Pluralistic Leadership Characteristics: A Research in Education Institutions*

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the pluralistic leadership behaviours of school principals in the Turkish educational context. The exploratory design was used in this study, which employs the first qualitative, and then quantitative data collection methods. The sample of the study was determined using the maximum variation sampling technique; hence, 24 school principals and 327 teachers participated in the study. The data of the study were collected using semi-structured interviews and the ‘Pluralistic Leadership Scale’, which was developed by the authors. The findings of the study indicate that (i) school principals desire to participate in the management processes of teachers, (ii) teachers with leadership qualities and ideals are willing to participate in school administration, (iii) school principals attempt to investigate the source of the problem to solve problems and conflicts, (iv) school principals mostly showed pluralistic leadership characteristics regarding their interactions with teachers, (v) a significant difference was found in acknowledging and discussing the differences and attendance to management process dimensions based on teachers’ gender, (vi) a significant difference was found in the interaction among teachers, the interaction between school administration and teachers, and the use of power dimensions in favour of teachers working at village schools, (vii) a significant difference was found in the interaction between school administration and teachers dimension based on age and seniority of teachers. Finally, a significant difference was found in all dimensions of pluralistic leadership characteristics in terms of the number of teachers working at schools.