Teacher leadership as a new issue in Turkish school context: A mixed method study

Author(s):

Kadir BeyciogluKadir BeyciogluBattal Aslan

Conference:

ECER 2010

Network:

26. Educational Leadership

Format:

Paper

Session Information

26 SES 05,

Paper Session

Time:

2010-08-26

08:30-10:00

Room:

U40 SALI 7, Metsätalo

Chair:

Klaus Kasper Kofod

Contribution

Recently, it has been debated that principals, who are in schools and societies that are, now, quite complex with the effects of changes, are not able to undertake all the managerial and/or leadership duties any more. It has been recommended that leadership in schools should be restructured as a team action and distributed to the staffs with the aim of collaboration. Teacher leadership is an important issue in distributing leadership in schools (Arrowsmith, 2007; Blegen & Kennedy, 2000; Camburn, Rowan & Taylor, 2003; Crawford, 2005; Gabriel, 2005; Gronn, 2002; Harris, 2003; Harris, 2005a; Harris, 2005b; Harris, & Muijs, 2005; Spillane, 2006).

Assuming that relationships among staff in schools can contribute to teachers’ development and learning, and teachers suppose that their colleagues are important knowledge sources to get information, feedback and support, it was, for the researchers, important to explore teachers and administrators’ perceptions and expectations on teacher leadership behaviors.This study aimed to reveal “to what degree do teachers and administrators perceive that teachers have leadership roles in elementary schools” and “to what degree do teachers and administrators expect that there ought to be teacher leadership roles in elementary schools”

Method

Quantitative and qualitative methods were used. 800 hundred surveys were sent to schools in Hatay, Turkey. Total number of surveys returned to the researchers was 721. Six hundred and fifty six (91.0%) of the participants were from state elementary schools and 65 (9.0%) of them were from private schools. Qualitative data was gathered by means of 5 semi-structured focus groups with 6 participants in each. To gather quantitative data, a five-scale Lykert type inventory, The Teacher Leadership Scale – TLS, was developed by the researchers to reveal teachers and administrators’ perceptions and expectations on teacher leadership roles. The scale includes 25 items in both perception and expectation part. Factor analysis revealed that there are 3 subscales both in Perception and Expectation part in the scale. In the “Institutional Improvement” subscale, there are 9 items, the “Professional Improvement” subscale has 11 items, and 5 items are in the “Collaboration among Colleagues” subscale.

Expected Outcomes

To analyze the data, mean, standard deviation, frequency, t-test and one way ANOVA were used. For qualitative analysis, audio-taped sounds, and written texts were transcribed and changed into texts. Then, the transcribed texts were coded. According to arithmetic means, total points of expectation and perception were different. While the mean for expectation was 110.99 (always), it was 96.66 (frequently) for perception. The interviews revealed that the expectations of the participants for teacher leadership were quite above the perceptions. In other words, quantitative results were supported by qualitative results of the study. The results also clarified that there were teacher leadership roles to a certain extent in elementary schools, and there were some significant differences among the participants of state and private schools. Administrators and teachers expressed different expectations the institutional improvement subscale. The differences between men and women’s expectations were statistically significant, and the qualitative findings were in line with this result. There were also a positive correlation between expectation and perception (r = .412).

References

Arrowsmith, T. (2007). Distributed leadership in secondary schools in England: The impact on the role of the head teacher and other issues. Management in Education, 21, 21-27. Blegen, M. B. ve Kennedy, C. (2000). Principals and teachers, leading together. NASSP Bulletin, 84, 1-6. Camburn, E., Rowan, B. ve Taylor, J. E. (2003). Distributed leadership in schools: The case of elementary schools adopting comprehensive school reform models. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 25 (4), 347-373. Crawford, M. (2005). Editorial: Distributed leadership and headship: A Paradoxical relationship. School Leadership and Management, 25 (3), 213-215. Gabriel, J. G. (2005). How to thrive as a teacher leader. Alexandria: ASCD. Gronn, P. (2002). Distributed leadership. In K. Leithwood & P. Hallinger (Eds.). Second International handbook of educational leadership and administration. (653-696) Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. Harris, A. (2003). Teacher leadership as distributed leadership: Heresy, fantasy or possibility? School Leadership and Management, 23, 313-324. Harris, A. (2005a). Distributed leadership. In B. Davies (Ed.). The essentials of school leadership. (160-172) Thousand Oaks, London: Corwin Press/Paul Chapman Publishing. Harris, A. (2005b). Distributed school leadership: Developing tomorrow’s leaders. London, New York: Routledge.

Author Information

Kadir Beycioglu

Battal Aslan

Inonu University, Turkey

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