Do Teachers Wish to Be Agents of Change?

This study surveyed principals and teachers in ten countries to compare principal and teacher attitudes toward the involvement of teachers in several change and development responsibilities. The participating countries were: Australia, Canada, China, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, and United States. Each country administered mirror versions of a questionnaire to samples of at least 50 principals and at least 100 teachers.

The questionnaires listed twenty items describing change responsibilities in which teachers might become involved. For each item, both principals and teachers assigned two teacher involvement ratings: their personal preference, and their estimate of the preference of their role counterpart. These involvement ratings produced four dependent variables: Principal Preferences, Principal Estimates, Teacher Preferences, and Teacher Estimates. For each variable, item responses were clustered to form index sub-scores that measured attitudes toward five education domains: Administration and Coordination, Human Relations, Teacher Support, Classroom Learning, and Evaluation.

Systematic planned comparisons were conducted to determine the most important principal-teacher issues within and between countries, and how issues change across index domains. Typical results indicate low awareness of each other’s aspirations and expectations.

The first and last chapters of this book discuss the potential of teacher leaders to become agents of change within their own schools. Several social-psychological competencies are then described for these teachers in their work.