Abstract:

In this study, the effects of the peace education through improving emotional intelligence have been examined for effective leadership in the secondary schools of Istanbul. The studies show that conflicts among the students as well as among the teachers are dramatically increasing. The relationships among the teachers, the students, and even the parents are becoming tense due to high competitive environments of the standardized exams. In most cases, as the leaders of the schools have mentioned that they do not know how to cope with all these conflicts in the school environment.

In order to handle effectively the conflicts, a new interactive training had developed for the teachers (n=45) and principals (n=12). The participants were selected among the private and state high schools. Before and after the training program the Emotional Intelligence Assessment, The Conflict Resolution Skills Assessment, and the Leadership Assessment had been given to collect the data. After the data collection, the data were analyzed through SPSS.

The quantitative data results showed that peace education given through emotional intelligence increased the competencies in conflict resolution skills. By empowering schools’ principals and teachers as the leaders in terms of conflict resolution skills and strategies diminished violence and destructive behaviors and attitudes in the school environment. While interactive communication, need analysis, and group activities were increasing the effectiveness of the leaders in their schools, the teachers’ adaptability and empathy had increased significantly. Additionally the violence among the students had decreased as well because of the teachers’ approach enriched with the emotional intelligent skills, particularly in empathy. As the collected data from the principals and teachers clarified that the self-esteem had empowered due to the self-control skills of the participants. More importantly, the participants critical and creative thinking had increased due to the fact that they become more oriented on the issues rather than on the individual problems. As a result, the peace education empowered with emotional intelligence is very helpful to sustain peaceful schools with the effective leadership.

Keywords:

Education Management, Administration, Effective Leadership, Peace Education, Emotional Intelligence