The level of democracy of school management from a teacher's standpoint

Democratic settings provide people having the freedom in their actions concerning them. Democratic education platforms in which democratic and participatory processes take place should be liable to democracy and human rights. A democratic education setting is an environment at which components of school feel themselves free, willing to attend democratic processes and respectful to human rights and ethical values. A successful democratic education could be realized by pursuing democratic management processes that will lead people internalize democratic attitudes and values. If a democratic environment is achieved in school; individuals will be able to adopt democracy while experiencing real life situations. Thus, democracy becomes a life style with its all rules and constitutions. If a democratic society formed of democratic individuals who respects human rights is targeted, education system should be designed accordingly as organizing and managing education institutions in a democratic pattern. In our country, participatory pluralist democracy would be improved by democratizing schools and education institutions which can only be achieved by dynamizing democratic processes in education. One of the most crucial elements of democratic education is participation; this should be actualized in all education institutions. Researches show that teachers' playing role in educational and administrative decisions are being more creative, responsible and satisfied since they feel more appreciated and valuable. In primary schools where the basic education is given, teachers only agree that school management is democratic when they feel free and autonomous in their job. This study aims to evaluate the level of democracy in terms of participation, freedom and autonomy from classroom teachers' standpoint. A descriptive general scanning model has been used in this research. 258 primary school teachers were randomly chosen from different schools in Istanbul Eyup County as data providers. The dataset gathered using determining 'the Level of Democracy of the Administration' (YDDS) method and they were analyzed by PASW 18.0 statistical software. Descriptive statistics of dataset were presented in percentages and frequencies. Kurtosis and Skewness measures and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used to analyze normal distributions of the dataset, whereas Mann-Whitney U tests and one-way variance analysis (ANOVA) were used to compare differences between independent groups. Additionally, Tukey HSD test were used in multiple comparisons. Statistical significance value set to 0.5 in statistical tests mentioned above. The results of statistical analysis are summarized as below. 57.6% of participants are woman and 42.4% are men. The percentage of those whose period of service is between 1-5 years is 12.5%; 6-10 years is 20.6%; 11-15 years is 22.6%; 16-20 years is 22.2%; 21-25 years is 7%; 26 years and up is 15.2%. In total the percentage of those whose period of service is between 1-20 years consist of 77.8% of all participants while the percentage of those whose period of service is more than 21 years is 22.2%. From teachers' perspective, the level of democracy of the school management based on a teacher's participation, freedom and autonomy is represented best with autonomy (Ẋ=3.6) in high level, with freedom (Ẋ=3.5) in high level and with (Ẋ=3.2) in medium level. Opinions of teachers about participation, freedom and autonomy do not differentiate according to sex. No statistically meaningful differences on the opinion of teachers about freedom, participation and autonomy observed based on either sex or their seniority. According to results, participation aspect is not a high level consideration among other factors affecting the concept of democratic environment. Keywords: Democratic setting, democratic school, democratic education, democratic participation, democratic management, freedom and autonomy of teachers.