Administrators' and teachers' opinions on the reasons of whistleblowing and whistleblowing process in high schools

In this study, opinions of teachers and school managers were investigated about reasons and process of whistleblowing in secondary education schools. Celep and Konaklı's (2013) "Reasons for Whistleblowing and Whistleblowing Process Scales" were applied to 46 school managers and 256 teachers in total 302 school managers and teachers. Results were analysed via SPSS 20 programme. Research findings are remarkable in terms of similarity between both teachers' and school managers' responses to Reasons for Whistleblowing and Whistleblowing Process Scales. Having looked at teachers' and school managers' views of reasons for whistleblowing, it was seen that both sides prefer to blow the whistle when organization's benefits and moral, professional values are in question. When teachers' and school managers' views on whistleblowing process were examined it was found that schools managers tended to blow the whistle to their superior managers by using internal whistleblowing processes whereas teachers prefered both internal and supportive whistleblowing processes. Teachers choose to report unethical activities both to their managers and colleagues whom they think they can take responsibility in order to fix the wrongdoing. Teachers' and school managers' views of reasons for whistleblowing were also demographically examined but no meaningful difference was found neither for teachers nor for the school managers. In terms of whistleblowing process there was no meaningful difference according to school managers' views but there was meaningful difference between male and female teachers' views. Female teachers had higher level of participation to internal whistleblowing statements than male teachers did. According to marital status variable, divorced school managers' level of participation related to Reasons for Whistleblowing Scale Organizational Benefits Subscale was lower than other (married, widowed and bachelor) school managers. As for teachers, there was meaningful difference in "organization's benefits" and "moral, professional values" subscales of Reasons for Whistleblowing Scale. In analogy to school managers' views, divorced teachers have the least level of participation to scale statements. When whistleblowing process marital status variable was analysed, no meaningful difference was found according to school managers' views but there was meaningful difference for teachers' views in internal and supportive subscales. Again divorced teachers show lower level of participation to the whistleblowing process scale statements. When seniority variable was examined through Reasons for Whistleblowing Scale there was no meaningful difference in school managers' views but there was meaningful difference in teachers' views according to "moral, professional values" subscale of Reasons for Whistleblowing Subscale. Teachers who have 0-5 years of seniority had the highest level of participation whereas teachers with 11-15 years of seniority had the least level of participation to the scale statements. Whistleblowing Process Scale was also analysed for seniority variable and for school managers' views generally no meaningful difference was found but when it was evaluated under the subscales meaningful difference is seen in supportive whistleblowing subscale. School managers with 0-5 years of seniority have the highest, 11-15 years have the lowest level of participation to the supportive whistleblowing subscale statements. As for teachers, there was meaningful difference in Whistleblowing Process internal whistleblowing subscale. According to the results, teachers with 11-15 years of experience had lower level of participation to the Whistleblowing Process internal whistleblowing subscale statements. Keywords: whistleblowing, education, ethics, school manager, teacher