The Degree to Which Public School Principals Practice Their Supervisory Rules and its Relation to Their Leadership Styles from Teachers Points of View of the Secondary Schools in the Northern Governorates

Abstract

The current study aims to identify the degree to which public school principals practice their supervisory rules and its relation to their leadership styles from teachers points of view of the secondary schools in the northern governorates. The descriptive correlative approach was adopted by collecting quantitative data to obtain information on the subject of the study using the study tool represented by the questionnaire. It consisted of two scales. The first one was the practices of school principals for their supervisory roles and included 33 paragraphs distributed over the fields of (professional development for teachers, human relations, and evaluation). The second one is the leadership styles of school principals, which included 44 paragraphs distributed in the fields of (the democratic, authoritarian, laxity, and participatory styles). The study population consisted of all male and female teachers in government secondary schools in the northern governorates, whose number is (12775), according to the statistics of the Ministry of Education in the same year. An exploratory sample of 30 teachers in public schools was selected in order to ensure the validity of the study tool and its use in calculating validity and reliability. The most prominent results are that the degree of government secondary school principals’ practices of their supervisory roles from the point of view of teachers in the northern governorates is average, with an arithmetic mean of (3.26). The areas of the degree of government secondary school principals’ practices of their supervisory roles, it ranged between (3.16-3.26), and the field of “evaluation” came in the first place, with a mean of (3.26), and an average level, while the field of “professional development for teachers” came in the last place, with a mean of (3.16), with a medium level. Meanwhile the level of leadership styles practiced by governmental secondary school principals from the point of view of teachers in the northern governorates is average, with an arithmetic mean of (3.03). The field of “democratic style” ranked first, with an arithmetic mean of (3.22), and a medium level, while the field of “dismissive style” came in the last place, with an arithmetic average of (2.90), and an average level. Also, there are statistically significant differences at the level of statistical significance (α ≤ 0.05) in the averages of the study sample response towards the degree of government secondary school principals practicing their supervisory roles from the point of view of teachers in the northern governorates due to the gender variable in favor of female teachers. However, there are no statistically significant differences at the level of statistical significance (α ≤ 0.05) in the study sample response averages towards the degree of government secondary school principals practicing their supervisory roles from the point of view of teachers in the northern governorates due to the variables (educational qualification, years of service, specialization). And there are no statistically significant differences (α≤0.05) in the averages of the response of the study sample towards the practice of leadership styles by public secondary school principals from the point of view of teachers in the northern governorates due to the gender variable on the total score and the two domains (the lax style and the attitudinal style). In the field of (democratic style), the differences were in favor of female teachers, and as for the authoritarian style, it was in favor of male teachers. In addition, there are no statistically significant differences (α≤0.05) in the study sample response averages towards the practice of leadership styles by public secondary school principals from the point of view of teachers in the northern governorates due to the variables (educational qualification, years of service, specialization). And last, there is a positive correlation between secondary school principals' practices of their supervisory roles and their leadership styles in relation to the field of democratic style, while there is a negative correlation between supervisory roles and leadership styles in relation to the authoritarian and lax style. The researcher presented several recommendations as holding training courses in educational supervision and supervisory methods in all fields separately to ensure the greatest benefit, and reducing the administrative burdens and tasks that fall on the school principals, which would increase work pressures, and lead to dispersion and failure to carry out the supervisory tasks to the fullest