Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to explain constructed theoretical models that organizational cynicism perceptions of primary school teachers affect school culture and academic achievement, by using structural equation modeling. With the assumption that there is a cause-effect relationship between three main variables, the study was constructed with a causal research design. The population of the study comprised 2447 primary school teachers working at 118 primary schools within the boundaries of the Eskişehir metropolitan area in the 2011- 12 academic year. In order to determine the research sample, primary schools were stratified according to their locations in upper, middle, and lower socio-economic areas, five schools were selected for each stratum, and 291 primary school teachers working at a total of 15 schools were included in the study. The data for the study was gathered through the Organizational Cynicism Scale and School Culture Survey, adapted into the Turkish language, in addition to a utilization of schools' placement test scores in the 2010-11 academic year. The Organizational Cynicism Scale consists of (i) emotional, (ii) cognitive, and (iii) behavioral dimensions; the School Culture Survey includes (i) instructional communication, (ii) collaborative leadership, (iii) trust, (iv) unity of purpose, (v) teacher collaboration, and (vi) professional development dimensions. For testing theoretically constructed structural equation models, path analysis was used in order to investigate appropriate models, and to adjust measurement error in both latent and observed variables. The study results indicated that organizational cynicism affects school culture and academic achievement negatively while school culture has a positive effect on academic achievement.

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