Bureaucratic socialization levels of teachers

Abstract

This is a descriptive study conducted to determine the bureaucratic socialization tendencies of teachers, as well as the relationship between these tendencies and the seniority and gender variables. The population of the research is composed of elementary school teachers from the Sincan district of the province of Ankara. Data have been collected by means of a bureaucratic socialization scale developed by the researcher. The reliability level of the scale has been calculated as 0.86. The research data have been compiled from the replies of 358 available and voluntary teachers. To analyse the data, the score of each item representing a factor has been calculated by taking the arithmetical average of the scores of that item. To analyse the difference of viewpoints, ttest has been used for the gender variable and One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) has been used for the seniority variable. To determine which group or groups involved significant differences, LSD multiple comparison test has been conducted. The research findings show that the bureaucratic socialization tendency of teachers is at the level of 'I agree'. Compared to male teachers, female teachers have a higher tendency to adopt the bureaucratic structure and characteristics of the school, whereas, they have a lower tendency to behave in compliance with the institutional identity and values of bureaucratic structure. Furthermore, when a comparison is made between different groups of seniority, it is noted that the group with 5 years and less seniority and the one with 21 years and above seniority have a higher tendency for "not behaving according to the values and rules of the institution" than the group with 11-15 years of seniority. It is remarkable that the theoretical awareness level of teachers is high while the level of converting this awareness into activity is low. This result has been shared although it was not among the targets of the research as it has been deemed important.