An inquiry into leadership capacity: The case of Turkish primary schools *

Abstract

The growing research interest in educational leadership requires the investigation of new school leadership perspectives as schools become more complex structures. This article explored the perceptions of primary school teachers and administrators on leadership capacity of their schools and related factors. This study employed a mixed method in which both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used together. A total of 2370 participants including teachers, vice principals and principals from 179 primary schools were included in the quantitative part of the study while 18 participants including teachers and school administrators participated in the qualitative part of the study. The research findings suggested that participants' levels of perception on distributed leadership and shared school vision subscales were lower than their levels of perceptions on collaboration and shared responsibility and perceived student achievement. The findings also illustrated that participants from schools with high leadership capacity thought they participated in vision building and instructional decision-making processes more frequently. The paper draws implications for improving teaching and learning in the schoolhouse. © 2015 IOJES. All rights reserved