Predicting Teachers' Organizational Perceptions With Principals' Levels of Instructional Influence

• In Event: Working With Teachers: Leadership That Fosters Collaboration for Improvement

Abstract

This paper tests a framework that links teacher perceptions of leadership, teacher autonomy, and the accountability environment to principal, school, and teacher characteristics. Additionally, it examines the relationship between principals’ instructional influence over standards, curriculum, and professional development and teachers’ perceptions of their work environment. The findings indicate that teachers in schools where principals have more instructional influence are more satisfied with their principal, levels of influence and control, and assessment. However, district and state fixed-effects models indicate that a principal’s ability to influence standards, curriculum, and professional development may be limited at the state or district level. Therefore, the ability to provide more favorable working conditions may be restricted by state policies that limit principals’ instructional influence.

Author

• Bryan J. Duarte, Purdue University