School principals as leaders: Pre-service and in-service teachers’ perspective
Scholars have highlighted that the existing school leadership models are incomplete and the relevant research is dominated by the principals’ perspective. This study explores the pre-service and in-service teachers’ views about what they want and expect of the school principals as leaders to willingly follow them. The sample consisted of 36 teachers purposefully recruited. Written texts, in which the participants were asked to spontaneously write down their thoughts, were used as a research tool; and content analysis was used as a research method. Overall, the findings indicated that the ideal school leader from the teachers’ perspective predominantly has leadership skills, and rarely has both specific personality traits and enduring goals to pursue, whereas specific necessary qualifications are considered as the least desirable. These findings are discussed in the context of the broad literature on leadership and in relation to the proposed leadership models. Keywords: School leader, principals, teachers’ perspective, qualitative research.