فصلنامه تعلیم و تربیت
سال بیست و هشتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 109، بهار 1391)

A sample of 449 elementary school teachers and 166 principals from across all such schools in 10 school districts in Tehran were measured on the developmental style of leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational-citizenry behaviors in order to construct a structural model defining the role of leadership style in teacher's organizational-citizenry behavior. Explorative and confirmatory factor analyses were utilized in order to construct two structural models: assumed and substitute. The data reveal that the developmental style of leadership impacts both the organizational-citizenry behavior and organizational commitment directly, while job satisfaction has an indirect, but significant effect on organizational-citizenry behavior. Indices of goodness of fit render the assumed model more appropriate than the substitute model. Over-all, the results confirm the need to pay attention to the leadership style, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction vis-à-vis teacher's organizational-citizenry behavior.

School-based management in Iranian educational system is facing three major hurdles which have to do with the knowledge, outlook, and competence of members of the educational community. To explore these hurdles, three questionnaires were administered to a group of school principals, teachers, staff, and parents in Tehran. The analysis of the collected data revealed that the respondent's knowledge and outlook on school-based management is inadequate and in their opinion, the educational system as a whole lacks the competence to implement such a program.

To determine areas of decision making in schools and the extent of schools independence and any differences in this respect between private and public schools, a sample of 211 school administrators from Tehran was selected and their opinions surveyed using a questionnaire. The collected data show that there are 8 areas of school activities wherein decision making is of vital importance. These can be categorized into three major areas of staff affairs, administrative, and planning. It seems that there has been much more decentralization in the area of planning and schools enjoy quite a bit of independence. However, in the areas of in-service training, fund raising, and curriculum development centralization reigns. In all three areas private schools enjoy more independence, but no difference between different school levels was observed.

To explore the status of developmental leadership in Mashhad schools and its relationship to teacher's self-evaluation and job satisfaction, a sample of 8 Guidance and high schools were selected from among 54 such schools in Mashhad's 3rd district through cluster sampling. Three questionnaires measuring teacher's self-evaluation, job satisfaction, and opinions on developmental leadership were administered to all teachers working at one shift in each of the selected schools. The analysis of the collected data show that the style of leadership is not developmental, teachers do not perceive their performance positively, and their job satisfaction is below average. Those teachers whose principal's style of leadership is closer to being developmental do not have higher job satisfaction, nor do they perceive their performance more positively. There seems to be a significant negative relationship between the perceived style of leadership and the other two constructs.

One way to empower schools and prepare them for school-based management is allowing for student participation in school activities. To assess the extent to which high school students in Tehran participate in their school activities, a questionnaire was given to a sample of 1230 students and 240 teachers and administrators, selected through cluster sampling. Analysis of the collected data shows that in student's opinion, their participation in different school activities is low, while teachers and administrators estimated it to be average. Obviously with such levels of participation cannot hope for the successful implementation of school-based management program. Among the activities that students participated in sports and disciplinary activities ranked high. Furthermore, it appears that the type of school and membership in student council are predictors of student participation in school activities.

School principals can perform different leadership functions in their schools. The extent to which they do this and its relationship with their success at their work have been explored herein. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 430 teachers from 20 schools across all five geographical areas of Tehran. The sampling was done through cluster sampling method. Results show that the principals do not perform all leadership functions and are not successful in doing their job which could be caused by the former.

Principal's experiential and academic qualifications include the number of years employed, the degree held, the area of study, and the passing of a management course according to the guidelines for assigning school principals. To see the extent to which these qualifications are present among school principals in Tehran, and whether it correlates with teacher's job satisfaction, a sample of 26 principals and 260 teachers was randomly selected and given a questionnaire. The data analysis yielded that only two qualifications (degree and experience) were present among assigned principals and three qualifications (area of study, passing the management course, and having served as vice principal) were ignored. There was no difference in this phenomenon across different school districts in Tehran. Furthermore, The more principals demonstrated the required qualifications, the more job satisfaction among their teachers was observed.