Being a School Administrator in a Vocational School: The Challenges and the Problems

Author(s):

Meltem Cengel(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 10 A, Organisations, Labour Market And Vocational School Management

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-20

15:30-17:00

Room:

FCT - Aula 21

Chair:

Lorenz Lassnigg

Contribution

Vocational education has been one of the primary policy areas of governments, industrialized and developing alike in last decades (Şimşek & Yıldırım, 2000). For example, in U.S. there are some new programs, collaborate both industry and education like Motorola University (Wiggerhorn, 1990). The European Union has also put in place policies and programs to support technical and vocational education training to improve economic and social development in EU (Masson & Fretwell, 2009).

As one of the most advanced economies of the Middle East, Turkey is in the process of negotiation to EU, and copes with this improving about vocational and technical education. For example, one of the national projects, embracing both Ministry of Education and some industry organizations is “Vocational Schooling, Country Issue” [Meslek Lisesi, Memleket Meselesi]. As of 2010, 2,072,487 students enrolled in 5,179 vocational-technical schools instructed by about 104,327 teachers in Turkey (MEB, 2011).

In this integration process, there are still some problems, and the school administrators has crucial role due to their missions among students, teachers and the Ministry of Education.

As a result, the purpose of the research was to investigate the challenges and the problems in encountered by school administrators’ in a vocational school.

Method

This study is a descriptive study because it is based on school administrators’ views. This study is designed as a qualitative study. Qualitative study is a research design aspiring to present perceptions and events in a holistic and realistic way by using tools like observation, interview and document analysis (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2008). The participants of the study are eight school administrators from three different schools in Aydin, Turkey. All schools were from different districts of Aydin. Administrators were selected with respect to be in duty at least for five years. Maximum variation and convenient sampling techniques are used. The data for the study was gathered with “semi-structured interview form” developed by the researchers. While developing the form, the researches were focused on administrator-students, administrator-teacher, administrator-parent and administrator-Ministry of Education relationships, and the first draft of the form was presented to academicians. After gathering two experts offers (the instructors who are working in the Curriculum and Instruction Department, and Educational Administration), two trial interviews were occurred with two vocational school administrator. According to the interviews, interview form was reviewed and the last form was obtained.

Expected Outcomes

According to the analysis one of the most common issues administrators deal with is high dropout rates and school absenteeism. For most classes, the class starts with 40 people, and in the middle of semester, it decreases to 25 people or less. According to school principal, it leads source consumption for government. Another issue, which is pointed out, is parents careless attitude towards school, so it is difficult to communicate about their children’ school success or absenteeism. According to the administrators this careless attitudes reasons are separated or single parents and low socio-economic level status of parents. As a third point, some administrators think that teachers do not try hard enough to catch students to the school. But some of them think that, due low success in primary school, those students choose vocational school, so there is little to do to catch those students. For the last, administrators declare that most of the times they cannot understand why ministry of education takes a decision or change something, so they think that ministry of education do not take consideration of school conditions usually.

References

Masson, J.-P., & Fretwell, D. H. (2009). The European Union: Supporting Technical and Vocational Education. Techniques: Connecting Education&Careers, 84(7), 48-51. MEB. (2011). National Education Statistics Formal Education 2010-2011. Ankara: Republic of Turkey Ministry of National Education Strategy Development Presidency. Şimşek, H., & Yıldırım, A. (2000). Vocational Schools in Turkey: An Administrative and Organizational Analysis. International Review of Education, 46(3/4), 327-342. Wiggerhorn, W. (1990). Motorola U: When Training Becomes an Education. Harvard Business Review, July-August, 71-83. Yıldırım, A., & Şimşek, H. (2008). Sosyal Bilimlerde Nitel Araştırma Yötemleri (7th ed.). Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık.

Author Information

Meltem Cengel (presenting / submitting)

Adnan Menderes University

Educational Sciences

Aydin

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