Pluralistic Leadership Characteristics: A Research in Education Institutions*

The purpose of this study is to analyze the pluralistic leadership behaviours of school principals in the Turkish educational context. The exploratory design was used in this study, which employs the first qualitative, and then quantitative data collection methods. The sample of the study was determined using the maximum variation sampling technique; hence, 24 school principals and 327 teachers participated in the study. The data of the study were collected using semi-structured interviews and the ‘Pluralistic Leadership Scale’, which was developed by the authors. The findings of the study indicate that (i) school principals desire to participate in the management processes of teachers, (ii) teachers with leadership qualities and ideals are willing to participate in school administration, (iii) school principals attempt to investigate the source of the problem to solve problems and conflicts, (iv) school principals mostly showed pluralistic leadership characteristics regarding their interactions with teachers, (v) a significant difference was found in acknowledging and discussing the differences and attendance to management process dimensions based on teachers’ gender, (vi) a significant difference was found in the interaction among teachers, the interaction between school administration and teachers, and the use of power dimensions in favour of teachers working at village schools, (vii) a significant difference was found in the interaction between school administration and teachers dimension based on age and seniority of teachers. Finally, a significant difference was found in all dimensions of pluralistic leadership characteristics in terms of the number of teachers working at schools

Investigation of Teachers’ Change Fatigue Level: Comparison by Demographics

The aim of this study is to determine teachers’ change fatigue level and compare it based on some demographics. To this end, current study employed single screening model which is one of quantitative designs. The study was conducted on two different study groups and population. The data obtained from the first and second study groups were used to run exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the scale developed in scope of current study, respectively. On the other hand, the data from population was used for descriptive statistics and comparing the mean scores of groups based on demographics. The findings indicated that teachers had a “I agree” level change fatigue. Additionally, demographics such as gender, educational level, type of school (primary, secondary or high school), district that the school is located, and marital status did not create a statistically significant difference in teachers change fatigue level while experience and the faculty graduated did. The teachers with 10 years and below experience had a higher level of change fatigue than the teachers with 16 years and above experience. The teachers graduating from education faculties had a higher level of change fatigue than the teachers from other faculties. Based on the findings, it can be suggested that there should be fewer change initiatives in Turkish educational system. Also, teachers with less experience and graduates of education faculties should be given special guidance during multiple change initiatives

Teachers' Views On School Principals’ Servant Leadership Behaviors: A Mixed Method Study

In this study, it was aimed to determine the opinions of the teachers working in secondary schools about the servant leadership behaviors of the school principals. Combination (diversity) design was used in the research which was carried out by using the mixed method, a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Accordingly, the scale was applied to 392 teachers determined by simple random sampling method in center of Van and interviews were made with 13 teachers who participated in the quantitative dimension of the research. The Servant Leadership Behaviors Scale (OMHLDÖ) of School Principals developed by Ekinci (2015) was used to collect the quantitative data of the research. The qualitative data of the research was collected through a semi-structured interview form created by taking into account the dimensions in the quantitative measurement tool. In the analysis of quantitative data of the study descriptive statistics and in the analysis of qualitative data descriptive analysis method were used. As the result of the quantitative dimension of the research, the teachers stated that school principals often exhibited servant leadership behaviors in the sub-dimensions of altruistic behavior, empathy, justice, honesty and humility. However, in the qualitative dimension of the research the teachers stated that the school principals did not exhibit adequate level of servant leadership behaviors in the sub-dimensions of altruistic behavior, empathy, justice, honesty and humility. In this context, it was concluded that there is no complete parallelism between the qualitative findings and the quantitative findings. Based on the findings, it can be suggested that school principals should have a more service oriented leadership approach for teachers

An Analysis of Teacher’s Performance Evaluation at Private Schools: Kahramanmaraş and Gaziantep Sample

This study aims to determine the views of administrators working at private schools in Kahramanmaraş andGaziantep on evaluating teacher’s performance and to make some recommendations for an effective and sufficientteacher evaluation accordingly. This study explores questions such as what administrators think aboutimplementing the evaluation results, whether there should be an evaluation system that diffrentiates by teachercompetencies or not and how teacher’s performance evaluation systems contribute to teacher’s professionaldevelopment. The data were gathered through semi-structred interview forms and analysed through the contentanalysis method

The Views of Teachers Working in Secondary Educational Institutions about Organizational Silence

The purpose of this study is to determine the organizational silence level of teachers working at public highschools and see whether level of organizational silence differ depending on demographic factors (gender, age, professional length of service, length of service at the present school, level of education and professional branch variable). This research is a descriptive study modelled as screening. The sample consists of 562 teachers. The results showed that the level of organizational silence of teachers is “moderate”. It is seen that the organizational silence level is “moderate” due to subdimensions such as school enviroment, origin of silence and isolation, “high” due to subdimensions like emotions and administration. The research showed that length of service at the present school, level of education and professional branch variable are not statistically significant in the sense of level of organizational silence of teachers in total and in all subdimensions. Besides, school environment subdimension due to gender and age factors, and total organizational silence and isolation subdimension due to professional length of service are found to be statistically significant

Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Yönetimi

Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Yönetimi, Cilt 25, Sayı

Exploring Factors Encouraging Teachers’ Pursuit of Postgraduate Education and Barriers that Impeded Their Postgraduate Education

This study aimed to explore the factors that encourage teachers who currently continued with a postgraduate education with Master’s program to pursue postgraduate education and barriers they faced in undertaking postgraduate education. Participants consisted of 295 teachers (170 women and 125 men) enrolled in a Master’s level program in any branch of science in the basic field of educational sciences at a state university. Data were collected through the use of a-5-Likert type scale. A crosssectional research design, which is one of the types of screening research, was used and descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of study data. The results yielded three findings: First, career development, academic autonomy, confidence in decision-making, critical thinking, and acquisition of knowledge and skills were found as factors influencing the teachers’ pursuit of postgraduate education, but career development and academic autonomy were the predominant reasons for pursuing postgraduate education. Second, there was strong agreement among the teachers that postgraduate education experiences did not increase their job satisfaction. Third, among the barriers to postgraduate education highlighted by teachers were the difficulty in finding a work-study-life balance whilst undertaking postgraduate education, stress when undertaking in postgraduate education while working, and the need for resources and support for postgraduate study to be successful, but stress and difficulty in work-life balance seem to the prominent barriers, that impeded the teachers’ postgraduate education. Findings indicate that postgraduate education seems by participants in this study not only as an effort to develop a future plan but also as a field of activity that could influence teachers’ work and social life

Teachers’ Opinions on Ethical and Unethical Leadership: A Phenomenological Research

This study aims to reveal teachers’ opinions regarding ethical and unethical leadership. A phenomenological research design was used in the study. Purposeful sampling technique was used to determine the study group. Interviews were conducted with 20 teachers to collect data. A content analysis was conducted to analyze the data. According to the findings, teachers defined administrators with moral personality as ethical leaders. It was also found that school administrators mostly displayed unethical leadership behaviors in co-worker relationships. Another characteristic of unethical leaders was their promoting unethical behaviors among co-workers and taking the lead in turning unethicality as a part of school culture. It is argued that behaviors leading to the emergence of unethical leadership tend to institutionalize if they do not meet with an obstacle or are supported by organizational environment. It was recommended that further research focus on how moral person and moral manager components of ethical leadership affect each other

An Investigation of the Changes in the Administrative Perception of Former Teachers Promoted as Section Directors

Purpose of the study is to gain insights into the opinions of former teachers, who were lacking in any sort of management experiences and yet promoted as section director on the basis of a written and oral examination process, about the basic concepts of educational administration in the light of their experiences before and after they have been promoted to the managerial position. The research adopts a case study approach. The study focuses on two section directors who were former teachers and promoted to their new positions without any managerial experience. The data collected in two different occasions: The first data set including participants’ opinions about educational administration was collected within the realm of a course “Educational Administration” while they were studying for their master degree in the department of Educational Administration, Inspection, Planning and Economy (EAIPE) of Gaziantep University in the fall semester of 2013-2014 academic year. The second data set was collected after the participants had been promoted as section directors. In both data collection processes participants were applied the same set of open-ended questions. Analysis of the participants written responses clearly indicate a shift in their opinions from the educational processes to the managerial processes. In terms of management style, though taking side with democratic approach while they were teachers, they were observed to favour an autocratic approach following the appointment of their new positions

The Relationship Between the Perception of the Society Related to Teaching Profession and Teachers’ Professional Motivation According to Teachers View

There is a big difficulty for teachers in order to reach the desired aims, and teachers need motivation to do this job properly. The aim of the study, which is managed in a quantitive approach, is to define the relationship between how teaching profession is seen for society and perception of teachers’ professional motivation from a teacher’s perception for both variables. And finally, analyses were made on how the teachers’ professional perception from society predicts their professional motivation. The research has conducted on survey method. The sample of the study was consisted of 545 teachers working in primary school, middle high school and high school in the province center of Düzce. Both instruments used in the research (motivation of teaching and perception of society related to teaching profession) developed by researchers and pilot application was also carried out. As a result of the research, it was found that the professional perceptions of the teachers were in moderate level and the professional motivations were relatively high. The correlation between the professional perceptions and professional motivations of teachers’ is positive and intermediate level. It has been revealed that the perception of the teaching profession of society was at a low level of the professional motivation of teachers. It is seen that the low-level coefficient in path analysis was close to Pearson Correlation between occupational perception and occupational motivation. According to teachers, the perception of the teaching profession in the society, has been found to be the most predictor of "the profession and the value attributed to the profession" as one of the subscales of the motivation scale. It is possible to say that as the value / importance assigned by the society to the teaching profession increases, the motivation of the teacher will increase at a low level