Investigation of Perceptions regarding Teacher Leadership among Secondary School Teachers in Turkey

Abstract

Leadership is one of the most important roles expected from teachers today. Teacher leadership is a significant factor in the commitment of schools to their missions to guide societies, to develop a school’s positive aspects and to manage education in an effective way. If this is the case, it is necessary to measure and evaluate the perceptions of teachers with regard to this important role. As yet there is limited amount of research in the literature concerning the determination of teachers’ perceptions regarding teacher leadership. As the basic purpose of the present study is to determine the leadership perceptions of secondary school teachers, it is considered that the study will contribute to the literature. This qualitative research was conducted using the screening model. The study was conducted on 376 secondary school teachers who were selected by means of the simple random sampling method from among 564 teachers who were working at secondary schools in Kırşehir Central County (Turkey) during the 2014-2015 academic year. The “Teacher Leadership Scale” (TLS) was used as the data collection tool. Although the teachers’ “institutional development” sub-dimension perception regarding teacher leadership was found to be at the middle level, this was assessed to be a lacking notation. Teachers’ perception of teacher leadership for the “institutional improvement” sub-dimension was determined to be at the medium level; perceptions concerning “professional development” and “collaboration among colleagues” sub-dimensions were determined to be at a high level. Teachers’ understanding of teacher leadership in terms of the “institutional improvement” sub-dimension exhibited a significant difference in male teachers. Teachers’ perception of teacher leadership in terms of the “professional improvement” sub-dimension exhibited a significant difference according to age and occupational seniority.