The study has been conducted under Positivist paradigm while using Quantitative approach. There were 102 school heads including male and female and also representative of urban and rural areas from Punjab School Education Department selected with Stratified sampling. The data were collected with the help of a five points Likert’s rating scale comprising 26 items under four categories: Relevancy of PD; Improvement in Knowledge and Skills; Applicability; Impact on Educational leadership. The questionnaire was bearing Cronbach’s Alpha .85 considered to be highly reliable. The data were analyzed with the help of Mean scores and Independent Sample t-test. The study revealed that while professional development (PD) programs positively contribute to school leadership, female and urban school heads perceive them as more relevant, applicable, and satisfying than male and rural counterparts. PD initiatives should be redesigned with gender-sensitive and context-specific strategies to better address the needs of male and rural school heads.
Shah et al. (2025) studied this question.