A comparative case study on school management practices in the United States and Turkey

Date

2005

Author

Silman, Fatoş

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This study aimed to comparatively examine school management practices in the US and Turkey in light of the two distinct administrative paradigms:Anglo-Saxon and Napoleonic traditions. In this study, a comparative case study method was used. The study was conducted in a basic education school (grades 1-8) in Ankara, Turkey, and in an elementary school (K-5) in Madison, the capital city of the state of Wisconsn, US. The sample contained 13 teachers and 4 administrators in the Turkish case, and 10 teachers and 1 school principal in the US case. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and written document analysis. Findings revealed that at the Turkish school, school management practices were not carried out effectively mainly due to the centralized education system, poor physical conditions of the school, lack of participatory and collaborative understanding of the staff members, lack of communication among the staff and limited school budgeting. On the other hand, the management practices in the American school were implemented successfull owing mainly to the school's embedded decentralized structure, participatory and collaborative understanding among the school staff, effective communication strategies of the principal, and various options of in-service training offered for the school staff.

Subject Keywords

Education and state, Education and state

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12606236/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/15284

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Theses