The examination of meritocracy and merit based administrator training, appointment, evaluation system and the qualifications of capable administrator in the Turkish education system: A mixed typed study

The aim of this study is to determine opinions of school administrator and teachers concerning meritocracy, merit based administrator training, appointment and evaluation system along with capable administrator qualities and to provide a model proposal on the concept of meritocracy and merit based administrator training, appointment, and evaluation system in the Turkish Education System. The exploratory mixed method design was used as a research model. Initially qualitative data then quantitative data were collected to test findings related to subproblems obtained from qualitative analysis. The first phase of the study was designed as a holistic multiple case study. Thirteen administrators from different posts and thirteen teachers from different branches working in 10 different elementary schools, five primary and five secondary schools, were taken into the study group. While determining the study group of the qualitative research, the maximum diversity sampling method was used out of random sampling methods. And the second phase of the study was realized through quantitative research approach. In Turkish Education System, descriptive survey model was used in order to determine managerial and teacher views on meritocracy, competency-based administrator training, appointment and evaluation system, and qualifications of capable administrators; and to determine the relationship between merit-based administrator training, appointment and evaluation systems and leadership qualifications, relational screening model was used. In The selection of the sample in quantitative research, the number of teachers and administrators required to be taken into sample group in the central districts according to the rates of representing the universe using stratified sampling was determined at the first stage. In the second step, it was considered to be sufficient to take 367 teachers and administrators in the sample group using simple random sampling method. However, a large number of surveys were conducted and 532 surveys were evaluated. A semi-structured interview form, consisting of open-ended questions, was used in the collection of qualitative data. The quantitative data were collected by the "Educational Administration Merit Scale" and "Qualifications Scale of Merit Educational Administrators". The disclosure rate of total variance of Qualifications Scale of Qualified Educational Administrators that is comprised of 18 items and 4 dimensions was found as 69.79%; and the item total test correlation for all of the measurement tools was found as 0.89. The disclosure rate of total variance of Educational Management Merit Scale that is comprised of 25 items and 4 dimensions was found as % 50,09; and the item total test correlation for all of the measurement tools was found as 0.86. In the analysis of qualitative data both descriptive and content analysis were used. In the analysis of the quantitative data, percentage, frequency, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, t-test for unrelated samples from parametric tests, for unrelated samples one-factor variance analysis were used with Kruskal-Wallis test out of non-parametric tests in the event of the assumptions of single-factor variance analysis could not be met. In addition, CHAID analysis out of the multivariate analysis methods was used in classification of the variables. According to the results of the research, it is emphasized that there is no training period in the existing legislation in education management and that the training has to be included into legislation and this process should be performed in an efficient manner. It has been found out that the most important qualities that a qualified educational administrator should posses are qualities which are important in terms of meritocracy such as having good communication skills, field expertise and leadership qualifications along with fairness. When the dimensions that were acquired related to qualifications are grouped, leadership skills, communication skills, educational-artistic skills and vocational competence and the emphasis of specialization are among the prominent results of the research. What's more, it can be said that, with a qualified training system much more administrators with a high merit quality can be raised and an evaluation system based on merit is also much more effective in classifying the administrators according to their merit levels and the ones with high quality merit levels should be primarily appointed. In this respect, it's important to take into consideration the determination of the candidates' merit perceptions within the process of administrator training and appointment and while including the ones with high positive merit perceptions in the management system in terms of a healthy and effective education management system. The "Educational Managerial Merit Scale" and "Qualifications Scale of Competent Educational Administrators" developed in this study have importance in terms of availability and being the sort of questionnaires that are able to be applied to the candidates within managerial appointment process of the Ministry of National Education. Besides, the "Merit Based Educational Management Model Suggestion" developed from the results of the research is also important in terms of an effective educational management system.