An examination of the professional identity formation processes of school principals

The purpose of this research is to examine the professional identity formation processes of school principals and to reveal the factors that are effective in the formation of their professional identities. The phenomenology design, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. Critical incident technique was used as a research tool in the research to integrate with the phenomenology design. The study group of the research consists of 23 school principals working in 23 official schools affiliated with the Provincial Directorate of National Education in the Birecik district of Şanlıurfa in the 2020-2021 academic year. Of the participants, 8 are high school principals, 6 are secondary school principals, 6 are primary school principals and 3 are kindergarten principals. The data of the study were collected using a semi-structured open-ended interview protocol developed by the researcher. The interview data were loaded into Taguette, a qualitative analysis program. Content analysis technique was used in the analysis of interview transcripts. In the study, it was concluded that a number of personal, social/contextual, and professional factors shaped the professional identity formation processes of school principals. Critical events faced by school principals have affected their professional identities positively or negatively.