The role of internal and external stakeholders in decision-making strategies and decision-making processes of school principals

In this research, it is aimed to contribute to the practitioners and the literature by determining the internal and external environmental factors that affect the decision- making processes of school principals. The research was carried out with a descriptive survey model of qualitative type. In this context, maximum variation sampling, which is oneofthepurposivesamplingmethods,wasusedasthestudygroupoftheresearch.The universe of the research consists of 22 school principals working at all levels in educational institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Antalya Gazipaşa in the 2021-2022 academicyear. Thesemi-structuredinterviewformusedasadatacollectiontoolintheresearch was developed and used by the researchers by consulting the opinions of three experts in the field of educational administration. The codes and themes were determined by the participantstobeconsistent.Byarrangingthesecodesandthemes,afrequencytablewas obtained and the findings were defined and interpreted. In addition, direct quotations are frequentlyincludedinordertoreflecttheviewsofthepeopleastheyare.Theopen-ended questions to be directed to the participants within the scope of the research were firstly examinedbyscanningtheliteratureandweredirectedtofourschoolprincipalswhowere not included in the study group and their opinions weretaken. Semi-structured interview forms were applied by conducting face-to-face interviews with school principals in order to reveal the environmental factors, teachers andstudents,andenvironmentalfactorsthatschoolprincipalsareparticularlyaffectedby whenmakingdecisionsunderpressureandinfluence.Theobtaineddatawereanalyzed bycontentanalysismethod.Accordingtotheresultsofthisresearch,schoolprincipals.in the decision-making process student-based; family structure and socioeconomic status, originating from teachers; corporate belonging and appreciation, environmental origin; socioeconomic status, cultural factors and physical social conditions are seen to be effective. Inaddition,thefirstpriorityoftheschoolprincipals'taskistorealizetheschool goals. Other priority tasks are exam success, quality education and job satisfaction of teachers. Laws and regulations are at the top of the factors affecting thedecision-making processes of school principals. School principals express other factors affecting the decision-making processes as the opinions and suggestions of teachers and assistant principals,andtheeducationalgoalsoftheschool.Itcanbesuggestedthatenvironmental factors take into account the cultural values and include all stakeholders in the decision- making process and make decisions that can be adopted by the majority. On the other hand,itcanbesuggestedtoresearcherstoconductstudiesinaquantitativeandqualitative mixed design, including other factors that affect school administrators'decision-making. Key Words: School management, pressure groups, school-environment relations, decision making