Phenomenological Representation of Entrepreneurial Leadership Experience in Secondary Schools

Objectives: School leadership is not just about keeping students in school and teachers in jobs. In some countries and societies, school is the only place where all social interactions of human groups take place. However, some schools in countries with reduced education budgets may close or merge with other schools. These conditions and threats have made school leaders around the world more aware of demands such as changes in education budget allocation, greater accountability and performance of teacher training groups, encouraging public interest in education, and more attention to education by governments to demand. School leadership must be creative in response to environmental changes and pressures. Responding creatively to these changes means that school leaders are changing. They look for opportunities to find the "best way". They try to take different ways and take risks. They try to consider new approaches to leadership, recognition, and response that fundamentally change the landscape of school leadership as they seek to motivate staff and students. Despite the complexity and ambiguity in the concept of entrepreneurship, the expectations of governments, policymakers, and education stakeholders have led to increased pressure on schools to develop entrepreneurship and financial independence. Very little research has been done on entrepreneurial leadership in schools. Therefore, this general question was raised: What is the relationship between entrepreneurship and school leadership?
Materials and Methods: Focusing on the transcendental phenomenology approach of Moustakas, the present research tried to count the lived experiences of 19 school principals who were selected purposefully and using the criterion sampling technique. A three-step sequential phenomenological interview protocol was used. The analysis and coding of the interviews were done using the three-stage thematic analysis method (basic, organizing, and global) and drawing the theme networks.
Discussion and Conclusions: At the end of the thematic analysis, a total of 90 basic themes, 34 organizing themes, and finally 8 global themes were counted, which were: acquisition entrepreneurship, financial efficiency, financial literacy, educational entrepreneurship, social activism, school cultural ambassador, organizational entrepreneurship, and independent entrepreneurship. The experiences of the participants indicated that the leaders adopted two main strategies to implement entrepreneurial leadership in the school: first, policies to advance school affairs, communicate with parents and teachers, provide diverse and extracurricular courses for students, prioritize assignments, and promote flexibility in the teaching-learning process; these were intra-school solutions. On the other hand, school entrepreneurial leaders used external strategies such as public visits to the school, taking risks, promoting collaborative work, and gaining power for the school. In order to answer the question Why do today's schools need entrepreneurial leaders?, three comprehensive topics have been identified: financial efficiency, social activism, and cultural ambassador of the school. In addition, the need for schools to respond to the needs and problems of local communities and to play a more responsible role beyond the school environment towards society in cultural and social terms has prompted school managers to take serious measures regarding entrepreneurial initiatives in schools. However, among the participants in the research, there was a shaky view that they had to provide financial resources due to the lack of government budget in schools. Some school principals saw this as emerging, while for some school leaders, it had become the norm. Despite the duality of experiences among school leaders, they expressed their economic issues, experiences, and perspectives on entrepreneurship and school leadership in a similar way. These experiences of school leaders can be analyzed using the idea of "business entrepreneurship," in which innovative and creative methods are considered as school leaders' response to market conditions. Although the school leaders were aware of the national and contextual factors that are effective and related to why they should engage in school funding or marketing activities, this caused them to deviate from their main activity, which is educational management and leadership. The apparent paradox here is that although most school leaders understood why they should undertake entrepreneurial activities in the school, they did not necessarily welcome them. What are the characteristics of entrepreneurial leadership in a school? The researchers were able to find three comprehensive themes which are educational entrepreneurship, general entrepreneurship, and independent entrepreneurship. Global market conditions demand new, different skills and diverse leadership methods from school leaders. Not all school leaders are affected by current market conditions, and only some school leaders are actively involved in "business entrepreneurship" either by compulsion or voluntarily. However, all school leaders must have a "business-oriented mindset" to succeed in national and local contexts where the education market has become competitive. Strategies must be applied in which the educational qualifications and experiences of the teachers, the physical and visual environment of the place, and participation in social events are regularly used in the entrepreneurial activities of the school. How can school principals become entrepreneurial leaders? The researchers were able to identify three comprehensive themes, which are financial literacy, acquisition entrepreneurship, and organizational entrepreneurship. There is no doubt that all over the world, school principals need to move towards creative and entrepreneurial leadership. The extent to which this leadership style is related to improving educational leadership (teaching-learning) or business thinking is debatable. Good schools engage in deep critical reflection, social engagement, and creative, diverse, and responsive teaching-learning. They also promote democratic values, set expectations for achievement, or provide leadership that demonstrates innovation and risk-taking. Not all schools can be good based on the criteria set by the ministries or departments of education. Similarly, not all school leaders can be considered good by the standards of educational inspectors. Due to the imposition of education costs by the national governments on the schools themselves and due to the reduction of the budget allocated to the schools, school administrators are desperately looking for opportunities to increase their ability to provide standard and acceptable education to students by connecting with the local community and industry.