Differences between headteachers’ and teachers’ views on aspects of decision-making in primary schools

Price, Michael H.; Reid, Ken

doi:10.1177/003452378803900108

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The extent to which these changes would have happened regardless of my involvement is difficult to judge. I can only report that the headteacher's original plan for decision-making was increasingly met by a series of defensive tactics (Hanson, 1977) that were not evident to me at the commencement of the research (Price and Reid, 1989;Gaziel and Weiss, 1990). The final version of the decision-making model appeared (at least in part) to be an attempt by the headteacher to reflect some of the concerns expressed by staff to me during interview which had not, to the best of my knowledge, been fully articulated during any formal staff meeting.…”

Section: My Influence On Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflections on the Meaning of ‘Non-Participation’ in Research

Hayes

2001

Research in Education

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T his article is based on my experiences during a two-year ethnographic case study of teacher involvement in decision-making at a time of rapid change in a fifteen-teacher primary school in the southwest of England (Golby, 1993; Yin, 1994). As a tutor in a local teacher education faculty with links with the school through student teacher placements I learned from some teacher contacts about the headteacher's enthusiasm for collegial staff participation in decision-making (Chapman, 1990; Campbell and Southworth, 1992; Johnson and Short, 1999). As I was interested in this aspect of school policy, it gave me an ideal opportunity to get close to the action during a period of change in curriculum organisation and school governance. In my search to clarify the decision-making process I tried to capture the meanings produced and conveyed by the teachers as witnesses to the event (Stromquist, 2000). The research ethics protocol agreed with the headteacher and governors included the condition that my role would be that of 'non-participant' in the sense that I would not assume an active or recognised role or function. Data were gathered principally during attendance at staff meetings and team meetings, and interviews with serving teachers, through which I sought their views about their role in, and the headteacher's policy for, staff involvement in decision-making. All the teachers were interviewed on a minimum of two occasions; the headteacher was interviewed once every half-term. I gave respondents an opportunity to comment on my findings to correct any factual errors and, later in the research, offered a 'right of reply' to the substance of my analysis that related to their contribution. I was intent on using a standard approach in carrying out the interviews, transcribing the text and using categorisation as the principal means of analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Earning trust and settling in There was little problem in gaining the cooperation of teachers (Thompson, 1993). Despite Flick's claim (1998) that 'with regard to access to persons in institutions and specific situations, the researcher above all faces the problem of willingness' (p. 58) it did not prove at all problematic. Without exception, staff were happy to accommodate me and cooperate with the research, so I

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Section: My Influence On Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflections on the Meaning of ‘Non-Participation’ in Research

Hayes

2001

Research in Education

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“…More recently, the focus has concentrated on the changing role of heads (Bell and Morrison, 1988;Muse and Wallace, 1988;Craig, 1990;Allen, 1992), their management skills (Day et al, 1988;Hill, 1989), their decision-making role (Price and Reid, 1989), their leadership abilities (Johnson, 1990;Southworth, 1990), and their role in staff appraisal and development (Hellawell, 1990;Jones, 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning to live with the National Curriculum: a case‐study of a headteacher's dilemmas

Hayes

1993

The Curriculum Journal

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Differences between headteachers’ and teachers’ views on aspects of decision-making in primary schools

Cited by 2 publications

References 9 publications

Reflections on the Meaning of ‘Non-Participation’ in Research

Reflections on the Meaning of ‘Non-Participation’ in Research

Learning to live with the National Curriculum: a case‐study of a headteacher's dilemmas

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