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One of the most contentious issues in management is participatory decision‐making (PDM). While studies abound centred on hypothetical benefits, characteristics of involved individuals, its moral foundation and other aspects, few have investigated the pattern of utilization of avenues for PDM. This study investigates the relationship between nine avenues for teacher involvement, and the degree of actual and desired participation, plus decisional deprivation experienced by the respondents on a 30 item Critical Decision Inventory. Teachers' biographical characteristics; level of instruction, sex, teaching experience, academic qualifications and size of district of employment were also correlated with the utilization of avenues for participation. The major findings were (i) a high correlation between sex, level of instruction and avenues used; (ii) teaching experience was not supportive of earlier research; (iii) district size did not support previous studies; (iv) academic qualifications did not produce conclusive results.

The purpose of this paper is to examine teacher involvement in different domains of decision making in Greek primary schools and explore associations with school and teacher variables.

A survey employing self‐administered questionnaires, with a Likert‐type scale assessing teachers’ actual and desired participation in three domains of decision making, was used. Scales measuring perceived school climate, self‐efficacy and job satisfaction were also included. Data were collected from 143 teachers working in primary schools located in different areas in Greece.

The multidimensional approach to measuring teacher participation in decision making revealed quite high actual participation in decisions concerning students’ and teachers’ issues, but low levels of participation in managerial decisions. The discrepancy between the actual and desired levels of participation showed significant deprivation across all decision‐making domains. Greater participation in decisions concerning teacher issues and lower levels of deprivation of participating in managerial issues were associated with teachers’ perceptions of better leadership and higher collegiality in schools. The strongest predictor of both teachers’ sense of efficacy and job satisfaction was their participation in decisions concerning teacher issues.

Educational leaders should promote forms of participation in decision making that increase teachers’ actual involvement in decisions concerning their duties and opportunities for development and also provide for more sharing on issues concerning the school management, particularly for women.

The study underlines the value of dimensionality in investigating decision making in schools.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relutionsliip of the control structure in selected public educational systems as perceived by teachers and the expressed willingness of teachers to adopt trusting attitudes. This relationship was examined by testing for the independence of the two variables using the chi square statistic. In this study, control structure was defined in two ways: first, as the perceived structure of decision‐making and second, as the perceived influence or control which teachers feel they exert over daily activities. Trust was defined as the mutual expectations and predictability persons have toward one another as they are developed through the social exchange process. The findings revealed that (I) perceived participation in decision‐making and trust were not independent; (IT) perceived control of influence over daily activities was independent of the willingness of teachers to adopt trusting attitudes; and (III) background variables did not affect the independence of the relationship between either perceived participation or perceived control and trust.

This paper looks at how participation in a community of learners can be a resource for learning and identity making (Wenger, 1998). The paper is an interpretation of the selected pedagogical scripts (learning journals) of three student teachers in an English Pedagogics module over a 13-week period in one university context in the south of Ireland. The paper highlights how participation is both a personal experience and a social process, and how the mind is a distributed force in meaning making and a socially mediated phenomenon. The paper draws attention to how sociocultural theory and the concept of participation can extend and support our understanding of learning.

The analysis is deductive and interpreted through an existing literature frame. In contrast to “indigenous concepts” inducted from the data the author draws on Patton’s (2002) notion of “sensitizing concepts” which have their origins in social research theory and the research literature: “Sensitizing concepts give the analyst ‘[…] a general sense of reference’ and provide ‘direction along where to look’ (Blumer,1996: 148). Using sensitizing concepts involves examining how the concept is manifested and given meaning in a particular setting or among a particular group of people” (p. 456). Connecting the theoretical sensitizing concepts of “participatory learning” and “identities-in-practice” to the data set of learning journals, three emblematic themes emerge: “Using cultural artefacts to generate teacher identities”, “Participation as learning” and “Challenges of participatory learning”.

The narrated excerpts from student English teachers’ learning journals, read in the light of sociocultural theory, highlight the process of rendering an identity in participation. Student teachers have worked towards conceptual reach, emotional awareness, experiential understanding and understanding scaffolded learning practices.

The reading of student teachers’ written work in this paper is both particular and partial and aims to illuminate understandings of the practices and processes of participatory learning rather than make generalizable and validity claims. The student cohort is small and is not representative of larger classes.

Wenger (1998) writes that it is the experience of meaning that counts in our human endeavours and in this study the author focuses on student teachers’ meaning making as they develop a professional identity through participation. Dam and Blom (2006) stress that the acquisition metaphor for knowledge is not adequate in preparing student teachers and he makes the case for a balanced coexistence with the participation metaphor. In this paper, the author focuses on the practice of participation for learning.

Hall et al. (2014) explain that sociocultural theory has significant explanatory power for understanding and supporting learning. They claim that, particularly in Western societies, learning is often seen as individual, decontextualized and focused on discrete bodies of knowledge. They welcome the sociocultural perspective which does not divorce the individual from their context and highlight how participating with others has a powerful impact cognitively and emotionally.

There has been a dearth of empirical studies focusing on the process of participation in rendering an identity. In this paper, the author has theorised and explicated the process of participation and participatory learning. Participation in the practices of teaching, enriched with reflection and inquiry (Cremin, 2009), has the potential to change the pointing rituals (Sumara, 1996) of teaching and deepen the learning. Furthermore, through such activity, desired behavioural gestalts can be embodied, and the perennial theory practice divide in initial teacher education has the potential for more integration.

There is no strong empirical confirmation for theoretical claims that high levels of teacher participation in school decision making would improve schools. This inconsistency between theory and observation impedes the formation of well‐justified policies concerning the role of teachers in school governance. In order to resolve this inconsistency, researchers will require a common framework for their efforts. The framework presented in this essay includes an analysis of the concept of “teacher participation in school decision making” a set of empirically‐based hypotheses concerning the current scope and extent of teacher participation, and an outline of a program of research which has the potential to provide information for policy develoment.

This study attempted to clarify the relationship of power of school heads and participation of English teachers in school decisions. A deliberate sample of eight schools was drawn from the schools in the northwest of England. The major criteria for selection were: size (medium to large); location(urban‐suburban and reasonably accessible from Manchester); and representatives of the types of schools found in that geographic area. A descriptive analysis indicated that English teachers do perceive themselves participating in most decision areas. At a second level of analysis the relationship between status and intensity of participation was computed with r = .544 for the 103 members of staff (p<.001). An implication is that competence is a criterion for status position, leading to involvement and hence power in the social system. The final analysis dealt with implications of use of power from a description of participation patterns. The clusterings found lend credence to the belief that English heads are controlling those areas of power where tangible rewards and punishments are evident. They appear to be supporting participatory management in such other areas as those where teachers do not desire involvement or those which carry minimal expenditure of organizational resources.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the learning of individual teachers participating in lesson study collaboration by adapting a participatory framework about teacher learning; and second, to investigate the potential of this framework compared with other approaches used in lesson study research.

The authors use collective case studies. By being participant observers the authors provide detailed descriptions of two selected teachers’ lived experiences of lesson study collaboration. In addition to gain first-hand insights, the authors conducted interviews before, between and after two rounds of lesson studies, and recorded the various lesson study activities.

This paper provides empirical insights into the complexity of teacher learning. By using the participatory framework, the authors identify significant shifts in the participation of each of the two teachers during a two-year lesson study project. By comparing these shifts the authors identify significant conditions for their individual learning.

Although the study is small scale, both the insights into the different ways in which teachers participated and the theoretical insights might be valuable for other lesson study research approaches.

This paper provides valuable insights into conditions that might influence teachers’ participation in lesson study activities, especially in cultures with little experience of lesson study.

This paper fulfils a need to investigate individual teachers’ learning in lesson study collaborations. It also contributes to deeper theoretical understandings of teacher learning which have been called for in recent lesson study research.

Teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) should improve teacher quality and teaching practices, though teachers vary in the extent to which they participate in CPD activities. Because beliefs influence working and learning, and teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching influence their instructional decisions, this study aims to explore the link between teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching and their participation in CPD.

This study features two belief dimensions (student and subject matter orientation) and three types of CPD activities (updating, reflective, and collaborative). Survey data from 260 Dutch secondary school teachers were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Student‐oriented beliefs relate positively to teachers’ participation in CPD: the more student‐oriented teachers are, the more they participate in CPD. No relationship emerges between subject matter–oriented beliefs and CPD.

To intensify teachers’ participation in CPD and thereby improve teacher quality and teaching practices, schools should emphasize a student orientation among their teachers.

The original empirical study examines the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching and their participation in CPD and thus furthers understanding of factors that influence teachers’ participation in CPD.

The implementation of the policy of devolution in the government school system of Victoria, Australia, has significantly enhanced the opportunities for teachers to become involved in the decision making of schools. This article reports on a study designed to investigate the factors associated with involvement. Analysis of the data found teacher involvement in the decision making of schools to be associated with: gender; seniority and organizational responsibility; age and teaching experience; affiliation with the teachers association; the influence of the principal; the individual's sense of personal, political and professional efficacy; the individual's confidence and trust in the organization and its administration; the conflicting demands, anxiety and pressure of time; and the perceived effects of participation on curriculum and teaching practice.

As increasing concern has been given to reshaping teaching and learning processes in schools, empowering teachers has become an important means of implementing school reform. The focus of this research was to investigate how the purposeful reform of school decision‐making responsibilities affects teacher participation and leadership in selecting critical needs to address during the school improvement process. Results indicate that involvement in the process of setting up decision making and selecting the content of school needs affect teachers′ agreement with selected needs. Teacher expertise and leadership opportunities were found to affect their participation in school decision making. Discusses results in terms of their implications for school reform.