Networking skills of secondary school principals

The main purpose of this research is to examine the network skills of secondary school principals. There search was designed in accordance with the qualitative research paradigm. The study group consisted of 20 secondary school principals who work in secondary schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in a province in Central Anatolia and were determined through convenience sampling technique. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. Expert opinions were obtained regarding the data collection tool. Data were analyzed by dividing them into codes, categories, and themes through content analysis. According to some findings obtained within the scope of the research, the business Networks that secondary school principals are involved in and that they establish themselves consist of three categories: official, semi-official, and personal. Principals are necessarily involved in official networks. 16 out of 20 school principals within the scope of the research are union members, which is considered as a semi-official network. The network that principals are most involved in is personal networks, and being on social media Networks ranks first in this category. Secondary school principals also establish various official networks in their schools. These include school Instagram accounts, school Facebook accounts, and school Twitter accounts. Only 1 out of 20 school principals within the scope of the research has attempted to establish a network for a civil society organization that is evaluated in the semi-official category at the provincial level related to education. The highest rank in the category of personal Networks established by school principals themselves is again social media networks. The least established Networks are associations and socio-cultural networks. Only 2 out of 20 school principals participating in the research have attempted to establish an associationor a cultural network. The communication methods of school principals in the business networks they are involved in and have established are through digital tools and face-to-face meetings. The business networks they participate in for education and training purposes consist of two stakeholder groups: in-school and out-of-school. While only teachers are included in the scope of in-school stakeholders, upper managers, other school principals and private school administrators are included in the scope of out-of-school stakeholders. The reasons why school principals participate in business Networks established for education and training purposes are to receive assistance in official correspondence, to Exchange in formation with colleagues, to follow academic success and socialactivities. The reasons why principals leave business Networks are personal reasons, lack of time and deviation from the purpose of the group. 19 out of 20 school principals in the study group answered "yes, they should participate and establish" to the situation of new management candidates "being in business Networks and establishing a business network". Some suggestions based on these findings are also presented in the research.