Competencies of school managers who completed "Potential School Directors Training Program" in Azerbaijan

The aim of the study is to examine the views of school administrators who participated in the "Potential School Directors" training program in Azerbaijan about the education program and school management, and to reveal the situation regarding the professional competencies of the administrators. The holistic multi-case design, one of the qualitative study approaches, was used in the study. The participants of the study were 16 school administrators who have completed the training program of "Potential School Directors" attending a public school in Baku, Azerbaijan. As a result of the interview, observation and document analysis, the opinions of the participants about the education program and the school administration were tried to be determined. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive analysis. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that the pre-service training organized for the preparation of school administrators contributed to the principals in having professional competencies, although it had some deficiencies. In addition, the coincidence of the findings in the literature regarding the competencies of school administrators with the findings of the study shows that Azerbaijani administrators have various leadership characteristics. As a result of the study, considering the difficulties that managers encounter while starting their new duties, it can be said that innovations in the pre-service training program, in-service trainings for managers and mentor support should be provided.