Authors: Shaimaa Halawani
The present study aimed to identify the administrative empowerment for Palestinian government secondary schools' principals and its impact on their innovative behavior in solving students' educational and social problems, with due consideration to test these variants: directorate of education, gender, years of experience, qualification and administration-related training, on the degree of administrative empowerment among these principals and the degree of their innovative behavior to solve social and educational problems of students in secondary schools. The study approached the literature as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which addressed both theoretical and applied research. The significance of this recent study is the first, which dealt with this theme, to the author knowledge, which in turn encourages other researchers to work on further research on this important issue.
The study adopted the quantitative research approach using the sampling survey method. The questionnaire is appropriate for the exploratory nature of the research, and a focus group (N= 12) to collect the data from the administrative staff and department heads at the directorates of education. A 50-item questionnaire was formulated which was divided into three sub-scales as follows: the general information of the participants; the second section dealt with the administrative empowerment scale (31 items); and the third section included the innovative behavior scale (19 items). The cluster sample method was utilized which comprised of a sample size of (285) male and female school principals. The collected data was statistically analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).
The results revealed that the participants experienced a high level of administrative empowerment, and a high level of innovative behavior in solving students' educational and social problems as well. The mean scores and standard deviation were (M 4.14, SD 0.37; M 4.30, SD 0.38) respectively. The study revealed the determinant impact of administrative empowerment on improving innovative behavior in solving students' educational and social problems among Palestinian government secondary schools' principals. It was found that when administrative empowerment increases, innovative behavior increases and vice versa.
The results of the study revealed no significant statistical differences in the administrative empowerment or in the innovative behavior among the principals due to gender, directorate of education, years of professional experiences, and qualification. However, statistically significant differences were found according to the training course variable.
These findings confirm the value of administrative empowerment on improving innovative behavior in solving students' educational and social problems among Palestinian government secondary schools' principals and recommend, calling the Palestinian Ministry of Education to adopt the administrative empowerment and their innovative behavior in solving students' educational and social problems as criteria in the selection process for the school principals and following up their professional evaluation, and further research is essential in the area of the administrative empowerment and the innovative behavior in solving students' educational and social problems among Palestinian government secondary schools' principals using the qualitative research design.
Keywords: Administrative empowerment, creative behavior, social and educational problems, proposed model.
Shaimaa Halawani, PhD. Educational Administration, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Arab American University, Jenin, Palestine. Independent Researcher, Jerusalem, Palestine. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
