A Qualitative Inquiry into Identifying Teachers’ Destructive Leadership Behaviors

Destructive leadership can be defined as the process of systematically destroying the administrative processes of an organization as well as its members’ motivation. this study aims to determine the behaviors constituting the destructive aspects of teacher leadership in schools and the effects these behaviors have on students. the study group of the research consists of 27 students from six districts in istanbul: bakırköy, bahçelievler, fatih, güngören, kadıköy, and zeytinburnu. participants have been determined in accordance with the convenience sampling method. as a result of the data analysis, findings were reached regarding the behavioral themes forming the destructive leadership behaviors of teachers and the effects destructive leadership behaviors have on students. the study has arrived at factors that decrease student motivation and the effects of motivation-lowering behaviors under the sub-themes of teacher behaviors in case of failure, student reactions after destructive behaviors, behaviors that do not care about success, expectations of appreciative behavior, teachers’ expectations when choosing the profession, deficiencies in the teaching process, teachers’ expectations from teaching, technological tool usage levels, teacher behaviors that decrease class participation, and behaviors not expected from teachers. the findings of the study reveal destructive leadership behaviors to have negative effects on students. as a result, activities such as in-service trainings can be organized to raise teachers’ awareness in this direction.