Contextualizing Leadership: How Does National Societal Culture Shape the Practices of School Leadership in Türkiye?

The dominating knowledge base in EDLM (educational leadership and management) comes from developed Western countries (Anglo-Sakson, English-speaking countries). Naturally, the accumulated knowledge reflects insights from these countries whose education systems are mostly structured in a decentralized and non-hierarchical fashion. Particularly with the flux of globalization, the developing nations felt more comfortable in borrowing this knowledge from the developed world to inform practice and to frame research, depending on the basic assumption that the theories and practices that originated in one culture continue to be valid in the target culture. However, some scholars caution that borrowing policies or practices from elsewhere might not bring about desired effects unless those in charge of improving school effectiveness do not consider the cultural factors influential on the implementation process (Dimmock Hallinger Harris Truong et al., 2017; Walker et al., 2012). However, there is a lack of research focusing on educational leadership practices from a societal and cultural perspective in Türkiye. This study focuses attention explicitly on illuminating how national culture might shape the current practices of school leadership in Türkiye. This chapter is divided into several sections. To begin with, we have provided information on Türkiye in general and about the education system in particular. Then we described what societal culture is and how the available literature on societal culture might describe Turkish societal culture. Finally, we discuss the practices of school leaders and link them to the Turkish societal culture.