Pattern of Leadership and Government Secondary School Principles' Delegation of Authority in Palestine's Northern Governorates from the Teacher's Point of View

This study aimed at identifying the relationship between the Leadership pattern and government secondary school principals' delegation of authority. The study aims at answering the following questions: 1 . What are the prevailing patterns of leaderships of public secondary school principals in the northern governorates from the teacher's point of view? 2. What is the level of delegation of authority for patterns of Leadership of public secondary school principals in Palestine's northern governorates from the teacher's point of view ? 3. Do variables of sex , academic qualification years of experience , number of school sections and governorate have an effect on determining patterns of (leader ship) in public secondary schools from the teacher's point of view? 4. Do variable of sex , academic qualification , years of experience, number of school sections and governorate have an impact on teacher's means of responses according to delegation of authority. 5. Is there a statistically significant correlation at CC = 0.05 among patterns of leadership practiced by public secondary school principals from the teachers' point of view? To answer the aforementioned questions, the researcher chose a stratified random sample from public secondary schools in Palestine's northern governorates. The subjects of study totaled (362) male and female teachers. For data collection, the researcher used two scales. The first scale, Pattern of Leadership Scale, was developed by Shawa in 1998. However, the researcher combined the Participatory pattern and the Democratic pattern to come up with a four-pattern scale: Dictatorship, Diplomatic, Negative and Democratic. A committee of referees evaluated the scale. The reliability of the questionnaire was checked by using Cronbach Alpha. The total reliability co- efficient was (0.87). The second scale was Delegation of Authority. The researcher developed this by making use of educational literature relevant to the subject. The researcher depended on Abu Farwa's Al-Idara Al-Madrasiyya (school administration) published in 1996. Again, a committee of specialists made an evaluation of this scale (questionnaire). In its final version, the questionnaire comprised of 41 items. The reliability of this questionnaire was checked by using cronbach Alpha (a) . It's total reliability Coefficient was (0.92). To make the statistical processing, the researcher used arithmetic means (averages), percentages and T-test, One Way Analysis of Variance and Scheffe's Test, and Pearson's Correlation coefficient. Findings: 1. The study revealed that the prevailing administrative patterns of public secondary school principals in Palestine's northern governorates, from the teachers' point of view , were in the following order: democratic , diplomatic , and negative. The dictatorship pattern was not of the prevailing patterns. 2. The delegation of authority level was revealed in the areas of technical, educational and social duties but it was averaged. The administrative duties and the total degree of delegation level were low. 3. There were no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 between the diplomatic pattern of leadership and the negative pattern of leadership among the public secondary school principals in Palestine's northern governorates which may be attributed to sex variable. However, there were statistically significant differences in the dictatorship pattern in favor of males and in the democratic pattern in favor of females. 4. There were statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 among public secondary school principals, from the tea - chers' point of view, on the domains of delegation of authority and total degree of delegation. 5. There were no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in negative leadership pattern of public secondary school principals, from teachers' point of view , which may be attrib -uted to governorate variable. On dictatorship , diplomatic and democratic patterns , however , there were statistically significant differences. 6. There were statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in the delegation of authority on all domains and total degree of delegation which may be attributed to governorate in which teachers were working. 7. There were no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in delegation of authority of public secondary school principals' pattern of leadership, in the northern governorates , which may be attributed to academic qualification variable on both the diplomatic and democratic patterns . However , it was found that there were statistically significant differences on the negative and dictatorship patterns. 8 .There were no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in delegation of authority of public secondary school principals on the domains of administrative , educational, and social duties , let alone total degree of delegation which may be attributed to teachers' academic qualification variable . However , it was found that there were statistically significant differences on the domain of technical duties. 9. There were no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in the public secondary school principles' pattern of leader - ship which may be attributed to teachers' experience variable. 10. There were no statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in delegation of authority, in educational, social and technical duties , which may be attributed to teachers' experience variable. In contrast , there were statistically significant differences in the domain of administrative duties and total degree of delegation. 11. There were no statistically significant differences at = 0.05 in the negative leadership pattern which may be attributed to number of school sections. However , it was found that there were statistically significant differences in dictatorship, diplomatic, and democratic patterns. 12. There were statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 in delegation of authority of public secondary school principals, from teachers' point of view , on the domains of delegation and total degree of delegation , which may be attributed to number of school sections. 13. There were negative correlative differences between the dictatorship pattern and all domains of delegation. 14. There were positive correlative differences between the democratic and diplomatic patterns and all domains of delegation. 15. There were negative correlative differences between the negative pattern and all domains of delegation. 16. There was a statistically significant relationship between democratic pattern and the negative pattern. 17. There were positive correlative differences between the delegation of authority and total degree of delegation. 18. There were negative correlative differences between the dictatorship pattern and both the diplomatic and democratic patterns. Recommendations: In the light of the study findings, the researcher has come up with a set of recommendations: 1. Setting up training programs and holding meetings and seminars and workshops , under the supervision of specialists in educational leaderships , to explore the best means or ways of leadership. 2. Upgrading secondary school principals, focusing on the idea or concept of democratic Leadership, delegation, and high lighting their leadership benefits for the educational institution and training principals on them. This should be the Ministry of Education's responsibility. 3. Decentralizing the process in the Ministry of Education to enable the principals to follow-up the democratic approach and yield some of their powers to other teachers in the school. 4. Choosing secondary school principals on the basis of proffssionality and educational criteria of the educational institution: 5. Conducting empirical studies about the subject of this study. 6. Conducting other similar studies on primary schools. 7. Conducting Similar Studies at senior and junior administration in Ministry of Education. 8. Conducting Studies on delegation of authority obstacles among senior and junior educational leaderships executive.