Teacher's opinions on meaningful leadership behavior of education managers

This study aims to determine the meaningful leadership behaviors observed in schools according to teachers' opinions and explain these behaviors in the context of meaningful leadership. The phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the study. The data of the research were collected from 30 teachers working in official education institutions in the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. Participants were asked questions through semi-structured interviews. In this way, the opinions of teachers, which reveal the meaningful leadership behaviors of school principals, were examined. The interview records collected with face-to-face interviews were analyzed through descriptive analysis method. In the study, according to teachers' opinions, it was concluded that school administrators showed behaviors in 10 different dimensions of meaningful leadership, including "an ultimate purpose in life, sharing meaning, understanding, linking the past, present, and future, wisdom, peacefulness, a sense of ethics, serving others, inner motivation, and fostering unity." This study shows that the meaningful leadership behaviors of school administrators in 10 dimensions are most diversified in the ultimate life purpose dimension. The most frequently observed behavior in the life purpose dimension is classified as "dedication to education". The least observed behavior in this dimension is "socialization". In the dimension of sharing meaning, the most common behavior is "meeting" and the least common behavior is "sloganization". In the dimension of understanding, the most prominent behavior is "empathy", while in the dimension of linking the past, present, and future, the most prominent behavior is "taking lessons" from the past and the least observed behavior is "transferring experience". While the most prominent behavior in the wisdom dimension is "sharing", the least common behavior is "guiding". In the dimension of being at peace, the most common behavior is "tolerance", while the least common behavior is "positivity". In the dimension of ethicality, the most prominent behavior is "fairness", while the least common behavior is "positive discrimination". In the service to others dimension, the most common behavior is "sensitivity to needs", while the least common behavior is "school sensitivity". In the intrinsic motivation dimension, the most observed behavior is "job excitement" while the least common behavior is "motivating". In the dimension of belonging, the most common behavior was "organizing", while the least common behavior was "organizational belonging". Although the findings show that principals generally exhibit motivating behaviors and behaviors that help finding meaning in work, it has been noticed that a few types of behaviors with negative effects are also practiced by principals. These negative behaviors are grouped under the headings of "being routine" and "classic management". Finally, it is seen that the meaningful leadership behaviors observed in schools are gathered in certain dimensions and it is suggested that school principals should create an action plan that strengthens these positive meaningful leadership behaviors and helps them develop these behaviors. Keywords: Meaningful Leadership, Meaningfulness, Meaning in School, Meaningful Work, Leadership.