The effects of principals' trust in teachers on school climate

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of school principals' trust in teachers on the school climate from the perspective of the teachers. Having been conducted based on exploratory mixed method; the qualitative aspect of this study relies on phenomenological research design, while the quantitative aspect of it is based on descriptive survey method for determining the teachers' perceptions of the school climate and the school principals' trust in them. A causal comparative research design was employed in this study in order to find out if there was any significant difference in teachers' perceptions of the school climate and school principals' trust in teachers in terms of independent variables (including gender, number of years worked with the school principal, professional seniority and number of teachers employed at the school). On the other hand, a relational design was used to determine whether the teachers' perceptions of principals' trust in them had any bearing on their perception of the school climate in a significant way. The population of the study included 3365 teachers employed in the primary, secondary and high schools within the borders of Adıyaman province during the academic year 2015-2016. Of the purposeful sampling methods, the maximum variation sampling method was used in the qualitative aspect of this study and the study group consisted of 24 principals and 27 teachers. The sample of this study consists of 600 teachers who were chosen based on stratified sampling method. While the qualitative data of this study was collected by way of semi structured interviews, the quantitative data was gathered through "Determining School Principals Trust in Teachers Scale – Teacher Form" and the "School Climate Scale". The qualitative data was analyzed by using descriptive and content analyses, and the quantitative data was analyzed by using descriptive statistical analyses, t-test, Single Direction Variance Analysis, Multi Linear Regression Analysis, and the et square and Cohen's d coefficient were calculated. The teachers' opinions regarding the reasons as to why principals trust in teachers were gathered under three themes, namely the "Work discipline, Proficiency and Personal values". The school principals' opinions regarding the reasons as to why they trust in teachers were gathered under five themes, namely the "Work discipline, Proficiency, Personal values, Organizational behaviors and Relationships with students". The opinions of teachers and principals regarding the school principals' trust/distrust in teachers indicators were gathered under two themes, namely the "Behavioral and Affective indicators". The teachers' opinions of the positive school climate were gathered under five themes, namely "Interpersonal relationships, Professional values, Administrative indicators, Result indicators and Work environment". The principals' opinions of the positive school climate were gathered under five themes, namely "Interpersonal relationships, Result Indicators, Administrative indicators, Organizational emotions and Work environment". The teachers' opinions of the negative school climate were gathered under four themes, namely "Interpersonal relationships, Administrative indicators, Result indicators and Professional values". The principals' opinions of the negative school climate were gathered under four themes, namely "Interpersonal relationships, Result Indicators, Work environment and Administrative indicators". It was observed that, in terms of teachers' perceptions of principals' trust in teachers, the teachers usually agreed to the statements included in the dimensions of proficiency and cooperativeness, while they rarely agreed to those in the dependability dimension and sometimes to those in the transparency dimension and the entire Determining School Principals Trust in Teachers Scale. It was observed that the teachers usually agreed to the statements included in the entire school climate scale as well as those in the dimensions of being democratic and dedicated to the school, leadership and interaction, success factors, sincerity and conflict. It was established that there was a significant difference in terms of gender in which the male teachers were found to be more favored according to the teachers' perceptions of principals' trust in teachers within the dimensions of proficiency and transparency, while there was no significant difference in the dimensions of dependability and cooperativeness. On the qualitative aspect of the study, however, it was established that the majority of the teachers and principals did not think that the gender would have a role in influencing the school principals' trust in teachers, while a lesser number of teachers and principals thought that the principals trusted male teachers more than the female ones. In this respect, it was concluded that the qualitative findings on the teacher's gender obtained from the entire Determining School Principals Trust in Teachers Scale and the dimensions of proficiency and transparency were not consistent with the quantitative findings and therefore they could not be generalized for a wider sample group; while they were found to be consistent with the qualitative findings obtained from the dimensions of dependability and cooperativeness and therefore they could be generalized for a wider sample group. It was observed that in terms of teachers' perceptions of principals' trust in teachers there was no significant difference in the entire Determining School Principals Trust in Teachers Scale and its dimensions with respect to the duration of working with the principal. On the qualitative aspect of the study, however, it was established that the majority of the teachers and principals did not think that the duration of working together would have an effect on the principals' trust in teachers, while a lesser number of teachers and principals thought that the duration of working together allowed principals to get to know the teachers more intimately and therefore it could effect their trust in them. In this respect, it was concluded that the qualitative findings obtained from the duration variable were consistent with that of the quantitative findings and thus they could be applied for a wider sample group. It was established that there was a significant difference on the transparency dimension in terms of professional seniority according to the teachers' perception of principals' trust in teachers, while no such significant difference was established in the entire Determining School Principals Trust in Teachers Scale and in the dimensions of proficiency, dependability and cooperativeness. On the qualitative aspect of the study, however, it was established that the majority of the teachers and principals did not think that professional seniority would have an effect on principals' trust in teachers, while a lesser number of teachers and principals thought that the principals could trust senior teachers more than the newer ones. In this respect, it was concluded that the qualitative findings obtained with respect to the professional seniority variable were not consistent with the quantitative findings obtained from the transparency dimension and therefore they could not be generalized for a wider sample group; while they were found be consistent with the findings obtained from the entire Determining School Principals Trust in Teachers Scale and the dimensions of proficiency, dependability and cooperativeness and therefore they could be generalized for a wider sample group. It was observed that there was no significant difference in the entire Determining School Principals Trust in Teachers Scale and its dimensions in terms of the number of teachers employed in the school according to the teachers' perceptions of principals' trust in teachers. On the qualitative aspect of the study, the majority of the teachers and principals thought that the number teachers employed in the school would not effect the principals trust towards them, while a lesser number of teachers thought that having a less number of teachers in a school would enable principals to get to know the teachers more intimately and thus it could effect their trust. In this respect, it was concluded that the qualitative findings obtained from the number of teachers employed variable were consistent with that of the quantitative findings and thus they could be applied for a wider sample group. A significant difference was established in favor of female teachers in the sincerity dimension from the teachers' perspective on the school climate in terms of gender variable, while no significant difference was found in other dimensions and in the entire school climate scale. With respect to the duration of working with the school principal, however, no significant difference was established in the entire school climate scale and its dimensions. A significant difference was established in the dimensions of being democratic and dedicated to the school, success factors, sincerity, conflict and the entire school climate scale in terms of professional seniority variable from the teachers' perspective on the school climate, while no significant difference was found in the leadership and interaction dimensions. A significant difference was established in the successes factors dimension in terms of the number of teachers employed in the school variable from the teachers' perspective on the school climate, while no significant difference was identified in the dimensions of being democratic and dedicated to the school, leadership and interaction, sincerity, conflict and the entire school climate scale. It was established that the combination of the proficiency, dependability, transparency and cooperativeness variables provided a moderately significant association with the scores obtained from the dimensions of being democratic and dedicated to the school, and that the proficiency and cooperativeness variables, on their own, were a significant predictor on the dimensions of being democratic and dedicated to school, and that the variables of dependability and transparency had no significant effect. It was established that the combination of the proficiency, dependability, transparency and cooperativeness variables provided a highly significant association with the leadership and interaction scores, and that the proficiency, transparency and cooperativeness variables, on their own, were a significant predictor on the dimensions of leadership and interaction, and that the dependability variable had no significant effect. It was established that the combination of the proficiency, dependability, transparency and cooperativeness variables provided a moderately significant association with the success factors scores, and that the proficiency, dependability and cooperativeness variables, on their own, were a significant predictor on the success factors, and that the transparency variable had no significant effect. It was established that the combination of the proficiency, dependability, transparency and cooperativeness variables provided a less significant association with the sincerity scores, and that the proficiency variable, on its own, was a significant predictor on sincerity variable, and that the dependability, transparency and cooperativeness variables had no significant effect. It was established that the combination of the proficiency, dependability, transparency and cooperativeness variables provided a moderately significant association with the conflict scores, and that the proficiency and cooperativeness variables, on their own, were a significant predictor on conflict variable, and that the dependability and transparency variables had no significant effect. It was established that the combination of the proficiency, dependability, transparency and cooperativeness variables provided a moderately significant association with the entire school climate scale, and that the proficiency and cooperativeness variables, on their own, were a significant predictor on the entire school climate scale, and that the dependability and transparency variables had no significant effect. On the qualitative aspect of the study, however, it was observed that all of the teachers and principals were of the opinion that the principals' trust in teachers had a positive effect on the school climate. The opinions of the teachers and principals regarding the effect of principals' trust in teachers on the school climate included statements to the effect that a more democratic environment will be established, teachers will dedicate themselves to the school, interaction will improve, factors leading to success will come into effect and that there will be no conflict. In this respect, it was concluded that the regression results obtained from the qualitative aspect of the study were consistent with the quantitative results and therefore they could be generalized for a wider sample. Key Words: Organisational trust, trust in subordinates, trust in teachers, school climate.