An Examination of Leadership Competencies of School Principals in Turkey and the United States

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine if perceptions of the leadership skills of principals in both Turkey and the United States were influenced by the gender of the principal and the gender of teachers for whom they lead. In 2009, the researchers conducted surveys in both Turkey and the United States. In Turkey, a convenience sampling of 1076 teachers and 144 principals took place and a cross-sectional survey of 198 principals and 706 teachers took place in the United States. No statistically signficantly differences, according to gender, in the mean were found among the groups of principals and teachers in Turkey. However, in the United States, statistically signficant differences in the means were found in two domains-Encouraging the Heart, in which male teachers had significantly higher scores than female teachers in the rating of their principals, and in Inspiring Shared Vision, where female principals had significantly higher self-ratings than male principals.