hools, they were more involved in curriculum/instruction and pupil affairs decisions. However, they desired more involvement in every area.
Upper grade teachers desired more participation than primary grade teachers. Teachers in grades three through six also exhibited a larger gap between actual and desired involvement levels than lower grade instructors. Significant correlations were found to exist between actual reported participation and morale.
Teachers with 20 years or more experience, 50 years old or older, working in medium and large schools, and teaching a primary grade were the groups exhibiting the highest levels of morale. Using individual schools as the unit of analysis, no link could be established between actual participation in decision-making and achievement. However, a significant correlation emerged between actual participation and school morale.
What this study indicates is that shared decision-making is not fully assisting teachers in terms of elevating their perceptions of being as involved in school-wide decision-making as they would like. The question that can be asked here is: What are the factors that might be holding teachers back from greater involvement in shared decision-making?
According to Jones (1995), this problem is most likely due to the fact that teachers are not being sufficiently encouraged by administrators to become involved in decision-making or to establish an atmosphere of free discussion. It, therefore, seems reasonable to suggest that administrators may not have strongly positive perceptions of teacher involvement and, as a result, they are not maximally encouraging teachers to become involved in the shared decision-making process.
Support for the notion that administrators do not have strongly positive perceptions of teacher involvement in shared decision-making can be found in an extensive review of the literature conducted by Armstrong (1993). He noted that o...