School principals’ practices and their facing barriers to sustainable development in Turkish K12 schools

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research aimed to determine school principals’ practices and barriers to sustainable development in Turkish K-12 schools governed by centralized management. The present research focused on sustainable school buildings (energy saving, water saving, natural school gardens), clean drinking water, healthy nutrition, recycling, centralized management system, local governments, and the education of students and families for sustainable development. The research was designed using a case study approach. The semi-structured interview technique was used. The data were analyzed deductively according to literature and research questions. The results indicated leadership skills especially distributed and transformational leadership skills for sustainable development, the collaboration of universities, colleagues, and municipalities, the education of the school public, the necessity of rewards and accreditation systems, and the importance of methods for the education of students. Also, this research emphasizes clean drinking water in low socioeconomic areas, the need for healthy nutrition, the climate condition of the region and the need for a school budget under a centralized management approach.