Just Before Sitting on the Chair: Reasons, Expectations and Goals of School Principals in Turkey

Schools exist to prepare students for life and to ensure students' success. School principals are the most important people in terms of achieving schools' goals. Principals are expected to have goals and work in line with the main aims and principles of National Education. The aim of this study is to determine newly appointed school principals' reasons for becoming principals and to explore the expectations and goals of their schools. The research data were collected using semi-structured interview forms that were applied during the pre-service training of 40 school principals who were assigned as school principals for the first time in a province in the Black Sea region of Turkey at the beginning of the academic year. A qualitative research method and a content analysis technique were used for data analysis. The results show that most participants became school principals because they wanted to realize their educational ideals and goals. Participants' most important goal for their schools was to improve student qualification. Most of the participants' expectations about their schools' recognition in their school districts were about their schools' success.