The school principal’s role as a leader in teachers’ professional development: the case of public secondary education in Athens

  • Received October 3, 2020;
    Accepted December 8, 2020;
    Published December 25, 2020
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(4).2020.37
  • Article Info
    Volume 18 2020, Issue #4, pp. 461-474
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This research aimed to examine the role of leadership in the school environment and leadership’s contribution to the effectiveness of teachers’ professional development in the public secondary education of Athens to improve the learning process and school quality. More specifically, this study highlights the school principal's contribution as a leader in teachers’ professional development. The choice of leadership style (education, administrative, transformational, ethical, participatory, and contingent) positively impacts teachers’ professional development. Data were collected from 180 teachers of the public secondary education of Athens, involving lower secondary schools, upper secondary vocational and general schools, excluding private and other types of schools. SPSS software was used to perform quantitative analysis of the collected data. The results showed no statistically significant correlation between teachers’ gender, skills, characteristics, and abilities. However, it was observed that there is a statistically significant correlation between age, tolerance, and rejection of educational techniques on teaching practice. The evidence from this study confirmed a direct impact of the school principal’s training on teachers’ professional development. Finally, it was concluded that the school principal – the leader should work as a learning manager to lead teachers in professional development and as a learning manager and an inspiration for lifelong learning.

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    • Table 1. Demographic characteristics of teachers
    • Table 2. Results of reliability analysis using Cronbach’s alpha
    • Table 3. Chi-squared analysis for hypothesis H1 based on gender
    • Table 4. Chi-squared analysis for hypothesis H1 based on age
    • Table 5. Chi-squared analysis for hypothesis H2
    • Table 6. Chi-squared analysis for hypothesis H3
    • Table 7. Chi-squared analysis for hypothesis H4
    • Table 8. Chi-squared analysis for hypothesis H5
    • Table 9. Chi-squared analysis for hypothesis H6
    • Table 10. Chi-squared analysis for hypothesis H7
    • Conceptualization
      Miltiadis Chalikias, Ioanna Raftopoulou, Vassilis Zakopoulos
    • Data curation
      Miltiadis Chalikias, Ioanna Raftopoulou, Georgios Sidiropoulos, Vassilis Zakopoulos
    • Formal Analysis
      Miltiadis Chalikias, Ioanna Raftopoulou, Georgios Sidiropoulos
    • Investigation
      Miltiadis Chalikias, Ioanna Raftopoulou, Vassilis Zakopoulos
    • Methodology
      Miltiadis Chalikias, Ioanna Raftopoulou, Georgios Sidiropoulos, Vassilis Zakopoulos
    • Resources
      Miltiadis Chalikias, Ioanna Raftopoulou, Georgios Sidiropoulos, Vassilis Zakopoulos
    • Supervision
      Miltiadis Chalikias, Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos, Vassilis Zakopoulos
    • Writing – original draft
      Miltiadis Chalikias, Ioanna Raftopoulou, Vassilis Zakopoulos
    • Writing – review & editing
      Miltiadis Chalikias, Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos, Vassilis Zakopoulos
    • Software
      Ioanna Raftopoulou, Georgios Sidiropoulos, Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos, Vassilis Zakopoulos
    • Project administration
      Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos
    • Validation
      Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos