Planning Educational Policy: Teacher Perceptions of School Principal Transformational Leadership in Israel and the United States

Nations throughout the world continue to examine how to improve their system of education in terms of improving student achievement, so that each student has the opportunity to be a productive and successful member of the global society. For this to occur, each school must be successful in the development of high quality teaching and learning. School leadership is a critical component, since the principal has tremendous influence in transforming the culture by influencing, inspiring, challenging, and motivating teachers to continuously grow and improve. The goal of this study was to examine the teacher perceptions of the transformational leadership skills of school principals, according to the teachers' school level and setting, in both Israel and the United States. The study includes 615 Israeli teachers and 514 American teachers (n= 1,129). Results indicate that Israel teachers perceive transformational leadership of their principals significantly higher than teachers in the United States, particularly with the relationship between the level of the school and the transformational abilities of the principal. The findings may be explained by different culture perceptions of power distance, individualism, and masculinity. The results may help to plan policy in support of transformational leadership in terms comparative studies need to take into consideration the differences in culture as well as current policy regarding the degree of standardized testing, and its impact on how a principal leads the school.