The expansion of educational opportunities internationally provides major prospects for developing countries to reform their education systems. The rise of new forms of transnational education, (the provision of education to learners in a country different from that of the provider) and the expansion of capacity building opportunities have helped developing nations to increase domestic access to international education and to enhance the quality of their local education systems through increasing the variety and relevance of their programmes.
Pakistan, being a developing nation, faces huge educational challenges due to its highly rigid and bureaucratic system of education. It also faces a lack of resources and training opportunities to enhance and expand the capabilities of teachers and educational leaders. However, community based, not-for-profit institutions in Pakistan are making every effort to improve the quality of education through providing capacity building opportunities to teachers and educational leaders. Notre Dame Institute of Education (NDIE) in Karachi is one such kind of institute. It is affiliated with Karachi University (KU) and accredited with Australian Catholic University (ACU) and offers an M. Ed. programme for educational leaders.
This study explores the effectiveness of the transnational M. Ed. programme at NDIE as a means of educational leadership capacity building in Pakistan. The main research problem was examined through four research questions which explored: the distinctive elements of the M. Ed. programme offered at NDIE and its focus on capacity building; the contextual factors contributing to this capacity building; the impact of the M. Ed. programme on the development of the leadership capacity of its graduates; and finally the contributions of this case study research to the understanding of issues related to transnational education focusing on educational capacity building.