EMPOWERED TEACHERS - STRONGER INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

Most educational institutions practice a ‘hierarchical’ approach toward decision making. Decisions are taken and made, mostly, by one person, who usually is the headmaster. Despite the fact that this approach, which sidelines ‘practitioners’, may lead to effective consequences on part of the institution, it however, may also lead to some kind of unease on part of the teachers wishing to voice their views on topics such as selection of instructional material, syllabus design, rules setting, exams, assessment, meetings, etc. This study argues that powerful teachers lead to powerful institutions. Based on this premise, it was conducted with 73 teachers functioning at Turkish primary educational institutions; all expressing views on matters building and enhancing an autonomous stand in the institution.

Keywords

• Decision making, shared decision making, teacher empowerment, teacher autonomy

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