Shared Decision-making in the First Educational District of Tennessee: Teachers\u27 and Principals\u27 Perceptions of Actual and Desired Levels of Participation

The purpose of this study was to determine the current involvement of principals and teachers in shared decision making as well as desired levels, and to identify the perceived areas of acceptance and non-acceptance by educators. Eight domains of the Teacher Decision Making Instrument: planning, policy, curriculum/instruction, pupil personnel, staff personnel, staff development, school/community relations, and budget management were used to assess the actual and desired levels of participation in shared decision making by the respondents. A random sample was selected from the public schools of Northeast Tennessee. Seventy-five schools were surveyed which included 75 principals and 1632 teachers. Responses were obtained from 59 principals and 1084 teachers at 59 schools. Data were analyzed using t-tests for independent means, t-tests for dependent (correlated) means and analysis of variance. The analysis and interpretation indicated statistically significant differences between teachers\u27 and principals\u27 perceptions of actual participation in shared decision making with principals perceiving a higher level of involvement than teachers. Significant difference was also found between actual and desired levels of participation with higher desired levels especially in the areas of planning, staff personnel, school/community relations and budget management. No significant difference was found between principals\u27 and teachers\u27 perceptions of desired participation in shared decision making. Significant differences were found between groups\u27 desired level of participation in shared decision making based on age, participants\u27 years in the school, and career ladder status level. No significant differences were found between desired levels of participation in shared decision making based on number of years in education, highest education level, and various school compositions