Examining the Cultural Leadership Behaviors of School Principals within the Context of Symmetric and Asymmetric School Culture

The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of teachers on contributions of school principals’ cultural leadership behaviors to forming symmetric and asymmetric culture. The participants of the study consisted of 27 secondary school teachers working in Gaziantep province. Data of the study were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through content analysis. Contributions of each cultural leadership behavior to symmetric and asymmetric culture types were determined by taking relations between cultural leadership behaviors and symmetric and asymmetric cultures into consideration in the process of content analysis. According to the findings of the study; supporting development of teachers and reflecting developments and innovations on schools are among the cultural leadership behaviors contributing to forming asymmetric culture at schools. Interpreting tasks and missions of school and ensuring necessary environment for keeping social values alive at schools are among the cultural leadership behaviors contributing to forming symmetric culture at schools. Based on the results of the study, it is suggested that school principals should follow developments in educational issues and transfer these developments into school practices. They should place more importance on supporting innovative behaviors of teachers in order to create asymmetric culture at schools.