Problems faced by New School Heads and Suggestions for Solutions

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this study is to examine the problems faced by novice school heads and solution suggestions for them. The sub-problems of the study are the opinions of the school heads about the problems they face and possible solutions for them. Other sub-problems are the similarities and differences of these problems according to the type of school, seniority, gender and number of students. The research was planned as a qualitative pattern with phenomenology design. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. In order to obtain in-depth information about the problems encountered by the new school heads and their solutions, face-to-face interviews were deemed appropriate for the purpose of the study. The study group of the research consists of 25 new school heads who started to work in the schools of the Ministry of National Education between 2016-2018 years in Bornova, İzmir. Diversity of school heads and deputy heads has been achieved by selecting them from different school levels. According to some results of the study revealed that school heads who participated in the study stated that they lacked knowledge about the task because they did not receive any training, so they indicated that they had difficulty adapting to the task. Furthermore, they noted that that lack of accountants in school’s familiar with TEFBIS (Education Financing and Education Expenditure Association Management System in Turkey), KBS (Public Information System), TIF (Movable Transaction Receipt), ISG (Occupational Health Safety), TKY (Total Quality Management), DYS (Document Management System) and such increased their workload and caused time loss. The school administrators who participated in the study also mentioned the parents' unnecessary complaints and not being involved in the solution of the problems in the school. In terms of the results and suggestions for executives, new heads were found to be in need of pre-service trainings including DYS, TIF, KBS, ISG and accounting as well as education management in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education and universities. It was revealed that a master's degree should be given in education management, inspection, planning and economics. Keywords: Education, School management, New heads, Managerial problems