The Effect of Educational Leadership on Organizational Variables: A Meta–Analysis Study in the Sample of Turkey

Abstract

Leadership, which is prominent in every occasion where the concept of organization is articulated and which is addressed in different dimensions by each organization, is a concept that is very important in the field of education, and it is becoming the subject of many researches. In the literature of educational research, schools and school administrators are the first subjects that come to mind when leadership is mentioned. In this regard, school administrators are expected to show leadership behaviors, such as providing guidance, supporting, assigning a measurable responsibility and being a source of inspiration to all school employees and students in order to achieve the aims of the school. In addition, school leaders should form the ground that provides in-class reform and development, in order to create a positive learning environment in the school (Nichols, 2011). In this context, the studies of educational leadership have emerged in 1970s, in conjunction with research and development activities related to the effective schools movement. In those years, based on the observations of primary schools, some researchers in the UK and North America have identified that some schools' achievements in terms of learning outcomes were bigger than others. They have stated that this situation cannot be solely explained with the individual and social characteristics of the students; therefore the difference between effective and ineffective schools might be associated with the leadership attitudes and behaviors that school administrators have exhibited. Thus, educational leadership became a concept that has been discussed a lot on it. According to these researchers, the characteristics of effective schools' leaders are (Kruger & Scheerens, 2012);* They are directly involved with the school and the education of students.* They carefully evaluate teachers' classroom performance, learning process and student outcomes again and again.* They create a work environment and school climate which will make learning possible for all children.Schlechty (2001) has stated that the main task of the school is working with knowledge. This idea is based on the fact that learning is an active process. Thus, he argued that schools should be institutions working towards an objective with the help of the ideas, concepts, forms, shapes and symbols. Although the schools are solely seen as the places where learning takes place, in reality it is well-known that they are the institutions beyond mere learning, with a much more complex structure. From this perspective, even though schools are a tool for generating and transferring the culture, they are also the places where the official ideology is produced and communicated (Ilich, 1998). The effectiveness of such a complex structure, with its social, cultural, economic and political aspects has become attractive for researchers.One of the most critical factors in the realization of effective schools is the leadership behaviors of school administrators. In the literature this type of leadership is discussed in different forms and dimensions, such as education leadership, instructional leadership, program leadership, and educational leadership. At the beginning, this concept has been discussed in a limited context, as course and program leadership, however later it was considered in a broader sense to include the mentioned dimensions, in terms of the concepts such as educational leadership, education and training leadership. Although it is called by different names, it can be understood that these leaderships basically refers to the school administrators who were trying to establish effective schools and learning.School leader is the person who is planning and implementing program development, making appropriate resource allocation, improving the performance of staff and students by motivating and guiding them, in order to achieve the objectives of the school. School leaders, after setting the objectives of the school, ensure that these objectives are shared and supported by the students, teachers and school community. …