In today's world, it is difficult to talk about single ethnic structure, thus single culture. Besides existence of multicultural states historically, it can be argued migrations and wars caused by economic and political reasons have made countries multicultural and this situation has become widespread today. Multiculturalization of countries also affects school, a social and open system. At this point, school principals' approaches to different cultures and attitudes towards students from different cultures become important.

In terms of adaptation of school-aged children to social system, their adaptation to education system plays an important role. Hilmert’s (2013) study in France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and UK showed determinants enabling migrants to be successful in education are learning socio-economic situation and language of host country. Kirmayer et al. (2011) reported communication difficulties due to language and cultural differences adversely affect mental health of migrants.

In schools where students from different cultures are present, principals face with various problems. Riehl (2000) stated three principal duties to meet needs of students from different cultures, 1) developing new meanings regarding diversity, (2) supporting inclusive school culture and education programs, (3) establishing a relationship between school and society. According to Kara &Tüysüzer (2017), one of the problems of refugees living in Turkey is inability to speak language, consequently, adjustment problems. These problems can cause negative behaviors such as aggression and introversion (Özer, Komsuoğlu & Ateşok, 2016). The European Union and countries such as Turkey in areas of migration, education institutions in the process of social integration of immigrants can play an important role. Therefore, problems of adaptation and communication are important problems principals should solve.

Students of different cultures have problems of socialization in education process, being target of bullying by classmates or other students, getting negative reactions and not being accepted by other students and parents, difficulties in communicating with students and teachers due to language differences  (Paraskevi & Manesis, 2017), adapting to communication, learning and classroom environment due to cultural diversity of educational environment (Hoch, Holmes & Cooper, 2004), and differences in alphabet (Alsubaie, 2015).

It is important that principals have intercultural leadership skills in schools where students from different cultures are present. Among these skills, being able to cooperate with teachers, to be reliable, sincere and accessible, being committed to social justice, being able to struggle with oppression, and having knowledge about ethnicity and equity can be seen (Vergara, 2017). Additionally, school principal should always commit himself to learning cultural knowledge and context (Gardiner & Enomoto, 2006) and promoting teachers and school environment in terms of cultural sensitivity (Khalifa, Gooden & Davis, 2016).

Kato (2011) found principals' personal and professional experiences influence their tendency and commitment to cultural sensitivity and contribute to ensuring students continue to school in culturally sensitive environment. According to Brown (2012), principals should make institutional arrangements to welcome and support immigrant students in school environment and arrange management procedures. Similarly, Madhlangobe & Gordon (2012) emphasized principals should know racially and ethnically diverse student population and be committed to collaborative and educational leadership in culturally sensitive ways.

Considering limited nature of tools based on intercultural school management competencies and indicators for principals, there is a need to design and develop such competencies and indicators that will help principals manage schools effectively by considering multidimensional nature of school management. Such tool is expected to encourage research that will contribute to understanding of nature of behavior of principals against students from different backgrounds. Therefore, this study aims to design and develop valid and reliable culturally sensitive school management competencies and indicators for principals working with students from different cultures. 

Research design Since the aim of this study is to design and develop a reliable and culturally sensitive school management competencies and indicators for school principals working with students from different cultures, this study is designed with basic qualitative research model based on qualitative research methods. In basic qualitative research, the data are collected through observation, document analysis and interview. At the same time, the situations to be observed, the questions to be asked or the documents to be examined depend on the theoretical framework of the research (Merriam, 2013). Document analysis and interview technique will be used based on the purpose of the research. Sampling The Working Group will be held with a total of 40 participants, 20 of which are principals and 20 of them are teachers working in public schools in Gaziantep, Ankara and Antakya provinces where Syrian students are present. In the study, snowball sampling method, as a purposive sampling method, will be used to determine school principals working with immigrant students who have difficulty in adapting to education process. Data Collection Tool The data will be collected in two stages. In the first phase, the data will be collected through Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with school principals and teachers. At the same time, the relevant literature will be reviewed and the opinions of individuals who are experts in multicultural education and intercultural communication will be taken. FGD and culture-sensitive manager competencies and indicators based on the literature will be presented to the expert opinion and pilot interviews will be conducted with a volunteer school principal before the actual implementation. In the second stage, culture-sensitive school management competencies based on the analysis of data obtained through FGD will be transformed into competencies based on perception and numerical indicators for teachers using ‘‘Functional Mapping Method’’. Data Analysis In the analysis of data obtained through document analysis and interview, ‘‘thematic analysis’’, a method of content analysis, (Braun, 2006) will be used. The codes obtained from the relevant literature and interviews during the analysis process will be collected and mapped under certain themes. The themes will be transformed into main competencies and codes will be transformed into sub-competencies. The indicators will be developed to be based on evidence for sub-competences. Scope validity will be determined by applying expert opinions for main competence, sub-competencies and indicators.

In this study, it is expected that awareness of the school administrators will be increased for the principals to help the immigrant students to adapt to the education system in schools where students from different cultures are present, by defining culture-sensitive school management skills of the school principals. Although there are similarities with generic school competencies, school principal competencies are expected to differ in multicultural schools. This study will emphasize different aspects of school management by showing that normal schools and multicultural schools have different educational cultures. Instead of focusing only on generic school administrator competencies in school management training programs, it is very important to include school management and practices in culture-sensitive education.

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