Approaches of School Administrators toward Teachers with Different Types of Human Nature: The Cyprus Case

Abstract

This study seeks answers to the questions regarding the types of human nature that primary school teachers possess from the perspective of primary school administrators and what their approaches are toward teachers with different types of human nature. The study is prepared using a case study model with the qualitative method. “Scenario analysis” is used to obtain data, and eight different scenarios prepared within this context were presented to school administrators. In total, 25 administrators during the 2017–2018 scholar year were selected based on purposive sampling and were contacted accordingly. In terms of the conclusions of the study, it can be seen that school administrators defined self-actualizing teachers with social human nature using positive adjectives, while they had different opinions in regard to defining teachers with a rational-economic human nature, and they defined teachers with a complex human nature with negative adjectives. In terms of the findings related to the attitudes of administrators toward different human natures, it was found that there are some administrators who display positive administrative behaviors (appreciating, rewarding, respecting, motivating etc.) as well as administrators who display negative administrative behaviors (punishing, being indifferent to incidents, imposing by using legal powers, etc.).

Keywords

• human nature
• importance of human nature in administration
• management of different human natures
• attitudes of school administrators