English abstract
This thesis aims to reveal the degree of school principals' practice of leadership styles according to the Rensis Likert theory of attitude in the Batinah North Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman. A descriptive approach was used which consisted of two parts, the first part represented the personal data of the target group, and in the second phase
a questionnaire of (32) paragraphs was applied. The study sample consisted of (64.62%) of the study population.
After processing the data using the statistical package (SPSS), the study concluded with some important results. (1) the majority of school principals preferred practicing the participatory democratic style as a first choice, followed by the democratic consultative style as a second most common style of leadership, while in the third and last place, school principals tended to adopt the free authoritative style and the dictatorial and authoritative styles. (2) It was also found that there were no statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α ≤ 0.05) according to the variables of gender, educational qualification. (3) A presence of statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α ≤ 0.05) between the school principals' sample and the senior teachers' sample was observed, as well as between the school principals' sample, their assistants. (4) All differences came in favor of the school principals' sample in the domains of free authoritative style and the dictatorial and authoritative styles. It was clear that there was a statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α ≤ 0.05) in favor of the sample with (16) years or more experience in both areas; participatory democratic style , and democratic advisory style, while it came to the sample who experienced (15) years or less in the areas of free authoritative style and the dictatorial and authoritative styles.
In light of the results of the study, it presented several recommendations. First, conducting courses, specialized workshops and training programmes for school principals, assistants and senior teachers in practicing leadership styles according to their job tasks can help providing several solutions. Second, benefiting from research and studies related to exercising leadership styles, and conducting annual forums dealing with leadership styles would increase school princpals' awareness of their importance in improving administrative work. Finally, as a long-run solution, adding some lessons related to leadership styles, strategies, and practices in the "Life skills" subject would lead to develop the leadership personality among students who will be leaders in different sectors in the future.
