Work motivation of primary school principals

Achievement and efficiency of the schools also depend on the school principals' success and efficiency. Therefore, the factors that affect education administrators must be known to be able to motivate them at certain level. In this context, this thesis aims to find out what internal and external factors affect motivation of school principal. In the research, qualitative method are used to find out the situations that affect motivation of the school principals, and the research is carried out as a phenomenology / phenomenology which is one of the figure of the qualitative methods. Target group of the research is primary school principals who worked in the central disricts of ANKARA in between 2018-2019 In the research, the snowball/chain sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods, is used. The particiapants of the research are formed of 20 school principals who voluntaril agreed to participate in the research. According to research findings, desire to be successful, contribution to occupational and personal improvement, positive behaviors of students and academic achievement of students, achieving the purpose of education and training activities, being spiritually peaceful and happy, transferring experience, being useful, realization of the ideals and the leadership qualities are the factors that are respectively source of the school principals inner motivation. When the findings about the inner motivation sources of school principals are examined, it is observed that the elements related to the interested parties that forms the education and training process are the inner motivation sources. When the findings related to the external motivation sources of school principals are examined, it is seen that the main positive external motivation sources are cooperation and communication of supervisors, teachers, students and parents, respect and appreciation of supervisors, teachers, students and parents, appropriate educational environment, the happiness of teachers, students and parents, being rewarded, financial opportunities, students' success and a harmonious working environment with teachers. At the same time, as a result of the research, the sources of demotivation of school principals are insufficient-poor communication and support of supervisors, teachers, students, and parents, lack of respect and appreciation of supervisors, teachers, students, and parents, high workload, economic problems and low wages, the economic problems of the school and the unfair evaluation of work performance have been found to be factors. Finally, when the findings regarding the way school principals define occupational motivation are examined, it is seen that school principals define occupational motivation as pleasure and excitement, liking the job, creating value, success, peace, and teamwork. When these factors are examined, it can be said that the basis of the motivation of school principals is that they do their jobs with enthusiasm and love in the process of reaching the determined goals.