Reflections of gender on school administrators' organizational socialization process

The aim of this study is to examine the reflections of gender on school administrators' organizational socialization process. The participants of the qualitative study are twelve participants, three women and men school administrators and three women and men teachers, from Science and Anatolian High Schools in a province in Eastern Anatolia. The research data was collected with the help of semi-structured interview form. The interviews were face to face. Two sessions were with school administrators; one session was with teachers. Critical discourse analysis and content analysis methods were used in analyzing of data. As a result of the research, content analysis findings indicate that school administrators' organizational socialization experiences are mostly informal and coincidental experiences. Findings regarding the results of successful socialization create an unstable picture. In other words, it is difficult to say clearly that organizational socialization is successful. According to the findings of content analysis and discourse analysis, it was seen that gender is an important factor that shapes the experiences of school administrators and fills the background which they use to make sense of these experiences. In addition, clues have been found indicating that the organizational and social context in which organizational socialization experiences take place has a cultural structure based on patriarchy, fear and power. On this cultural basis, there are findings indicating that female school administrators are forced more than men, excluded, pushed into an object position.