Teacher empowerment within Twitter chats

Principals are a key factor on various aspects of schooling, and teachers play a determinant role on student’s achievement. Several statistical studies have shown this significance. Fewer findings are about the power relationship that exists between the principal and the teachers. The role of effective use of power and empowerment initiatives is not clear. This paper focuses on investigating the relationship among the principal's bases of power, and the role of power in effective teacher and teacher empowerment. For the current study, the primary data source used was a survey. The sample comprised of 20 principals and 100 teachers in High Schools in Albania. Results of the study indicate that correlation exists between ‘‘staying on top’’ and level of power. Findings show also that there does not exist a general organizational climate that encourages empowerment and delegation The data suggests that most teachers perceive their principals as operating from a legitimate power base.

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Teacher Empowerment: A Focused Ethnographic Study in Brunei Darussalam

The Qualitative Report ◽

10.46743/2160-3715/2017.2587 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Shanthi Thomas

Keyword(s):

Secondary School ◽

Intrinsic Motivation ◽

Teacher Empowerment ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Critical Importance ◽

Focused Ethnography ◽

The West ◽

Modern Times ◽

Education Literature ◽

Brunei Darussalam

Teacher empowerment, as a process that enables teachers’ intrinsic motivation and brings out their innate potential, is of critical importance in modern times. However, the teacher empowerment construct in existing education literature originated in the west, and its dimensions are aligned to the western cultural scenario. The purpose of this study was to understand the behaviours of school leaders, teacher colleagues, students as well as their parents, and themselves, that teachers perceived as empowerment-facilitating and/or empowerment impeding. This study took place in a secondary school in Brunei Darussalam, a private secondary school. This study was designed as a ‘focused ethnography’, a methodological adaptation of the conventional anthropological ethnography. Fieldwork took place over a span of six months. The study concluded that teacher empowerment is relevant to non-western contexts, only if it is adapted to the contextual cultures. Finally, this study asserted that teacher empowerment is a self-driven phenomenon, and that the contextual culture decided the nature and extent of empowerment that can possibly take place in a particular setting.

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