The examination of ethical leadership practices of awarded school principals (The sample of Afyonkarahisar)

This study is carried out in order to examine the ethical leadership levels and practices of awarded school principals in Afyonkarahisar province from 2011 to 2014 and investigate the views and practices of these school principals related to ethical leadership. The research was designed as a mixed method study. In the research criterion sampling method was used and the criterion was having got an award from 2011 to 2014. 18 school principals who got an award in the last three years were included in the study. The Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS) was administered in the schools and a total of 206 teachers and schools principals contributed to the study. In the quantitative part of the study, the ethical leadership scores and the relationship between the ethical leadership levels and gender, length of service, the type of school, educational background and the length of service in their current school variables were analyzed. In the study, the scores of the principals were calculated and they were classified into low, middle and high ethical leadership groups. In the second step of the research, 10 of the school principals who are from different levels of ethical leadership were chosen for qualitative interviews according to their ELS scores. Their practices and views about ethical leadership were examined. The quantitative data of the study was gathered using the ELS developed by Brown, Trevino and Harrison (2005) and translated into Turkish by Tuna, Bircan and Yeşiltaş (2012). Reliability analysis and other related analyses, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were carried out on the quantitative data of the research via SPSS software (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Interview form developed by the researcher was used for gathering the qualitative data of the research. Descriptive and content analyses were carried out on the qualitative data of the research. At the result of the study, it was found that the principals got scores between 25.00 and 49.83 from the ELS. Besides, the findings of the study reveal that there is no statistically significant relationship between ethical leadership levels of the principals and their gender and length of service. However, statistically significant relationship was found between ethical leadership levels of the principals and their types of school and educational background. In the qualitative part of the study, it was seen that the principals highlighted concepts such as "honest, role-model, disciplined and fair" for ethical leader. Keywords: Ethical Leadership, School Management, Awarded Principals.