Factors Influencing Vision of Primary School Principals under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration

Abstract

     The objectives of this research were to study vision, and factors influencing vision of principals under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. The factors consisted of principal internal factors, school internal factors, and school environmental factors. The research design was dominant - less dominant design with quantitative research was the dominant approach. The research instruments used to collect data were four questionnaire sets and four interview schedules constructed by the researcher. The questionnaire sets were administered to a random sample of 1,710 principals, heads of lower and upper primary education, teachers, and school board chairpersons of the schools, in the 2006 academic year. The interview schedules were used for in-depth interviews with samples whose principal had the highest vision scores. The statistics used for data analyses were percentage, mean, standard deviation, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. The findings indicated that most of the principals possessed vision at the high level in all three dimensions. Incumbency durations of the principals at their current schools were found to be a factor with statistically significant contribution to differences among their circulated vision. Quantitative analyses revealed five out of eighteen factors to have statistically significant influences and could be good predictors of vision of the principals. These factors consisted of two principal internal factors which were transformational leadership behavior and academic leadership behavior; two school internal factors, supportive behavior and disengaged behavior; and one school environmental factor, participation. Among these, transformational leadership behavior was the best predictor. In addition, qualitative analysis revealed two more factors in the case study of high vision, directive behavior and community assistance.