Öğretmen Algılarına Göre İlk ve Ortaokul Yöneticilerinin Demokratik Tutumları ile Okul Kültürü Arasındaki İlişki

Introduction Organizations produce their own customs, traditions, exercises, values, and philosophies; hence, they establish their own culture while manufacturing goods or services for the society. In particular, educational institutions have the ability to produce and spread culture in a way different from other organizations (Çelik, 2009). ‚Culture is a phenomenon unique to mankind. It consists of things delivered by human hand and brain. It is the interactive integrity of living, thinking, and relationship modes of men and groups of men. Culture is the whole of concepts and elements addedcontributed by mankind to nature‛ (Açıkalın, 1994). According to Schein (2002), culture is what individuals in a group learn while they solve problems confronting the group from the external environment and also struggle with survival problems within their own group. Premises, values, norms, exercises, stories, and tales are basic components of school culture (Taymaz, 2003). Celebration in schools is a good way to recognize achievements, have fun, and strengthen common values (DuFour, 1998). Cooperation and effective communication is required in order to develop a positive school culture (Richardson, 1999). A positive and effective school culture provides innumerable advantages; for example, a positive school culture promotes increased loyalty to the school, builds trust in the school and management, prevents disruptive conflicts, and shapes the behaviors and expectations of teachers and students to improve success etc. (Gümüşeli, 2006). Just as in other organizations, school culture helps the educational community perceive and understand the school climate (Gaziel, 1997). A school’s culture represents the school’s philosophy, and it is required that a school’s philosophy parallels with the educational philosophy of the state. Consequently, teachers and managers who do not adopt the school culture act against the official educational philosophy of the state. The success of the state’s educational policy depends on teachers and managers adopting the school mission and culture (Çelik, 2009). School managers play a critical role in creating and maintaining cultural values. Successful schools have effective managers with leadership ability. Leader school managers focus their efforts on improving the educational quality of the school, overcoming the barriers to providing quality education, as well as focusing on the positive development of all stakeholders of the school (Glasser, 1999). Leader school managers stand out because of their democratic attitudes and behaviors. Democratic managers respect human rights, commit themselves to human-oriented studies, share all hardships and opportunities of the school, and adopt a contemporary way of thinking. Today, there’s a growing need for managers who can transform democracy and its merits into a life philosophy, but they are also needed in schools where a democratic culture is an established tradition (Karadağ, Baloğlu & Yalçınkayalar, 2006). Various researchers have shown a meaningful relationship between the success of schools and their organizational culture (Çelik, 2009). Development of a school culture on creating a positive environment that is open to new ideas. The school manager is primarily responsible for creating such an environment. School managers play the cardinal role in creating and managing a school’s culture (İpek, 1999). School managers’ democratic attitudes as they fill this role directly affect the operation of the school and, in particular, the school culture. This study aims to identify the relationship between the democratic attitudes of school managers and their schools’ respective cultures as measured by teachers’ perceptions. To identify and describe the current situation and properly plan for the future, this study focuses on three questions: 1. What is the level of teachers’ perceptions about school culture and democratic attitudes of school administrators? 2. Is there a meaningful relationship between the democratic attitudes of school managers and school culture? 3. Is the democratic attitude of a school manager a meaningful predictor for the emergence of sub-dimensions in the school culture? Methods This study adopts a relational design to identify the relationship between the democratic attitudes of school managers and the correlate school culture as measured by teachers’ perceptions. The target population for the study consists of primary and secondary school teachers working at Erzurum City Center during the 2012-2013 school year. 180 primary and secondary school teachers were selected for this research sample using an easily accessible sampling method. In this study, the Democratic Attitude Scale developed by Zencirci (2003), and the Organizational Culture Scale developed by Terzi (2005) were used as data collection tools. The first factor in the Organization Culture Scale represents the school’s ‚support‛ culture; the second factor represents ‚success‛ culture, the third factor ‚bureaucratic‛ culture, and the fourth factor ‚duty‛ culture dimensions. The Democratic Attitude Perception Scale consists of 24 items and a single dimension. For research data analysis, researchers used Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis to identify the relationship between the democratic attitude perception scale and the school culture scale scores; Simple Linear Regression Analysis was used to identify the predictive value of the democratic attitude scale scores on school culture scale scores. The democratic attitude scale is considered an independent variable, while the subdivisions of (i) support, (ii) success, (iii) bureaucratic, and (iv) duty in the school culture scale are considered as dependent variables of the study. Results The results of the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Analysis indicated a positive meaningful relationship between the democratic attitudes of school managers and support culture [r=.70]; success culture [r=.56]; bureaucratic culture [r=.26]; and duty culture [r=.52] sub-dimension scores. Simple linear regression analysis found that the democratic attitude scores of school managers show a statistically significant predictive power on school culture’s ‚support culture‛ , [ R2=.49, p<.01, + ‚success culture‛, [ R2= .31, p<.01] ‚bureaucratic culture‛ [R2= .067.31, p<.01+ and ‚duty culture‛, [R2=.27, p<.01] sub-dimension scores.Conclusions, Discussion, and Implications The study concludes that there is a statistically significant relationship between the democratic attitudes of school managers and the sub-dimensions of school culture as reported by teachers. Currently, there are no studies in the literature which directly focus on the relationship between the democratic attitudes of school managers and school culture. However, there are many studies of topics such as school culture and the leadership abilities of school managers which parallel with the results of this study. For example, Şahin (2003) studied the association between the leadership styles of school managers and school culture, and found a positive relationship between transformational leadership and school culture. A study of organizations by Bakan (2008) found a statistically significant relationship between employees’ perceptions of ‚leadership‛ and the ‚organizational culture‛ which encompasses aspects of democratic attitudes. A study by Özdemir (2006) concluded that the behaviors expected by principals in creating a school culture are manifest at a higher rate than other observed behaviors. Koşar and Çalık’s (2011) research identified administrative power as a supportive factor in creating a school culture. Niemann and Kotze (2006) found a relationship between school culture and the leadership practices of school principals. Le Clear (2005), Martin (2009) found a positive relationship between transactional and transformational leadership styles and school culture. Another important finding of this study is the predictive value of teachers’ perceptions of the democratic attitudes of school managers as it predicts all four subdimensions of school culture, namely ‚support culture‛, ‚success culture‛, ‚bureaucracy culture‛ and ‚duty culture‛. This result parallels with the research results of Şimşek (2003), Terzi (2005) and Koşar (2008). In a research study conducted by Ozan, Türkoğlu and Şener (2010), teachers’ perceptions of the democratic attitudes and behaviors exhibited by school managers proved to be positive. A democratic school environment significantly influences the success of both teachers and students. Such an environment helps improve the democratic attitudes and behaviors of teachers and students (Yağcı, 1998; Gömleksiz & Çetintaş, 2011). This is important since the existence of democracy depends on the existence of people believing in democratic values. A manager who desires to establish a creative school culture is expected to garner an environment which encourages free expression, independence, self-expression, free-thinking, and good relationships. He must ensure participatory decision-making and an organization-sensitive environment as well as exhibit a democratic attitude (Taş, 1999). The findings of this study were obtained through quantitative methods. Similar studies can be carried out in different schools using qualitative methods such as interview, observation and meeting.