Investigation of the in-school factors affecting distributed leadership practices

In this study, it was aimed to determine the level of distributed leadership in secondary schools according to the views of the teachers and to find out the in-school factors affecting distributed leadership practices. The study is designed in an exploratory mixed model at which quantitative and qualitative techniques are used together. In the quantitative part of the study, a single scanning model was used in descriptive quality in accordance with the research problem. In the qualitative part of the study, multiple case studies were conducted. In the quantitative process of the study, two separate sample groups consisting of 1604 teachers were studied. For the scale development study, the sample consists of 868 teachers working in secondary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in district of Gaziantep city center in the academic year of 2016-2017. For the quantitative part, the sample consists of 736 teachers working in 27 secondary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Gaziantep city center in the academic year of 2017-2018. Participants of qualitative part consist of 24 teachers from four schools. The data of the study were collected with the "Personal Information Form", the "Distributed Leadership Scale" and the semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. In the analysis of quantitative data, mean, standard deviation, T-test, one-factor ANOVA, Hierarchical Multiple Regression analysis were used. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the data obtained in the qualitative part of the study. As a result of the analyzes, when the opinions of the teachers participating in the research are analyzed for the distributed leadership practices in schools, the lowest dimension is the "Comman goals" while the highest dimension is the "Cooperation and trust". Teachers' views on distributed leadership do not show a statistically significant difference according to gender, level of education, occupational seniority, and duration of working at the current school. Teachers' attitudes toward participation in decision significantly predicted the level of distributed leadership. According to the findings obtained from the interviews made with the teachers, it is seen that in the upper level schools, elements such as risk taking, managerial support, learning culture, accountability relations, positive communication, importance of professional development, institutionalization, facilitating role of management, cooperative assistance and there is no evidence of these in the lower level schools. Based on these findings, the following conclusions were reached: In general, there is no problem of cooperation and trust in secondary schools whereas the comman goals among stakeholders have not been achieved at a high level. The teachers' views on the distributed leadership practices at school do not differentiate significantly according to gender, level of education, occupational seniority and duration of working at school. As a result of the interviews conducted with the teachers in the secondary schools, risk taking, managerial support, learning culture, accountability relations, positive communication, emphasis on professional development, institutionalization, facilitating role of management, cooperation between colleagues, respect, and corporate culture are the supporting elements of distributed leadership. The lack of supporting factors hinders the implementation of distributed leadership. Key Words: Distributed leadership, secondary school administration, administration and leadership, sharing leadership, educational administration