الملخص الإنجليزي
This study aimed at investigating the leadership practices in basic education schools in Oman from the point of view of school assistant principals & senior teachers. The ultimate goal was to come up with proposed procedures for the application requirements of transformational leadership in such schools.
In order to achieve the above aims, a critical analysis of the relevant literature on basic education and transformational leadership theory was conducted. The field study consisted of three data sources. The first was a self developed questionnaire with 55 items distributed to 540 (202 assistant principals & 405 senior teachers). The second was interviews with 35 assistant principals and senior teachers & the third source was interviews with seven experts specialized in leadership and administration.
Data analysis involved computing means, standard deviations, t-test, ANOVA & LSD post hoc comparisons.
The most important findings of the present study are:
1. The degree of the leadership practices in basic education schools in the
Sultanate of Oman ranged between high and moderate.
The results of the interviews with assistant principals and senior teachers were consistent with the results obtained from the questionnaire except for one dimension, change practices. 3. There were statistically significant differences at level a = .05 on the present practices of school leadership attributed to the educational district of the study across all dimensions. There were statistically significant differences at level a = .05 on the present practices of school leadership attributed to the cycle across all dimensions. 5. There were statistically significant differences at level a = .05 on the
present practices of school leadership attributed to qualification across all dimensions except charisma.
There were statistically significant differences at level a = .05 on the present practices of school leadership attributed to years of teaching experience in two dimensions, inspirational motivation and change practices.
7. There were statistically significant differences at level a = .05 on the present practices of school leadership attributed to the number of workshops attended across all dimensions except inspirational
motivation. 8. There were no statistically significant differences at level a = .05 on the
present practices of school leadership attributed to the school sex in the 2.4 cycle, post & years of administrative experience across all dimensions.
In the light of the literature review, the result of the field study and experts' interview, this study presented a number of proposed procedures for the application requirements of transformational leadership in basic education schools in Oman. The study also suggested areas for further research on transformational leadership in other educational institutions.
