Uncovering Teachers’ Implicit Leadership Theories for School Administrators: A Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

Purpose: This study attempted to expand the existing knowledge regarding school administrators’ effective and ineffective leadership behaviours and traits based on the perceptions of teacher respondents. Design/Methodology/Approach: The basic interpretive qualitative approach was adopted to scrutinize and discover the cultural attributions of the participating teachers. Research data were collected from 64 teachers working at a metropolitan city centre in mid-western Turkey. The respondents were asked to list the effective and ineffective characteristics of a school leader. Findings: A total of 379 expressions (249 effective, 130 ineffective) defining leader behaviours and traits were obtained. On average, there were 5.92 (SD: 2.06; min.=2, max.=9) expressions per participating teacher. We found seven effective leader behavioural themes with a total of 38 leader attributes and five ineffective leader behavioural themes with 27 leader attributes. Implications/Originality/Value: A seven-themed taxonomy of educational leadership behaviours was created. The results implied that communication skills and being an expert in the post are crucial as highlighted both by effective and ineffective leader attributes. The paper was concluded by offering some implications.

Keywords

• Implicit Leadership Theories
• School Administrators
• Teachers in Turkey