The main purpose of the study was to ascertain the
perceived attitude of system administrators, school board
lay members and teachers in promotion positions to the
degree of school autonomy to be developed as a means for
controlling significant areas of governance in A.C.T.
secondary schools. Sub-problems related to the main
problem were:
1. What are the perceptions of the system administrators,
school board lay members, and teachers in promotion
positions regarding -
(a) the preferred distribution of control to be exercised
by each group?
(b) the perceived attitude of each group of the two other
groups perceptions of the preferred distribution of
control?
2. What are the areas of governance in A.C.T.
secondary schools, where opinions of the three groups
indicate conditions of latent, perceived, and felt-manifest
conflict existing between any two of the groups involved?
3. What areas of governance have the highest level
of perceived concern as indicated for all respondents and
each group separately?
4. Is there any relationship between the degree of
perceived professional orientation of promotional teachers
and,
(a) the amount of school teaching staff control desired,
(b) the level of concern,
(d) the number of conflicts perceived?
Data were collected with a two-part questionnaire.
The first part was designed to study policy formulation
and was administered to 237 potential respondents. The
second part was modified from Corwin's (1970:370)
professional orientation instrument and was administered
to 175 potential respondents.
Control graphs were used to present the distribution
of control that was preferred by each group, for each of
the twenty-four areas of governance. Balance of control
graphs were used to present the relative location on the
total control spectrum of firstly the three groups of
desired distribution of control and secondly how each
group perceived variations in the distribution of control
between the three groups.
Criteria was established to enable an analysis of
conflict conditions in terms of latent, perceived and
false-manifest conflict. The degree of concern, over
disagreement in each area of governance, was ascertained
by using a five point "Likert" scale.
An analysis of the data indicated that all groups
desired a shift in the balance of control from the previous
administrative dominance-primacy position. However, there
was a significant difference between the three groups
perception of where the new balance should be established.
In particular, teachers in promotion positions were loath
to conceed very much control to the newly established
school boards.
The apparent extent and nature of the conflict varied
among the groups. In terms of latent conflict, five cases
were identified relating to teachers, four cases were
identified relating to system administrators, and three
cases were identified relating to school boards. In terms
of perceived conflict, three cases were identified relating
to teachers, two cases were identified relating to school
boards, and no perceived conflicts were identified in the
case of system administrators. In terms of felt conflict,
thirteen cases were identified relating to school boards,
nine cases were identified relating to system administrators,
and seven cases were identified relating to teachers. In
the terms of possible felt-manifest conflict, eight cases
were identified relating to school boards, six cases were
identified relating to system administrators and four cases
were identified relating to teachers. The areas of
governance concerned with staffing were prominent in many
of the conflict situations identified.
The areas of governance indicating the highest level
of concern were directly related to the areas identified
as having possible felt-manifest conflict. The principle
area of concern was the appointment of promotion teachers
to individual schools.
The study did show a high correlation between a high
level of professional orientation and a desire for increased
school teaching staff dominance-primacy. This indicated
some consultations were acceptable by professional
orientated teachers although ultimate policy formulation
should stay with the school teaching staff. The significance
of this finding, while lending some support to the open
professional model developed as an ideal in the study,
seemed to be counteracted by the limited role perceived
for school boards by teachers involved in the study. This
result tended to imply that the shift in the balance of
* control as far as teachers were concerned, should be
towards a closed professional model rather than towards
an open professional model argued for as the ideal model
for teacher professional development.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219130 |
| Date | January 1975 |
| Creators | Livermore, Ramon Edwin Dixon, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Teacher Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Ramon Edwin Dixon Livermore |
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