Session Information
32 SES 06 A, The Role of Teachers' Professionalization for Schools as Learning Organizations
Paper Session
Contribution
The contribution deals with teaching staffs of elementary and lower secondary schools and the specifics of the professional relationships within these educational organizations. The personnel changes in the teaching staffs are monitored towards higher heterogeneity of the school staff in relation to the concept of inclusive education.
The contribution pursues two objectives:
(1) The first objective is to identify the characteristics of the social climate of elementary and lower secondary school teaching staffs.
(2) The second objective is to compare the social climate parameters of the teaching staffs of elementary and lower secondary schools with the level of their personnel heterogeneity and to interpret the results in relation to the conditions of school work and the rate of teacher fluctuation.
It seems that characteristics of the teaching staff social climate differ (not only) in various work conditions and that it is not possible to attribute final effects of school functioning to the teaching staff school climate. The transformation of the elementary and lower secondary teaching staffs in reaction to inclusive education processes together with the impact on the quality and characteristics of the social climate of the teaching staffs has become a topic of high significance. Interpretations of the research results find frame within the Czech educational context as well as inspiration in foreign research and theoretical literature focused on leadership, leadership styles and teacher fluctuation and its causes. Research results show significant differences between the social climate of teaching staffs in individual elementary and lower secondary schools. The higher heterogeneity of the school's teaching staff implies less favorable social climate profiles with lower values of climate openness. The risk of higher fluctuations of teachers can be predicted in the Czech Republic following the changes in the school teaching staff characteristics.
Method
The study is of combined research design. Based on representative quantitative research (questionnaire OCDQ-RS; N=125 - selected by simple random sampling) of teaching staff social climate realized in 2016 in the Czech Republic, the data show a picture of the phenomenon in Czech schools. Cluster analysis of quantitative data enables us to create a typology of teaching staffs which can be used to confront the results of each of the qualitatively researched school (multiple case study of ten selected schools – interviews with leaders of the selected schools, interviews with carefully selected teachers of the schools, document analyses, focus groups with pupils of the schools) with the generated model of teaching staff climates and the personnel characteristics of the staff.
Expected Outcomes
Research shows significant differences between the social climate of teaching staffs in individual elementary and lower secondary schools. The higher heterogeneity of the school's teaching staff implies less favorable social climate profiles with lower values of climate openness. The risk of higher fluctuations of teachers can be predicted in the Czech Republic following the changes in the school teaching staff characteristics.
References
Bush, T. & Glover, D. (2014). School leadership models: what do we know? School Leadership & Management. 34(5), 553-571.Dvořák, D., Chvál, M., Starý, K., Urbánek, P., & Walterová, E. (2010). Česká základní škola: Vícepřípadová studie. Praha: Karolinum. Feng, L., & Sass, T. (2011). Teacher quality and teacher mobility. Working paper 57. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. Hoy, W. K., Tarter, C. J., & Kottkamp, R. B. (1991). Open schools/healthy schools. Measuring organizational climate. BeverlyHills: Sage. Ingersoll, R. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 38(3), 499–534. Mason, S., & Matas, C. P. (2015). Teacher attrition and retention research in Australia: Towards a new theoretical framework. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(11), 44–66. McKenzie, P. (2008). Staff in Australia's Schools. Research Developments, 19(19), 10–13. Pol, M., Hloušková, L., Novotný, P., & Zounek, J. (Eds.). (2007). Kultura školy. Brno: Masarykova univerzita. Rhodes, C. & Brundrett, M. (2010). Ledership for learning. In The principles of Educational Ledership and Management, 2nd ed., edited by T. Bush, L. Bell, and D. Middlewood, 153-175. London: Sage. Rozkovcová, A. & Urbánek, P. (2017) Fluktuace učitelů: Vybrané zahraniční teorie a výzkumné přístupy. Studia paedagogica, 22(3), 25-40.
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