Do Teachers Wish to be Agents of Change?: Will Principals Support Them?

309 Pages·2015·8.544 MB·English

by  Allen Menlo, LeVerne Collet (eds.)

Do Teachers Wish to Be Agents of Change?

Do Teachers Wish to Be Agents of Change?
Will Principals Support Them?
Edited by
Allen Menlo and LeVerne Collet
Consortium for Cross-Cultural Research in Education
Associate Editors:
Zehava Rosenblatt, John Williamson and Theo Wubbels
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6209-957-9 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-958-6 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-959-3 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,
P.O. Box 21858,
3001 AW Rotterdam,
The Netherlands
https://www.sensepublishers.com/
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved © 2015 Sense Publishers
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the
exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and
executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
The editors dedicate this book to colleagues who passed away before the work
was completed. These former colleagues are: Marilyn Menlo from United States,
Milan Marich from United States, Lya Kremer-Hayon from Israel,
Pam Poppleton from the United Kingdom, Boris Gershunsky from Russia,
and Wieslaw Wizniewski from Poland. They encouraged and supported project
activities over many years and accompanied us on research visits to several of the
countries involved. We think they would be pleased with this book.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables ix
List of Figures xiii
Introduction xv
1. What This Study Is about: The Practical and Social-Psychological
Conceptualization of the Study 1
Allen Menlo
2. Design and Sampling of the Cross-Cultural Study: Principal and Teacher
Attitudes Towards Teacher Involvement in Change 11
LeVerne S. Collet
3. Results of the Cross-Cultural Study: Comparing Principal and Teacher
Attitudes Towards Teacher Involvement across Ten Countries 35
LeVerne S. Collet
4. Teacher Involvement in Australia: “Teachers Have Much to Offer” 73
John Williamson and Christine Gardner
5. Teacher Involvement in Canada: Sharing Responsibility for Change
Leadership in Canadian Schooling 99
Noel P. Hurley and Shane M. Hurley
6. Teacher Involvement in Policy Making in Chinese Schools 113
Xiaoruo Gai
7. The Hungarian Education System in Transition: Shifting Towards
Decentralization 133
Nóra Arató and Zsolt Lavicza
8. Teacher Involvement in Decision Making in the Israeli
School System 151
Zehava Rosenblatt, Hilla Peretz and Lya Kremer-Hayon
9. Teacher Responsibility-Taking for School Change & Professional
Development in Japan 169
Itaru Inoue
10. Teacher Participation in Policy Making in Dutch Schools 189
Theo Wubbels
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
11. Singapore Engagement in Educational Change 205
Lim Lee Hean
12. Teacher Involvement in South Africa: Ongoing Change in South
African Education 215
Johan Booyse and Cassie Swanepoel
13. Teacher Participation in Responsibility-Taking in the United
States School System 235
Nora Arato, Tsila Evers and Zsolt Lavicza
14. Summary and Conclusions: Implications for School Practice
and Research 253
LeVerne S. Collet
15. Teacher Leadership: The Significant Role of Teachers in
School Change 279
Allen Menlo
Appendix 289
viii
LIST OF TABLES
Principal Questionnaire 4
Teacher Questionnaire 5
Table 2-1. T wenty possible responsibilities of teachers in school change 13
Table 2-2. Four questions asked of principals about each responsibility item 14
Table 2-3. Two questions asked of teachers about each questionnaire item 19
Table 2-4. Index and item means for the preferences and estimates of
principals and teachers in all ten countries combined 21
Table 2-5. Observed order and significant differences among primary index
means in each country 24
Table 2-6. Reliabilities for principal and teacher indexes using
Cronbach alpha (α) and Guttman split-half (r) procedures 25
Table 2-7. Number of valid principal and teacher questionnaires
returned in each country 27
Table 2-8. Percentage of female and male principals and teachers
in each country 27
Table 2-9. A ge group percentages for principals and teachers in
each country 29
Table 2-10. Percentage distributions for school enrolment categories
in each country 31
Table 3-1. Correlations of demographic variables with grand means for
principal and teacher preferences and estimates 39
Table 3-2. T en-country partial correlations of demographics and index
means for Principal Estimates, Principal Preferences, Teacher
Preferences and Teacher Estimates with country means
held constant 42
Table 3-3. Grand, index and item means for Principal Estimates, Principal
Preferences, Teacher Preferences, and Teacher Estimates
for all ten countries combined 44
Table 3-4. T I Valence means and percentage score distributions for countries
clustered in homogenous valance groups VG1 to VG 46
Table 3-5. Critical planned comparisons among preference and estimate
index means of principals and teachers in all ten
countries combined 51
ix