Relationship of School Leadership with School Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis Study

Abstract

Administration and governance of schools in Turkey have a complex structure and process. Within the centralized structure, the procedures in educational activities are managed by school principals. In the Turkish literature, there are studies showing leadership styles of school leaders based on the leadership theories borrowed from different contexts. Furthermore, these leadership styles are linked to school outcomes like academic achievement and teacher motivation. Thus, catching compatible sides of leadership theories may serve to improve this kind of school outcomes. In these respects, the current study aimed to investigate which leadership styles have more effect on academic achievement and teacher motivation. Exclusion and inclusion criteria were determined in order to identify the studies to be analyzed. A meta-analysis study including 21 studies in Turkish context was conducted to achieve the purpose of the study. The meta-analysis results showed that the leadership styles were highly related with the school outcomes. Overall, laissez-faire, transactional, instructional, and transformational leadership styles had a high and positive relation with the school outcomes. The laissez-faire and spiritual leadership styles showed more effect on the teacher motivation while the positive and transformational style had more effect on the academic achievement. Considering the conclusions of the study, it is recommended that future studies develop a leadership theory specific to the educational settings in Turkey.