A phenomenological study on the opinions of teachers and school administrators about social capital

The purpose of this study is to examine the opinions of secondary school teachers and administrators about social capital in Ankara. In accordance with this aim, the thoughts of secondary school teachers and administrators related to the content and components of social capital, improving process of social capital in schools, the challenges faced in this process and necessary actions for creating social capital in schools were analyzed. This study was conducted with the teachers and school administrators working in the central districts of Ankara, Çankaya, Yenimahalle, Mamak, Altındağ, Etimesgut, Keçiören, Sincan and the participants were selected with maximum variation, criterion sampling and convenience sampling methods during the 2020-2021 educational year. This research was designed with phenomenology design which is one of the qualitative research techniques, and semi-structured interview form were used to collect the data. The data were sorted out with descriptive and content analyses and the results were presented with the support of direct quotations. According to the results of this study, the participants stated that social capital is a concept intertwined with cooperation, communication, confidence and sense of belonging. They emphasized confidence, communication, school rules and organizational commitment as the components of social capital. Moreover, they expressed that availability of social capital in schools contributed to teachers' sense of belonging to school, their professional motivation and development, students' academic success, positive atmosphere in school and school image. Thus, they defined that social capital supported efficient operation of schools. The participants specified that the obstacles affecting social capital were lack of communication between teachers, authoritarian attitude of school administrators and inactivity of parents. In this study, the thoughts of the teachers and school administrators related to social capital were put forth and some advice connected with developing social capital in schools were given.