Effects of mentoring functions of school principals on job satisfaction of assistant principals

The purpose of the study was to examine the level of mentoring functions the school principals perform as predictor of job satisfaction assistant principals experience. Apart from that, relation between various variables related to the assistant principals and the school principals, and the level of job satisfaction assistant principals experience and the level of mentoring functions the school principals perform is also examined. The survey instrument used for this research included demographic questions related to the participant assistant principals and their principals, "Mentoring Functions Scale" and "Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire". Relational screening model was used in the study. Universe of the study is comprised of the 611 assistant principals who work in schools affiliated to Ministry of National Education in Bakırköy, Eyüp, Gaziosmanpaşa and Kağıthane districts of İstanbul province. The scale was used in the web based survey to collect data. Data was collected by sending the web based survey link to the formal e-mail addresses of the schools in the mentioned districts. There were total 402 respondents giving a 65.8% response rate. The obtained data was analyzed and evaluated using SPSS Statistics (v22) and MPlus (v7). Frequency and percentage distributions, mean and standard deviations were calculated. Independent samples t-test, one way analysis of variance for independent samples (ANOVA), Welch test, Games-Howell test, LSD test, simple linear correlation analysis and simple linear regression analysis were performed. The error margin for the study was .05. According to the results, there is a moderate, positive and significant relationship between the job satisfaction of assistant principals and the level of mentoring functions the school principals perform. It is confirmed that the level of job satisfaction the assistant principals experience increase in direct proportion with the level of mentoring functions the school principals perform. Mentoring found to be predicator of job satisfaction. Keywords: Mentoring Functions, Job Satisfaction, School Principal, Assistant Principal.