Teacher accountability in relation to the school councils legislation, 1975

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Melbourne, 1978In December 1975, an Amendment to the Victorian Education Act 1958 granted to state employed teachers, for the first time, full voting rights on their respective school councils. The opportunity therefore presented itself to examine, first, the relationships that teachers on council now had with their fellow council members, secondly, their interpretations of school council powers and their opinions as to whether the legislation provided any momentum towards furthering local school autonomy and thirdly, teacher accountability within the framework of the School Councils legislation. The methodology of this study consisted of semi-structured interviews with teachers elected to councils in five Ballarat post primary schools. Ballarat schools were chosen for field work because of their location, because there had been recent reports on community attitudes in that area towards secondary education, and because interested parties in all five schools had agreed to opt for a "D". type membership structure for their councils, which allowed teachers an opportunity to share in-school governance. Care should be taken in interpreting the results of this study because the re-structured councils are very new and it is difficult to generalise from such a limited sample. However, certain conclusions can be noted. First, the teachers elected to council did not anticipate a change in the relationships they have had in the past with principals, students, parents and members of the public because of their election to council. They offered few strategies to suggest that the traditional relationships would, or should, change. If the relationships do change markedly, the teachers concerned gave no evidence of their being ready to meet such change. Secondly, the majority of teachers had not read the Amendment, though copies were available to them. Questions directed at interpretations of council powers were therefore meaningless to them. Yet despite their ignorance of the School Councils legislation most teachers felt that the new school councils would not lead to increased local school autonomy. Thirdly, with regard to teacher accountability this study shows that when the term "accountability" is viewed as' being part of a communications system some measure can be made of whether a teacher on council will "stand to account" for his actions. The teachers interviewed gave little evidence to suggest that they had skills to develop communications with their fellow council members or that they thought it their responsibility to do so. In conclusion, it can be said that the teachers interviewed had adopted a "wait and see" attitude to council matters. The study revealed that they were ignorant of the School. Councils legislation, had not thought about the role they were to play on council, and had little understanding of their accountability as council members in developing communications with their fellow council members. For reasons advanced in the thesis, it would seem that, as councils evolve, teacher members will need a much clearer perception of their role