The Relationship between Principals' Instructional Leadership and School Effectiveness with the Mediating Role of School Culture in Ardabil Province's Secondary Schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between principals' instructional leadership and school effectiveness with the mediating role of school culture. The research method was correlational and based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The statistical population of the study consisted of all first secondary schools teachers in Ardabil province in the academic year 2018-19 with 3064 (1684 men and 1380 women) teachres. The sample size was 346 according to the Krejcie and Morgan sample size table, which increased to 418 (236 men and 182 women). The stratified random sampling method was used. Data were collected through three questionnaires: principals' instructional leadership ranking (Hallinger, 2013), school culture survey (Gruenert & Valentine, 1998) and school effectiveness index (Hoy, 2009). The validity and reliability of all three questionnaires were confirmed. Research data were analyzed by structural equation modeling method and AMOS24 software. The results showed that according to teachers' perception: There was a significant positive relationship between the principals' instructional leadership variables, school culture and school effectiveness. The full mediating role of school culture in the relationship between principals' instructional leadership and school effectiveness was also confirmed. According to the results of this study, educational leadership and school culture can contribute to the schools effectiveness; Therefore, in order to achieve the effectiveness of schools, principals must develop a positive school culture.