Micro Politics in Schools: A Narrative from Two Perspectives on School Politics

In the literature of school leadership, two perspectives often conflict. The first is a rational perspective that focuses on the truth-seeking and truth-accepting nature of humans, while the second is a political perspective based on the premise that different groups within a school have varied interests and desires, which they pursue through power struggles. This research aimed to examine these two perspectives in schools to determine which can explain the mechanisms of the school. To achieve this goal, an explanatory mixed-methods strategy was employed. In the first phase of the research, quantitative data were collected to compare and measure the effectiveness of school principals in regular and gifted schools in Kashan. For this purpose, one exemplary school and eight public (regular) schools were selected using stratified sampling. The quantitative data collection tool was Parsons' standard questionnaire for school management effectiveness. The results of the quantitative phase indicated that the management of exemplary schools was more effective than that of public schools. In the second phase, a phenomenological strategy was used to explore whether public school principals accepted that these findings could be utilized in educational policy-making. In this section, eight public school principals were selected and interviewed. The results showed that none of the public school principals, contrary to the assumptions of the rational perspective, accepted these findings, and they employed various political strategies to defend their performance. These findings suggest that the political perspective can explain many realities of school management.