Due to the increase in the number of institutions dealing with higher education, the quality of educational policies put into practice in these institutions has begun to be questioned, and this situation has led to the development of standards in order to ensure quality in higher education. To improve the quality in higher education and create quality assured educational organizations, in 2015, The Council of Higher Education of Turkey published “Higher Education Quality Assurance Regulations”, in an attempt to achieve fair distribution and rational use of funds in higher education institutions. Within this framework, the leader of the organization is seen as the main actor who is responsible for change, and such increase in leadership responsibilities has borne a need for effective leadership in creating a successful organization. A great deal of research in the area has focused on the significance of positive characteristics of leaders in creating successful organisations, and a comprehensive literature review indicates that there are five main elements put forward among current leadership models: accountability, organizational health, development of school culture, need for effective leadership and leader as a change agent (Burns, 2007). Among other leadership theories, invitational leadership theory stands out with its focus on the leader as the pioneer of change and its search for ways to intentionally support people in realizing their boundless potential in various areas (Purkey, 1992; Purkey &Siegel, 2003). Thus, in this study aiming to examine the school director’s perceptions about his own invitational leadership characteristics as well as those of instructors related to their director’s invitational leadership characteristics from a gendered perspective at the School of Foreign Languages at an English-medium state university, data were collected from the director and the instructors using the survey of invitational leadership practices (IPLP) by Burns (2007) and follow-up interviews.

I have been working as an English Language Instructor at a state university, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, in Turkey. I was born in 1983, Turkey. My major is on English Language Teaching and my masters is on Gender and Women’s Studies, Middle East Technical University. I am interested in gender, learning and teaching English, Leadership and Gender and Teaching English to Adults. I want to study further on gender and language teaching and leadership.

GOLGE SEFEROGLU, PROF.DR., MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, golge@metu.edu.tr
HATICE KARAASLAN, DR.,ANKARA YILDIRIM BEYAZIT UNIVERSITY, hatice.bayindir@gmail.com