THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S INFLUENCE ON TEACHER ATTITUDE TOWARD AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CURRICULAR CHANGE
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to determine if a relationship existed between (1) a principal's commitment to a curricular change, (2) his or her awareness of teacher reaction to the change, (3) his or her knowledge of the change, and (4) the principal's clarity of role concerning implementation of the change and the teachers' subsequent attitude toward and implementation of that change. A number of descriptive variables and variables suggested as significant to this study in the literature were also included. These are teacher sense of participation in this change process, sense of power to affect change in general, both teacher and principal view of the principal as an instructional leader, and the descriptive variables of age, race, sex, grade level taught, and experience. The study was conducted in a northeastern Ohio school system in January of 1981. This system had made a major change in their elementary school reading program the previous fall after a two year process of change. Two instruments were developed specifically for this study as no existing instruments were found to address the particular variables used in this research. Of the 239 elementary teachers sampled through mailed questionnaires, 191 or 79.1% responded. All twenty of the twenty principals sampled responded for a return rate of 100%. Two multiple regression analyses were performed to determine which variables significantly accounted for the variance in teacher attitude and teacher implementation of the change. Analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analyses were also performed. A significance level of .05 was set. An examination of the results of these analyses led to the conclusion that the teacher's sense of involvement in the change process was the major influence on teacher attitude. The principal's knowledge of the change and clarity of role were also related to teacher attitude. However, the personal characteristics of teachers and principals with the exception of age, were not significantly related to attitude. As with teacher attitude, teacher implementation of the change was found to be highly related to a sense of involvement in the change process on the part of the teachers. In addition, the teacher's view of the principal as an instructional leader was highly significant. The personal characteristics of teachers and principals were not significantly related to teacher implementation of a curricular change in this study.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
School administration
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