Educational leadership and school culture: A comparative study between mainstream and special primary schools

Abstract

Purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between leadership styles of mainstream and special primary schools headteachers and mainstream and special schools teachers ' perceptions of the subscales Extra Effort, Effectiveness and Satisfaction as well as the intercorrelation among the factors of School Culture. The sample consisted of 526 primary school teachers working in primary schools (PS) across Greece and particularly 120 headteachers/deputy headteachers of mainstream (PS), 106 headteachers/deputy headteachers of Special PS, 150 teachers of mainstream PS and 150 teachers of Special PS. The participants completed the Multifactoral Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Avolio & Bass, 2004) and the Questionnaire for School Culture (SCEQ) (Cavanagh & Dellar, 1997). Results showed that there were statistically significant differences in the subscales of Transformational Leadership, Economic Leadership, Effectiveness, and Joint Design and Assessment with regard to gender and type of school. In addition, Transformational Leadership was statistically significant correlated with Transactional Leadership and Leadership Outcomes.