Successful School Principals in Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Schools: A Grounded Theory Research from Turkish Context

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to delve into the characteristics, professional competencies, leadership attitudes, and behaviors of successful school principals (SSPs) in socioeconomically disadvantaged schools. Utilizing a systematic grounded theory method (SGTM), we conducted research in the provinces of Amasya, Çorum, Samsun, and Tokat in Türkiye. Purposeful and theoretical sampling methods were employed to recruit successful school principals, deputy principals, teachers, students, and parents from secondary schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education (MoNE). The data draws on unstructured individual and focus group interviews, as well as documents and observations. All the data obtained were inductively analyzed through open, axis, and selective coding stages. Based on the codes, sub-categories, categories, themes, and dimensions from the analyses, we designed the Contextual Successful School Principalship Model (CSSPM), which falls into four dimensions as follows: individual, managerial, organizational, and instructional. SSPs in this study mostly tend to display paternalistic leadership attitudes and behaviors in terms of dedication and self-sacrifice, serving, intrinsic motivation, and influencing stakeholders. They exhibit almost all the attitudes and behaviors of servant leadership, act according to some national and moral values, and experience national attitudes such as patriotism and nationalism intensely. By giving importance to the academic socialization of students' mothers, successful school principals exhibit transformational and instructional leadership behaviors. They act strategically to directly involve mothers in enhancing student achievement, demonstrating their commitment to fostering an inclusive and supportive educational environment.