ARTICLE SUMMARY

ARTICLE SUMMARY

Darvesh Karim

Assistant Instructor

Professional Development Center, North

University Road, Konodass, Gilgit.

Ph. No: (+92) 05811-454132-4 Ext: 3017

Fax No: (+92) 05811-454135

Cell No: (+92) 03465419307

Email (Official): darveshkarim@pdcn.edu.pk

Email (Private): dk_hunzai@yahoo.com, darvesh.karim@gmail.com

Online Blogs: www.dkhunza.blogspot.com; www.scribd.com/dk_hunzai
TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION.. 1

THE STUDY.. 1

Participants. 2

Data Analysis. 2

Results. 3

CONCLUSION.. 4

ARTICLE SUMMARY ON

PRINCIPALS’ PERCEPTIONS OF POLITICS

Tooms, Kretovics, & Smialek, (2007). Principals’ perceptions of politics. International Journal of Leadership in Education. 10(1), 89-100

INTRODUCTION

This summary presents the article which examines the perceptions of principals about workplace politics and its influence on their efficiency. It describes that public education takes place within a political environment, but describing its politicized nature and relationship between politics and school leadership is not easy. Such environment influences the leadership efficiency. So, to explore this environment and its relationship between the politics and school leadership, researchers have tried to compare the views, perceptions and aspirations of school leadership. Furthermore, they have also tried to determine whether demographic details such as gender and size of school influenced one’s perceptions of workplace politics or not.

The literature highlighted in the article suggests and supports that there is an extensive presence of organiza­tional politics (in corporate world as well as in educational organizations). Initially justification of politics has been un-packed through literature support that politics is a social process with both positive and negative consequences but there might be a difference in the perceptions of politics between men and women principals.

THE STUDY

This research is conducted on the basis of Gandz and Murray (1980) and Pfeffer (1992) to extend their research from the business world into the public school settings.  Based on the literature review, the researchers have formulated two main research questions for this study. The questions were; what is the strength of public school administrators’ perceptions regard­ing workplace politics in educational settings and are there differences in administrator perceptions of workplace politics based on gender, school district location, size of district, size of school, or years of administrative experience?

The study was based on quantitative study with a survey design. The questionnaire was adapted from an earlier survey undertaken in business sector by Gandz and Murray (1980), by slightly modifying it for a clearer understanding in educational terms. This revised questionnaire was then piloted with a group of current administrators enrolled in a superintendent certificate programme, who felt that the language is clearer and applicable for educational understanding.

Participants

To ensure enough responses for a statistical comparison, a stratified random sample, based on the equal representation of gender (50% female, 50% male) was taken. The respondents were the full-time public school admin­istrators selected from the state’s directory of public school administrators from one Midwestern state of USA. The survey questionnaire was administered through postal mail to 500 principals and administrators, while 187 useable questionnaires returned giving a response rate of 37.4%. Demographic data about each respondent, including current position, years of experience, school and district popula­tion, and school location were asked along-with the main questionnaire. Questionnaire statements were having six rating scale ranging from (1) Strongly disagree to (6) Strongly agree. Forty percent respondents were female, rest were male, while years of administrative experience among the participants ranged from 0 (first year) to 33.

Data Analysis

Data analysis was carried out through two methods. First research questions was analyzed through descriptive statistical methods i.e. mean, median and standard deviation, while second research question was analyzed through inferential statistical method i.e. ANOVA test. In first method, mean was calculated and then the standard deviation for each of the item was compared with mean to see the distribution, which was normal. So, to see the gender based political perceptions, T-test was used to determine how males and females responded to survey statements.  Further, a correlation analysis was done to distinguish the association between experience and the participant’s view of political environment. In this situation no significant differences were resulted. The data was analyzed through ANOVA to further verify the difference between administration experience and teaching experience.

Results

The major findings are that the participants believed that politics exists in their schools and that is not necessarily for the good of the school. Participants 90% (M = 4.96) agreed that existence of workplace politics is common to most public schools. Further they (M = 5.34: 95%) agreed that when people go to higher ranks, the climate of the organization becomes more political. The majority (M = 4.35: 75%) of the participants were of the view that those organizations are happier where there is no politics and they disagreed that politics help organizations to work effectively. Likewise participants (M = 4.80: 89%) quoted that successful administrators/leaders must be good politicians. Eighty percent (M = 4.49) participants showed that administrators are appointed on the basis of their political ability. The majority of the participants (73%) disagreed about the statement that politics in public schools are harmful to efficiency.

Regarding the second research question about gender and political perceptions, it was found through T-test that there is a slight difference (p= .003) in the statement that “successful leaders/ administrators must be good politicians”. Further, no any significant difference between working experience and political environment was found, but there seemed a slight difference between administration experience and teaching experience. The administrators working for more than 10 years confirmed workplace politics in public education lower (M = 4.40) than administrators in both groups with less than ten years of experience (0-4, M = 5.07; 5-10, M=5.17). This was statically significant at the p=.000 level. Additionally, the results showed that administrators see their working environments filled with politics but they disagreed that politics helps public school to function effectively (M=2.98: 65%).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion researchers have raised a question whether universities are making acceptable efforts to prepare graduates to enter and function in this politically-charged environment or not? They further elaborate that there must be a conscious effort to raise the level of awareness about the importance of politics in institutions and they suggest that school administrators must be prepared to engage the political realities in the world of education. If this reality is not acknowledged then, the development of teachers towards a goal is at risk. Therefore, during the preparation of educational development programs, examination of politics should not be excluded.