The relationship between school principals' servant leadership behavior and teacher performance

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between servant leadership behavior of school principals and teacher performance in public primary schools. In this study, relational screening model based on a quantitative research method was used. The population of the research consists of 3,125 teachers from 74 primary schools in the central district of Diyarbakır, and the sample of the study consists of 643 teachers primary school teachers from 20 primary schools randomly selected from the population of research. The data of the study were collected by Servant School Leadership Scale including five dimensions and 35 items developed by Öter and Dağlı (2020) and Teacher Job Performance Scale consisting of three dimensions and 37 items developed by Limon and Sezgin-Nartgün (2020). These are the important findings of teh research: (1) The average perception of teachers towards their own school principals' servant leadership behaviors at the "I mostly agree" level on Servant School Leadership Scale. (2) According to the perceptions of teachers, the item with the highest average on the scale is "the principal is easily accessible (I mostly agree)", the item with the lowest average on the scale is "the principal their employees for successes while taking responsibility for failures (I mostly agree)". The average level perception of the teachers regarding all dimensions of the servant leadership scale is at the "I mostly agree" level. (3) There was no significant difference found in teachers' perception of their school principals' servant leadership behaviours based on "education", "gender", "marital status" and "professional seniority" variables. (4) According to teachers' perceptions, teacher performance perceptions are at the "mostly" level on the scale. (5) According to the perceptions of teacher performance, the item which has the highest average perception is "I conduct fair assessment and evaluation (Always)", the item which has the lowest average of perception is "I strive to secure financial resources for the school through personal relationships (frequently)". (6) There was no significant diffrences on the perceptions of teacher job performance were forund in terms of "gender", "marital status" and "Professional seniority". On the other hand, significant difference was found in the dimensions of task performance and contextual performance based on the "education" variable. (7) According to teachers' perceptions, it has been determined that there is a positive and moderate relationship between school principals' servant leadership behaviors and teachers' performance (r = 0.556). Accordingly, as teachers' perceptions of their principals' servant leadership behaviors increase, their performance also improves.