The relationship between school principals' social justice leadership and school effectiveness

Human beings have been searching for rights, justice, equality and freedom since their existence. Although society, people and mentality are constantly changing, this search has never changed. What will ensure the welfare of societies is this struggle for social justice. As in every social field and practice, social justice is of great importance in education. School principals are the ones who will ensure social justice in the educational environment. Creating a fair, equal and effective education process is possible with the social justice leadership of school principals. The social justice leadership of principals will eliminate educational inequalities and ensure school effectiveness. School effectiveness is a phenomenon that focuses on the fact that all students can learn regardless of differences such as religion, belief, race, status, economy etc. In this context, it can be said that there is a connection between the social justice leadership of principals and school effectiveness. In this study, the relationship between the social justice leadership of school principals and school effectiveness was investigated. In this study, where the relationship between the social justice leadership of school principals and school effectiveness was addressed according to the opinions of high school teachers, the relational screening model was applied. The universe of this research consists of 1250 teachers working in high schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in Aydın city center in the 2023-2024 academic year. 532 teachers were included in the sample with the stratified sampling technique from random sampling methods. Data were collected in the research through the Social Justice Leadership-Teacher Form and School Effectiveness Scale. The first sub-problem of the research was "social justice leadership of school principals according to the views of high school teachers". According to the research result; high school teachers are of the opinion that the social justice leadership of school principals is at a "high" level. The second sub-problem of the research was "differences in high school teachers' views on social justice leadership of school principals according to gender, the type of school they work at, the general directorate to which their school is affiliated, the length of time they work with the school principal, the length of service and educational status". According to the research result, there is a statistically significant difference according to gender, the type of school they work at and the general directorate to which the school is affiliated; There is no statistically significant difference according to the length of time working with the school principal, length of service and education status. The third sub-problem of the research is "school effectiveness according to the views of high school teachers". High school teachers think that school effectiveness is at a "high" level. The fourth sub-problem of the research is "differences in high school teachers' views on school effectiveness according to gender, type of school they work in, general directorate to which their school is affiliated, length of time working with the school principal, length of service and education status". According to the results of the research, there is a statistically significant difference according to the type of school and general directorate to which the school is affiliated; there is no statistically significant difference according to gender, length of time working with the school principal, length of service and education status. The fifth sub-problem of the research is "relationship between social justice leadership of school principals and school effectiveness according to the views of high school teachers". According to the results of the research, there is a moderately positive and significant relationship between social justice leadership of school principals and school effectiveness according to the views of high school teachers. As a result, as the level of social justice leadership of school principals increases, school effectiveness also increases. KEY WORDS: Social justice, social justice leadership, school effectiveness, teacher, opinion.