Faculty of Education, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. Cengiz Topel Secondary School, Antalya, Turkey.
Responsiveness to the rapidly changing environment and a set of circumstances might be a key argument for educational leaders. We addressed the following specific questions: 1) What are your school leader’s weak characteristics as a school leader? 2) What are your school leader’s strong characteristics as school leaders? And 3) according to you, what kind of characteristics your school leader will need in the forthcoming twenty-five years as a school leader? The purpose of the study is to determine the strong and weak characteristics of current school leaders and trying to estimate and draw an overview about characteristics of future school leaders depending on the views of teachers. The study was conducted by qualitative interviewing. The study group in the research was determined by two types of purposeful sampling: 1) convenience sampling and 2) maximum variation sampling. The study group consisted of 56 teachers from various European countries. In the analysis, NVivo 10 was used and the data were analyzed by content analysis technique. The results illustrated that weak, strong and estimated characteristics as they were stated by the respondents were consistent in that they provided three kinds of data including weak and strong the characteristics of current school leaders, estimated future characteristics and a picture of the criteria to evaluate leadership Educating people undoubtedly will be based on “human relations”, “face to face” and “in the classrooms teaching” while technology and its all kinds of derivatives are presumed only to be the means to reach the goals.
Sabanci, A. , Şahin, A. & Kasalak, G. (2013). Understanding School Leaders’ Characteristics and Estimating the Future. Open Journal of Leadership, 2, 56-62. doi: 10.4236/ojl.2013.23007.
[1] Barendsen, L., & Gardner, H. (2006). The three elements of good leadership in rapidly changing times. In F. Hesselbein, & M. Goldsmith (Eds.), The leader of the future 2 visions, strategies, and practices for the new era (pp. 265-280). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass A Wiley. [2] Coates, M. (2010). Future tense. In M. Coates (Ed.), Future schools in shaping a new educational landscape: Exploring possibilities for education in the 21st century (pp. 3-8). London: GBR: Continuum International Publishing. [3] Collay, M. (2006). Discerning professional identity and becoming bold, socially responsible teacher-leaders. Educational Leadership and Administration: Teaching and Program Development, 18, 131-146. [4] Day, C., Harris, A., & Hadfield M. (2001). Grounding knowledge of schools in stakeholder realities: A multi-perspective study of effective school leaders. School Leadership & Management, 21, 19-42. doi:10.1080/13632430120033027 [5] Fink, D. (2005). Developing leaders for their future not our past. In M. J. Coles, & G. Southworth (Eds.), Developing leadership: Creating the school of tomorrow (pp. 1-20). England: Open University Press McGraw Hill House. [6] Fink, D., & Brayman, C. (2006). School leadership succession and the challenges of change. Educational Administration Quarterly, 42, 62-89. doi:10.1177/0013161X05278186 [7] Fullan, M. (1998). Leadership for the 21st century: Breaking the bonds of dependency. Educational Leadership, 55, 1-6. [8] Goldring, E. (2002). Understanding the evolving concept of leadership in education roles, expectations, and dilemmas. Educational leadership reports and recommendations from a national invitational conference. The LSS Review, 1, 1-31. [9] Grogan, M., & Andrews, R. (2002). Defining preparation and professional development for the future. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38, 33-256. [10] Haris, A. (2010). Future leadership: Challenges and implications. In M. Coates (Ed.), Future schools: Shaping a new educational landscape: Exploring possibilities for education in the 21st century (pp. 70-71). London: GBR: Continuum International Publishing. [11] Kus, E. (2007). Qualitative Research Techniques. Baski, Ankara: Ani Yayincilik. [12] Leithwood, K., Steinbach, R., & Jantzi, D. (2002). School leadership and teachers’ motivation to implement accountability policies. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38, 94-119. [13] Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2008). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership. School Leadership and Management, 28, 27-42. doi:10.1080/13632430701800060 [14] Mariasse, A. L. (1985). Vision and leadership: Paying attention to intention. Peabody Journal of Education, 63, 150-173. doi:10.1080/01619568509538505 [15] Mason, J. (2002). Qualitative researching (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications. [16] Murphy, J., & Walberg, H. J. (2002). Educational leadership reports and recommendations from a national invitational conference. The LSS Review, 1, 1-30. [17] OECD, (2009). Improving school leadership: The toolkit. www.oecd.org/edu/schoolleadership [18] Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications. [19] Reilly, E. C. (2007). Leadership in a global society: Habits of mind, of heart, and of action. Educational Leadership and Administration: Teaching and Program Development, 19, 139-147. [20] Rubin, H., & Rubin, I. (1995). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. [21] Sandmann, L. R., & Vandenberg, L. (1995). A framework for 21st century leadership. Journal of Extention, 33, 198. http://www.joe.org/joe/1995december/a1.html [22] Slater, L. (2008). Pathways to building leadership capacity. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 36, 55-69. doi:10.1177/1741143207084060 [23] Witziers, B., Bosker, R. J., & Krüger, M. L. (2003). Educational leadership and student achievement: The elusive search for an association. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39, 398-425. doi:10.1177/0013161X03253411 [24] Yildirim, A., & Simsek, H. (2006). Research Methods in Social Sciences. Ankara: Seckin Yayincilik.