Investigation of instructional leadership behaviors of vocational high school principals (A case study from Trabzon Ortahisar)

It has been discussed in recent years that it is necessary a school principal should be good in leadership besides in managing. Thereupon, instructional leadership concept came up. Unlike other type of leadership, instructional leadership focuses on learning and teaching. The vocational high schools have been behind the high school in terms of academic success in Turkey. This problem called for this study to be done. The aim of the study was to determine the factors affecting principal's instructional leadership behaviors perceived by vocational high school vice principals and teachers. A general screening model was used in the study. Population and sample of this investigation consisted of 656 and 288 teachers (including also administrators) working in vocational and technical Anatolian high school in Ortahisar/Trabzon respectively. A questionnaire containing 58 questions was used to determine the perceptions of the vice principals and the teachers. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were statistically tested. While the relations among sub dimension were determined by correlation analysis, differences between vice principals and teachers' perceptions were determined by Mann Whitney U test using SPSS 23.0 program. Both the vice-principals and the teachers showed their lowest perceptions for the principals in the dimensions of framing the school goals and, supervising & evaluating instruction; and highest perceptions in accessibility of the principals and promoting professional development. Some significant differences were found between the vice-principals' and the teachers' perceptions in the dimensions of communicating the school goals, coordinating the curriculum, monitoring student progress, protecting instructional time, maintaining high visibility and provide incentives for learning. The younger vice-principals and the older teachers found the school principal succesfull in instructional leadership.