School principals' learning practices related to administrative processes: A qualitative analysis

Today, the principal is seen as a very important factor in ensuring and increasing school success. It can be said that the success and excellence of schools depend on school principals. The critical role played by school principals in the education system is an important factor that directly affects the effectiveness and success of educational institutions. With the concept of 'Effective School', the effect of the school principal on the academic success of the child has started to be mentioned. With the concept of school leadership, which has become increasingly popular in the field since the beginning of the 2000s, although the managerial behaviours of the school principal have been explained by many leadership theories, the most important task of the principal is of course instructional leadership. However, the school is the most important institution that provides cultural change, instils culture in children, socialises children and meets the manpower needs of the society. Since the task of school management is to manage the school effectively and efficiently in accordance with its objectives, studies on how school principals are selected, appointed and how they develop during their duties are of great importance. This study focuses on how school principals learn to be a school principal. The aim of the study is to reveal what the learning resources of school principals regarding administrative processes are after they take office and which learning practices they apply in this direction based on their own views. The research was conducted with school principals working in public schools in Zonguldak province in the 2023-2024 academic year. It can be said that the study group consists of a total of 25 people, including 4 preschool, 8 primary school, 8 secondary school and 5 high school principals. In the selection of the school principals participating in the study, firstly, among the school principals who volunteered to participate in the study, maximum diversity was determined by taking into account the level distribution and the district/region where they were working. Phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. A semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. The research data were collected through face-to-face and online interviews with the participating school principals, and content analysis technique was used to analyse the data. Among the findings of the research, it is seen that experienced principals have a very important place in school principals' learning administrative processes. It is among the findings of the research that school principals experienced feelings of excitement, fear, anxiety, happiness and pride when they learnt that they were appointed as principals. In addition, it is understood that school principals have the most difficulties in communication with the staff, physical and financial issues after taking office. It is also seen that school stakeholders and social media accounts and channels brought by our age have started to take place in school principals' learning of administrative processes. Therefore, it is suggested within the scope of the research that planning for the learning of school principals by taking into account important factors such as experienced principals and social media factors will be more effective in the professional development of school principals.