Factors affecting faculty decisions on the initiation of change in a public secondary school

This research was a case study focusing on one particular setting in an attempt to provide insights into and clarifications of the factors that influenced the decision of a faculty to initiate or not to initiate a proposed innovation. The case study approach was chosen because it was felt that this approach would impose as few constraints as possible on either potential data or antecedent variables. Data for the study were gathered using direct observations of people, events, and documents; informal conversations with faculty members; surveys of the entire faculty; and formal interviews with selected faculty members. In addition to using multiple methods of collecting data, internal validation was increased by using comparisons of data from three groups of respondents identified as high-networkers in the faculty, outliers in the faculty, and nonfaculty personnel in the school. The findings of the study indicated that (a) how the proposed innovation affected the difficulty of the job faculty members were expected to perform, and (b) the influences of subgroups within the faculty had strong perceived effects on the faculty's decision to be in favor of adopting or not adopting the proposal. Factors originating outside the faculty were perceived by the faculty as having very little effect on the faculty with the exception of the influence exerted by the school principal. The perceived effects of the organizational climate of the school and of the faculty's philosophical compatibility with the proposed innovation were determined to be inconclusive. The effect of various personal characteristics of faculty members on the decision-making process of the faculty was found to vary from very little (for the age of the faculty member), to moderate (for gender and years of experience), to inconclusive (for the subject taught by the faculty member).

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Administration

Department dc:contributor.department

Educational Administration

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1994

Author dc:creator

• Murphy, John C.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/113522

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/113522