The relationship between political tactics in schools and teachers' level of school academic optimism

This study aims to determine the relationship between political tactics in schools and teachers' level of academic optimism. The universe of the research which is in correlational survey model consists of 1873 teachers working in Turgutlu district of Manisa province in the 2019-2020 academic year; and the sample consists of 433 primary, secondary and high school teachers. Convenience sampling method has been adopted in the research. The research data have been collected with "Political Tactics Scale" and "Academic Optimism Scale". The data have been analyzed with t-Test, One-way Analysis of Variance, (One Way Anova) Pearson Product-Moment Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis. According to the results of the research, it is noticeable that teachers' perception levels of ingratiating, networking, impression management, coalition buildingin schools are medium; while teacher perception levels ofinformation management, scapegoating and increasing indispensability are low. The research also reveals that the perceptions of teachers towards realization of politicaltactics at school differ significantly according to the variable of the level of schools they study at but they don't differ significantly according to the variables of gender, professional seniority,their education level, the number of teachers working at their school and duration of work at the same school. From the results related to the other variable of the research, it is understood that the perception levels of teachers towards self-efficacy dimension of school academic optimism are high, while their level of senses to trust and academic emphasis dimensions are at medium level. While the school academic optimism levels of the teachers have not shown a significant difference according to their genders,education level, number of teachers in the school and school level; it has been found that there is a significant difference according to the variables of seniority andworking time at the same school. When the relationship between the realization of political tactics at schools and level of the teachers'school academic optimism is examined;negative and low relationship has been found between teachers' perceptions towards ingratiating,networking, information management, impression management and coalition building; while a negative medium relationship has been found between,scapegoating and increasing indispensability political tactics in schools and their self-efficacy. The research also reveals that there has been positive and low relationship between trust dimension of academic optimism and teachers' perceptions towards ingratiating, networking, information management and impression management. Finally, it is clear in the research that teacher' perceptions of ingratiating, networking, information management,impression management,coalition building, scapegoating and increasing indispensability in schools do not significantly predict their academic optimism levels.