Purpose: Collaborative workgroups can be particularly fruitful sites for teachers to learn and improve. Prior research has illustrated how teachers' engagement in collaboration differs across school contexts. However, this research offers little guidance for leaders hoping to encourage collaborative learning among teachers in their school.…

Purpose: This article explores the relative influence over schoolwide policy and leadership activities of teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Interest centers on teacher leadership activities and perceived influence over schoolwide policy and decision making. In particular, the study asks whether National…

Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between principal leadership and variation in teachers' participation in a new literacy coaching program: Content-Focused Coaching[R] (CFC). Research design: Twenty-nine schools were randomly assigned to participate in the CFC program or to serve as a comparison. Interviews were conducted with…

This research indicates that teachers do not participate in school decision making because they are skeptical of the efficiency of such participation. (IRT)

Examines the relationship of teacher professional and organizational commitment with participation in decision making and organizational citizenship behavior in Israel. Finds, for example, that teachers with high commitment to their organization and/or their profession report that they are more engaged in organizational citizenship behavior than…

A central challenge in education is involving teachers more fully in decision-making processes. This article explores the conceptual advantages of examining teacher participation in decision making using a multidomain, evaluative approach. Findings suggest that this approach offers the greatest overall utility for both practitioners and…

Presents findings of a study exploring teacher leadership roles in a metropolitan K-8 school district. Results show that the development and performance of these roles are mediated by their organizational contexts. Teacher leadership should be approached as an organizational development issue rather than solely as an individual empowerment issue.…

Investigates indirect instructional leadership as demonstrated by a secondary high school principal. Uses data from a qualitative study of high school principals to present organizational factors that enhance the principal's ability to exert an indirect influence on instruction. Considers also the potential importance of indirect leadership…

Examines the relationship between levels of satisfaction experienced by teachers and the status of their decisional participation. (Author)

The current educational reform movement differs from past efforts primarily because of the greatly expanded role of teachers and their organizations in school management and improvement. This broader context of teaching is reflected in such innovations as participatory decision-making and school improvement teams with teachers as equal partners.…

Interviews with teachers at six high schools that have instituted structures for shared decision making reveal the conflicts, the confusion about the locus of final decision authority, and the need for training teachers in this unfamiliar area. (19 references) (MLF)

Discusses a study of interdisciplinary teacher teams during the second-year implementation of teaming in a middle school. Based on observations and interviews, this article identifies the major context, design (structure), and process features of each of the four teams, and discusses implications for practice. (Contains 51 references.) (MLH)

Two discourses (administrative and participatory) inform discussions of teacher participation. Drawing from literature on worker democracy, feminism, new movements, and critical educational theory, this article presents issues surrounding teachers' participation to urban educational reform. These include extending the scope of participation,…

Teacher thinking research examines teachers' thought processes and makes suggestions for training. Organizational analysis stresses the importance of teacher commitment and redesign of existing schools in increasing teacher collegiality and participation. This article juxtaposes these two literatures and suggests ways to combine divergent images…

Uses contingency theory to examine workplace conditions making high school teaching nonroutine; investigate whether organic management forms arise when teachers' work becomes nonroutine; and investigate whether such management forms have potential for enhancing teacher effectiveness by promoting job-related learning. There is little evidence that…