Secondary School Teachers' Effective School Perception: The Role of School Culture and Teacher Empowerment

Abstract

This study investigates the extent to which school culture and teacher empowerment dimensions predict the effective school perceptions of secondary school teachers. The sample of the study includes 363 teachers [120 male (33.1%), 243 (66.9 %) female] from 24 secondary schools in four central districts (Mezitli, Yenişehir, Toroslar, Akdeniz) in Mersin. The data of the study was collected via the Personal Information Form, School Culture Inventory, the School Effectiveness Index, and the School Participant Empowerment Scale. The data was analysed through stepwise regression analysis statistical method. The alpha value of 0.01 was established as a level of significance. The results revealed that professional development which is a dimension of school culture is the most important predictive variable, and it was followed by collegial support, collegial leadership, unity of purpose, self-efficacy, decision making and teacher collaboration. Together, these seven significant predictors explained 59.1% of the variance in the teacher perception of school effectiveness. Moreover, learning partnership dimension of school culture and status, impact, autonomy and professional growth dimensions of school participant empowerment were not statistically significant in explaining the school effectiveness. According to the results of this study, school culture has stronger relations with school effectiveness than the teacher empowerment has. This may mean that a school should have a culture that values professional development of its teachers, collegiality, collaborative leadership and teamwork in order to be effective.