An analysis of the relationship between high school teachers' perception of prefessional well-being and instructional leadership behaviours

The basic aim of this study is to examine the relationship between high school teachers' perception of professional well-being and their instructional leadership behaviours. Instructional leadership can be described as the whole of initiatives to reach an ideal situation in terms of teaching and learning. On the other hand, the perception of professional well-being is defined as a super concept including positive feelings such as occupational excitement, aspiration, self-efficacy and occupational satisfaction. Teachers' undertaking notable initiatives in teaching and learning activities naturally affects many different areas related to education. One of the effects on the teachers is creating intrinsic satisfaction. It is anticipated that teachers who create a positive atmosphere and take positive results in teaching and learning environment feel themselves professionally better. This theoretically established relationship needs to be tested because there is no study focusing on this relationship in literature. This study was designed in correlational survey pattern. The population of the study is composed of high school teachers working in Aksaray Province in 2015-2016 Academic Year. The study sample included 309 teachers who were selected through cluster sampling and random selection. The data were gathered by a questionnaire including two separate scales. The first one is The Scale of Teachers' Instructional Leadership, a validity and reliability work which was satisfied by Aygün (2014) and aimed at determining the teachers' tendency to display their instructional leadership. The second one is The Scale of Teachers' Professional Well-being, a validity and reliability work which was satisfied by Yıldırım, Arastaman and Daşcı (2015). The data collected between March and April 2016 were analysed through descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis. At the end of the study, we found that teachers mostly display instructional leadership behaviours and they feel professionally good. We identified a statistically significant, positive and strong relationship between high school teachers' instructional leadership behaviours and their perception of professional well-being. In the study, teachers' instructional leadership behaviours were defined as significant and strong predictors of their professional well-being. Based on the results, it is suggested that the link between professional development activities and encouraging factors (incentives) be strengthened and the teachers' expectation of being respected and appreciated be fulfilled.