The relationship between school principals inclusive leadership behaviours and teacher autonomy

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between school principals' inclusive leadership behaviours and teacher autonomy according to teachers' perceptions. The sample of the study, which was carried out in the relational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, consists of 390 teachers working in primary, secondary and high school type schools in Şehitkamil district of Gaziantep in the 2023-2024 academic year and participating in the survey. Personal Information Form, Inclusive Leadership Scale and Teacher Autonomy Scale were used as data collection tools. The data were collected digitally through Google form and Jamovi 2.3.28 programme was used to analyse the collected data. Descriptive and predictive statistical analyses were performed in order to answer the sub-problems of the study. Participants' perceptions of inclusive leadership according to gender variable were analysed with Student's t-test and Welch's t-test, which test whether the scores obtained from two unrelated samples showing normal distribution differ significantly from each other. Independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analyses were used in the study. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to determine the relationship between the mean scores of the sub-dimensions of the Inclusive Leadership Scale and the mean scores of the sub-dimensions of the Teacher Autonomy Scale. Simple multiple regression analysis was used to determine the predictive relationship between the perception of inclusive leadership and teacher autonomy. According to the results of the study, it was concluded that male teachers perceived school administrators as more supportive leaders than female teachers. There is no statistically significant difference in terms of sub-dimensions of teachers' perceptions of inclusive leadership according to their educational status. There is no statistically significant difference in teacher autonomy perception levels according to teachers' age variable. There is a statistically significant relationship between inclusive leadership and teacher autonomy. It was revealed that all sub-dimensions of inclusive leadership have a positive relationship with the sub-dimensions of teaching process and rights and responsibilities of teacher autonomy, but not with the other sub-dimensions of education system and autonomy practices.