As educators seek to bridge the gap between research and practice, action research empowers teachers to inform others of the results found in their own schools. This paper describes a step-by-step approach to help teachers and administrators conduct classroom action research in their own schools. The five steps are as follows: (1) problem…

This study examined possible relationships between teachers' perceived levels of empowerment in the workplace, teachers' perceived levels of responsibility for student learning, and levels of student success as measured by standardized achievement tests. Participants were a group of elementary classroom teachers from the southwest Missouri area…

Writing centers and their faculty are often considered to be "Others" because they have both power and no power--they have the ability to make a difference in students' writing abilities, but they are often excluded because they are seen as a "fixit," a clinic, a lab, an ancillary. Writing center faculty need to take more power so that they can…

An academic year-long teacher research initiative was implemented in an alternative education school in a large school district in the southwestern United States. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to examine participatory teacher research as an active, collaborative means of professional development for teachers, including its…

Relationships between the level of teachers' perceived empowerment, the degree of teachers' perceived responsibility for student outcomes, and student achievement were studied with 271 elementary school teachers. The Responsibility for Student Achievement Scale (RSA) (T. Guskey, 1981) and the School Participant Empowerment Scales (SPES) (P. Short…

This paper highlights an attempt by two grade 8 teachers, Bulelwa and Kevin, to draw in the everyday in the teaching of mathematics. Though located in different South African contexts and settings, both teachers tend to enable their learners' access to mathematics by rendering the everyday inauthentic. I argue that inauthenticating the everyday is…

This paper looks at factors that affect the educational environment. It reports on a study in which survey responses were collected from 10,170 teachers in 331 Chicago schools. Results reaffirm the commonly held belief that teachers are the primary force in a school's output. However, findings indicate that the teachers' influence on a school's…

Three policy strategies interpreted as intended to empower teachers within the new policy context of school autonomy were studied. Teacher services in Kentucky's school councils seemed to have little effect on empowering teachers since the researchers found in two studies involving 168 and 318 Kentucky teachers that teachers were not even…

England and Wales have undergone dramatic educational reforms during the 1980s and 1990s. This paper presents findings of a study that explored three headteachers' perceptions of leadership in English and Welsh primary schools. Data were obtained through interviews, a staff questionnaire, observation, and document review. Findings indicate that…

This paper examines the relationship between various characterizations of the clinical supervision model and teacher job satisfaction. The first part of the paper describes teacher job satisfaction and looks at the history and meaning of clinical supervision. The next part of the paper describes Barbara Pavan's (1993) revised clinical supervision…

Teacher empowerment was one of eight criteria required by the Ohio Department of Education for funding as part of its Venture Capital Schools in Ohio program. This report, part of a larger study, identifies and summarizes dimensional definitions of teacher empowerment in school restructuring literature in order to enlarge the vision of Venture…

Teacher empowerment is a cornerstone of educational reform efforts. This study measured dimensions of teacher empowerment with a census of the 3,677 teachers in 169 Ohio public elementary schools initiating self-designed state-funded restructuring. Mailed surveys examined six dimensions of teacher empowerment (decision-making, professional growth,…

There is ample evidence that the success or failure of school reform lies not only in the soundness and appropriateness of the reform model chosen, but primarily in its perception, acceptance, and endorsement by teachers. This essay expresses the concept of power as it applies to school reform that focuses on teacher empowerment and…

This study examines the personal empowerment and efficacy of teachers, relating these constructs to environmental characteristics in order to provide information for school counselors who are helping teachers in personal growth. The study also assesses the relationship to teacher conceptual level in order to determine its relationship to…

Pennsylvania's Philadelphia School District implemented an action plan that mandated establishment of small learning communities (SLCs) in all schools. SLCs were intended to increase teacher professionalism and effectiveness by bringing decision making power to the local level. This paper examines how two elementary schools' SLCs implemented…