Behaviors Related to Primary School Principals' Crisis Management Skills: In the Context of the February 6th 2023 Earthquake

In the face of the unpredictable nature of crises, it is expected that school principals exhibit behaviors aimed at maintaining the psychological well-being of teachers, students, and parents along with the educational processes. The sudden occurrence of the February 6, 2023 earthquakes, has presented an important crisis situation in which school principals are expected to display the desired behaviors. This research aims to reveal to what extent school principals demonstrated their crisis management skills in the context of the February 6, 2023 earthquake and what behaviors they exhibited during crisis management processes, based on teachers' opinions. The research was carried out with a mixed method approach in which quantitative and qualitative research methods were used together. The sample of the research consisted of 295 teachers, and the study group consisted of 18 teachers selected from the same sample by purposeful sampling method. Quantitative data of the research were collected using the crisis management scale, and qualitative data were collected using a semi-structured interview form. According to the quantitative results of the research, it was determined that the crisis management skill levels of school principals were "mostly" in the pre-crisis and post-crisis periods, and "sometimes" during the crisis period. When teachers' opinions were examined, it was seen that school principals were unprepared for crises arising from natural disasters such as earthquakes and that they mostly followed the Ministry of National Education guidelines and therefore lacked initiative. School principals who were able to take initiative took action to support the psychological health of teachers, students and parents by meeting their needs and gained their trust. Keywords: crisis management, school principals' crisis management behaviors, February 6th,2023 earthquakes.