Defining teacher empowerment

Problematic aspects of teachers' work have been noted in much of the literature on teaching. Some of these problems have their roots in the historical development of the teaching profession, and others are a result of the bureaucratic structure of schools. The literature on teacher work life identifies three significant problems with teachers' work in traditional American schools: teachers are isolated from colleagues in most of their work; and teachers have not been significantly involved in many of the decisions that affect the nature of their work, particularly in decisions made outside the classroom or the school. Empowerment has been defined as a process whereby school participants develop the competence to take charge of their own growth and resolve their own problems. Empowered individuals believe they have the skills and knowledge to act on a situation and improve it. Empowered schools are organizations that create opportunities for competence to be developed and displayed. Frymier (1987, p.9) states that "In any attempt to improve education, teachers are central. " Rosenholtz (1991) suggests that ". the culture of a school changes significantly when experienced teachers stop functioning in isolation and start solving problems related to students' learning collectively. " In any attempt to improve schools, attention must be given to roles in decision making and increased opportunities for meaningful, collective participation in the critical areas of activity in the organization which focus on organizational goals. Rappaport and his colleagues have described empowerment as a construct that tie personal competencies and abilities to environments that provide opportunities for choice and autonomy in demonstrating those competencies (Zimmerman & Rappaport, 1988). Dunst (1991) has suggested that empowerment consists of two issues: (1) enabling experiences, provided within an organization that fosters autonomy, choice, control, and responsibility, which 2) allow the individual to display existing competencies as well as learn new competencies that support an strengthen functioning. School restructuring has, as one of its components, the empowerment of teachers, administrators, and students (Murphy & Evertson, 1990; Short et al, 1991). In fact, the restructuring paradigm of Murphy and Evertson includes empowerment as an integral part of reform. There are six empirically-derived set of dimensions of teacher empowerment that help define the construct and broaden the dialogue beyond the rhetoric of empowerment. These dimensions were derived from research in the "The Empowered School District Project," conducted on school empowerment in nine school districts across the country from 1989 to 1992. What are the Dimensions of Teacher Empowerment? Teacher empowerment is a complex construct. While empowerment generally is associated with site-based management and shared decision making, research in the "Empowered School District Project" revealed that the underlying dimensions of the construct are varied and informative. The six dimensions of teacher empowerment found in the study include the following: Involvement in decision making, teacher impact, teacher status, autonomy, opportunities for professiona development, and teacher self-efficacy. Decision Making This dimensions of empowerment relates to the participation of teachers in critical decisions that directly affect their work. In many cases, this means participation in and responsibility for decisions involving budgets, teacher selection, scheduling, curriculum, and other programmatic areas. Providing teachers with a significant role in school decision making is a key element in empowerment. Teachers gain the opportunity to increase control over their work environment. However, for teacher involvement in decision making to happen, teachers must believe that their involvement is genuine and that their opinion has critical impact in the outcome of the decision (Short & Greet, 1989). …