That many changes have occurred over the years can be seen when the management theories and leadership competencies in the body of literature are examined. Changes and developments in management theories and leadership competencies have guided the assumed roles of school administrators. In this conducted study, to determine the current leadership competencies of the school administrators who serve in these schools according to the written opinions of the teachers who teach at imam hatip schools and the branch managers who deal with the imam hatip schools and to compare these views with the leadership competencies of the school administrators within the scope of 21st century skills have been aimed. From this point of view, answers have been searched for the questions such as: “What are the current leadership competencies of school administrators according to the opinions of teachers and branch managers? What are the visible deficiencies in the leadership competencies of school administrators?” In the research, descriptive survey model has been preferred. The study group of the research consists of 1,512 teachers working in imam hatip schools and 85 branch managers working in provincial and district national education directorates.
Opinions, which are the basis of the research, have been collected electronically through open-ended questions. Content analysis, which is one of the qualitative research methods, has been used in the research. The data obtained in the research has been collected and interpreted in three themes, namely, “the field knowledge-management processes competency, the education-teaching processes competency, and the communication-social relations competency” partaking in the theoretical framework.
According to the results of the research, it has been determined that the teachers have mostly delivered their opinions on the theme of “competency on communication-social relations”; and the branch managers have mostly delivered their opinions on the theme of “competency on field knowledge-management processes”. The least delivered theme by teachers and branch managers is “the educational process competency”. In the research, the mostly delivered opinions regarding school administrators' leadership competencies by the teachers are; “industriousness, mastery of professional field knowledge, taking decisions in consultation, supervising the education and training processes, effective communication skill, being motivator and being fair.” The mostly delivered competencies by the branch managers are: “being open to change and innovation, being visionary, supervising the educational processes, mastery of technology, being tolerant and having a team spirit.” In the research, among the leadership competencies of school administrators, which are the least delivered competencies by the teachers are: “sharing leadership, mastery of budget issues, creating an active learning environment, being objective and democratic”. The least delivered competencies by the branch managers are "to be solution-oriented, mastery of budget issues and sharing of the leadership”.
In the study, the opinions of teachers and branch managers about the deficiencies in the current leadership competencies of school administrators have also been examined. According to these opinions, the deficiencies stated in the leadership competencies of school administrators are listed as “inadequacy of professional field knowledge and management skills, insufficient effort to improve the school environment, not being fair and balanced enough, and not being able to motivate the teachers properly”.