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, Statistical Application Using SPSS Software, organized by Addis Ababa University School of Commerce, Ethiopia, Qualitative research methods and academic writing were organized by Addis Ababa University’s College of Developmental Studies together with the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, the Higher Diploma Program organized by Madawalabu University, and driving licenses.
HRAF is honored to welcome Aklilu Alemu Ambo as one of our HRAF Global Scholars for 2023. We wish him continued success with his research.
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