Survey and Interview Methods in Social Sciences

Introduction In statistical research, we use sampling on many occasions. It would be hard to engage a whole population in a study because of the costs and time associated with such a census. However, in many a sample, there is the possibility of errors. Statistically, these errors result in bias. We also infer results by using methods such as hypothesis testing and estimation, which may not be entirely true in the entire population.Advertising We will write a custom thesis sample on Survey and Interview Methods in Social Sciences specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In the case of Auburn, specifically at a station, this is not an all in-inclusive sample to help us make a conclusion. This is because there are problems of communication and many immigrants may be unwilling to offer information. This may result in untrue data. Surveys There are two major types of surveys used in collecting data for a given study. They are cross-sectional and longitudinal survey. In cross- sectional surveys, the aim of the researcher is to get a snapshot of views and thoughts from a different variety of respondents. Just like other surveys, the cross-sectional surveys gathers information from a sample representative of the whole population according to Hay (2010) However, the sample is cross sectional in terms of age, gender and socioeconomic background. It also involves collecting information at one point in time. In longitudinal surveys, we gather information at different points in time to study change. The major aim of this kind of survey is to compare differences in practices and opinions of the population over a given period (Hay 2010). Interviews Interviewing is a method of collecting data from human beings by asking them questions for which they answer verbally. It is a systematized way of talking and listening to people in order to get information regarding a particular topic or phenomena. In interviews, the respondent provid es the primary data for the study and the views of the researcher are not important as most of the information comes from the respondent. The respondents are able to give their conceptualizations and interpretation regarding the topic under study (Hay 2010).Advertising Looking for thesis on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Reasons for Using Interviews and Surveys Interviews have many advantages. They include the following. More Information They allow for probing, follow up, and it is possible to get in depth information on a topic. They also have many disadvantages, which include consumption of time and very expensive administration. It is not possible with a large number of people as they are very axing and take a lot of time to complete. The chances of the interviewer bias are high especially in closed-ended interviews. Analysis of data may be take a lot of time, especially data from open ended interviews and respondents may not remember important information or may lack self awareness (Ragin 2005). In this study, the sample of the study will be the immigrants who live in the Auburn suburbs. These will be the interviewees to get the data required to carry out this study. However, the interviews will take place in three areas within the Auburn suburb. These areas are the Auburn council, people from two different organizations, which offer different services to the immigrants. Equal Chance of Selection There is a random selection of people to involve in the study. This will ensure that every member of the population under study has an equal opportunity of selection. Hence, a well representative sample. Issuance of questionnaires to the participants will follow. Each questionnaire will have five questions each seeking to get different information related to the study. The researcher will issue forty questionnaires to the participants between ten and four at the Auburn train station. Each q uestionnaire will take approximately ten minutes to complete (Holliday 2007). In this case, however, there is less representation of immigrant population. This is true because our area of focus does not have all immigrants proportionate to the entire population in the country. Confidentiality Throughout this study, the researcher will ensure utmost confidentiality of the participants. All information gathered during this study will also be treated with a lot of confidentiality. No names or any other information that can be used for identification will appear on any of the materials that will be used during the interview. Each respondent will be given an identification number that will be used in all interview materials.Advertising We will write a custom thesis sample on Survey and Interview Methods in Social Sciences specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Tape recorders will also be used to record the information. They will however be destroyed after they have been transcribed and analyzed to ensure that nobody else apart from the researcher accesses the information in them. The information from the interviews will be emailed to the organizations in Auburn from where they will be used for research purposes only (Creswell 2003 and Ragin 2005). Advantages of Surveys Survey as a method of collecting research information has many advantages. It, for example, saves a lot of time and money conducting the research since only a few samples is studied. They are also easy to deal with. Moreover, they are free from many errors since they are the same all through. According to Holliday (2000), however, there are also difficulties experienced in administering surveys or disadvantages. They include the information given by respondents may not be accurate or truthful. In most cases, the respondents’ sincerity, ability to answer plays an important role in determining the type of answers that a researcher gets. Some of the respondents may give answers that are not true to portray themselves in a favorable manner thus making them inaccurate. Poorly constructed surveys can lead to faulty results. In close-ended questionnaires, the choices given may not be an accurate representation of the true feelings of the respondent. The initial study design does not change throughout the entire study thus making surveys inflexible and for the results to be reliable, the researcher must make sure that a great percentage of the study sample responds to the questions, which is quite hard (Holliday 2007). Biasness Use of interview may bring about statistical bias. This is because some people may not use trains. In addition, some may have their own cars, use private means to get home or to work. This means I will miss a huge chunk of the target population. It is important to reduce the chance of bias in any research to ensure probity and to sustain the confidence interval chosen. Other Methods As mentioned earlier, sam pling survey and interviews are the best ways to conduct a research in the situation we have here. However, many other methods can come in handy. This includes Observation– the researcher just looks and makes individual collections of what is happening. This is just ideal for a situation where personal information may not be necessary.Advertising Looking for thesis on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Generalizing- in the case a researcher just makes random conclusions about the population without carrying out a study. This is suicidal because it may arrive at an untested hypothesis. Secondary Information– the researcher may opt to rely on information already available to him in the previous similar studies done. This is not a good source of information because the circumstances may have been different from what we have now, which may render our information unusable. Systematic learning and observation is another way of arriving at considerable data. This way the researcher examines trends and behaviors of the target population with a view at getting and analyzing data. Reference List Creswell, J. (2003) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Method Approach. Journal of Management, Vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 8-10. Hay, I. (2010) Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. London: Oxford University Press. Holliday, A. (2007) Doing and Writing Qualitative Research . Journal of Geography, Vol. 65, no. 2, pp. 14-16. Ragin, C. (2005) Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity. Bulletin of Sociological Methodologies, Vol. 23, no. 9, pp. 4-5. This thesis on Survey and Interview Methods in Social Sciences was written and submitted by user Lillianna Suarez to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Biography of Fred Hampton, Black Panther Party Leader

Biography of Fred Hampton, Black Panther Party Leader Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948–December 4, 1969) was an activist for the NAACP and the Black Panther Party. At age 21, Hampton was fatally shot alongside a fellow activist during a law enforcement raid. Activists and the broader black community considered the deaths of these men unjust, and their families ultimately received a settlement stemming from a civil lawsuit. Today, Hampton is widely remembered as a martyr for the cause of black liberation. Fast Facts: Fred Hampton Known For: Black Panther Party activist who was in a law enforcement raidBorn: August 30, 1948 in Summit, Illinois.Parents: Francis Allen Hampton and Iberia HamptonDied: December 4, 1969 in Chicago, IllinoisEducation: YMCA Community College, Triton CollegeChildren: Fred Hampton Jr.Notable Quote: â€Å"We always say in the Black Panther Party they can do anything they want to to us. We might not be back. I might be in jail. I might be anywhere.  But when I leave, you’ll remember I said, with the last words on my lips, that I am a revolutionary. Early Years Fred Hampton was born on August 30, 1948 in Summit, Illinois. His parents, Francis Allen Hampton and Iberia Hampton, were Louisiana natives who relocated to Chicago. As a youth, Fred excelled in sports and dreamed of playing baseball for the New York Yankees. However, he also excelled in the classroom. Hampton ultimately attended Triton College, where he studied pre-law in hopes of helping people of color fight back against police brutality. As a teen, Hampton became involved in civil rights by leading a local NAACP youth council. He helped to grow the councils membership to more than 500 members. Activism in the Black Panther Party Hampton had success with the NAACP, but the radicalism of the Black Panther Party resonated with him even more. The BPP had successfully launched a free breakfast program to feed children in a number of cities. The group also advocated for self-defense rather than nonviolence and took a global perspective on the black freedom struggle, finding inspiration in Maoism. A skilled speaker and organizer, Hampton quickly moved through the ranks of the BPP. He became the leader of Chicago’s BPP branch, then the chairmain of the Illinois BPP, and finally the deputy chair of the national BPP. He engaged in grassroots activism, working as an organizer, a peacemaker, and taking part in the BPP’s free breakfast program and people’s medical clinic. A COINTELPRO Target From the 1950s until the 1970s, the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) targeted leaders of activist organizations like Fred Hampton. The program served to undermine, infiltrate, and spread misinformation (often through extrajudicial means) about political groups and the activists who belonged to them. COINTELPRO targeted civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as radical groups like the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, and the Young Lords. As Hampton’s influence in the Black Panthers grew, the FBI began to focus on his activities, opening a file on him in 1967. The FBI enlisted a man named William ONeal to infiltrate and sabotage the Black Panthers Party. ONeal, who had been previously arrested for car theft and impersonating a federal officer, agreed to the task because the federal agency promised to drop the felony charges against him. O’Neal quickly gained access to Hampton by becoming both his bodyguard and a security director in Hampton’s Black Panther Party chapter. As a Black Panther Party leader, Hampton persuaded Chicago’s black and Puerto Rican street gangs to call a truce. He also worked with white-dominated groups like Students for a Democratic Society and the Weather Underground. He called the multiracial groups he collaborated with his Rainbow Coalition. Following FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s orders, O’Neal undid much of Hampton’s work to foster peace in the community, leading community members to lose confidence in the BPP. Fred Hampton's Killing Sowing discord in the community wasn’t the only way O’Neal attempt to undermine Hampton. He also played a direct role in his killing. On December 3, 1969, O’Neal secretly drugged Hampton by putting a sleeping pill into his drink. Shortly afterward, law enforcement agents initiated an early morning raid on Hampton’s apartment. Despite not having a warrant for weapons charges, they entered the apartment with guns firing. They mortally wounded Mark Clark, who was guarding Hampton. Hampton and his fiancee, Deborah Johnson (also called Akua Njeri), were asleep in their bedroom. They had been wounded but survived the gunfire. When an officer realized that Hampton hadn’t been killed, he proceeded to shoot the activist twice in the head. Johnson, who was expecting a child with Hampton, was not killed. The other seven Black Panthers present in the apartment were charged with several serious crimes, including attempted murder, armed violence, and multiple weapons charges. However, when a Department of Justice investigation revealed that Chicago Police had fired up to 99 shots, and the Panthers had only fired once, the charges were dropped. Activists considered the killing of Hampton to be an assassination. When the FBI’s Pennsylvania field office was broken into not long after, the COINTELPRO files found included a floor plan of Hampton’s apartment and documents that mentioned covering up the FBI’s part in Hampton’s killing. Lawsuit and Settlement The family members of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark sued the Chicago Police, Cook County, and the FBI for $47.7 million in 1970 for wrongfully killing the men. That case was thrown out, but a new case took place in 1979 after officials concluded that the law enforcement agencies involved had obstructed justice and refused to hand over relevant paperwork related to the killings. Three years later, the families of Hampton and Clark learned that they would receive a $1.85 million settlement from the local and federal agencies responsible for the men’s deaths. Although that sum was far less than what they’d sought, the settlement was an acknowledgement, to a degree, of wrongdoing. Had the Chicago Police not killed Fred Hampton, he would have been named chief of staff of the Black Panther Partys central committee, making him a key spokesman for the group. Hampton never got that opportunity, but he has not been forgotten. Soon after his death, the BPP filmed an investigation of his apartment, which police did not close off. The footage captured is seen in the 1971 documentary â€Å"The Murder of Fred Hampton.† An estimated 5,000 mourners turned up to Hampton’s funeral, during which the activist was remembered by civil rights leaders such the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy.  Although activists Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark characterized Hampton’s killing as unjustified, none of the officers or officials involved in the raid were convicted of wrongdoing. Legacy A number of writers, rappers, and musicians have referred to Fred Hampton in their writings or lyrics. The group Rage Against the Machine famously mentions the activist in its 1996 hit â€Å"Down Rodeo,† in which frontman Zack de la Rocha declares, â€Å"They ain’t gonna send us campin’ like they did my man Fred Hampton.† In the city of Chicago, December 4 is â€Å"Fred Hampton Day.† A public pool in Maywood, Illinois, where Hampton grew up, bears his name. A bust of Hampton sits outside the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center. Hampton, like other political activists, seemed keenly aware that his work would put his life in jeopardy. However, while he was alive, he expressed confidence in his own legacy: â€Å"We always say in the Black Panther Party that they can do anything they want to us. We might not be back. I might be in jail. I might be anywhere. But when I leave, you’ll remember I said, with the last words on my lips, that I am a revolutionary. And you’re going to have to keep on saying that. You’re going to have to say that I am a proletariat, I am the people.† Sources Ballesteros, Carlos. â€Å"Black Panther icon Fred Hampton’s boyhood home facing foreclosure.† Chicago Sun-Times, 16 October, 2018.â€Å"Fred Hampton.† National Archives, 15 December, 2016. Silva, Christianna. â€Å"Who Was Fred Hampton, the Black Panther Shot and Killed by Chicago Police 48 Years Ago?† Newsweek, 4 December, 2017.â€Å"Watch: The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther.† Democracy Now! 4 December, 2014.

Read the attachment carefully Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Read the attachment carefully - Assignment Example e is competition; other companies like Schlumberger and Halliburton also operate in the same industry producing almost similar products to the market. All their products are consumed by the same consumers making competition a great external factor in the task environment. It always keeps the company in check to produce more and quality equipments and services (Kew &John, 11). Customers demand products based on their quality making the companies compete in producing the best qualities. The better the quality, the higher the consumption rate, thus, more profit to the business (Slaton & Hunter, 321). To be efficient in their production quality is important leading to the next task environment that is resources. Resources include skilled workers, raw materials, and finance. These factors must exist for efficient operation of the company in orders to produce quality services and equipments. Without them, the company cannot operate, and if they are limited, the level of production is reduced and the company can collapse. The last important element in the task environment of the National Oil Well Varco Inc is the technology. It enhances smooth operations within the company and production of technical tools. Since most of its products are used by other firms like drilling companies, advanced technology is essential to producing efficient equipments and services. Technology also helps it keep up with the competition in the global market at large. In the Oil Gas Drilling Industry, Diamond Offshore Drilling is one of the companies operating in that sector. Some of its task environments are similar to those of the National Oil Well Varco Inc. For example, it is faced with completion from other companies like, Noble Corp, and Ensco plc that also drill oil gas. Another similar critical task environment element is technology. For effective and efficient operation of the company, advanced technology is necessary. Its activities require sophisticated and advanced technology to

Learning Environment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Learning Environment - Research Paper Example Environment is listed as one of the major contributors to the learning process. It has a very high impact on the knowledge that is inflicted on us. While comparing the environment to student learning, environment means external factors that affect the classroom or the learning process. These include classmates, bullies, timetables, lecturers among others. From an organization's point of view, the learning process comprises both the organization and the staff members. The environment of an organization involves the company mission and vision, core values as well as the overall strategic plans. The company resources and the annual goals and implementation processes constitute the organizational environment (Ormond, 2004). One of the major contributors to the theories of learning is Jean Piaget, who came up with the 'theory of cognitive development'. According to Piaget's theory there are four development stages of a child's development from the inherent impulses to complex activities. The four stages include; Sensorimotor Stage (Age 0-2) - In the sensorimotor stage, the rational compositions are mainly involved with the mastery of material objects. Pre-operational Stage (Age 2-7) - This stage involves the mastery of signs and symbols. Concrete Operational (Age 7-11) - In the concrete stage, children learn mastery of modules, associations and figures and how to rationale. Formal Operational (early teens after 11) - The last stage deals with the mastery of ideas and contemplation. In Piaget's theory the environment contributes since children exposed to different environments tend to master objects, signs and symbols differently, and tend to rationalize things in different means. Therefore according to Piaget the environment serves as a catalyst to learning and overall development. (Ormond, 2004.) In organizations, aspects such as technology also serve as the environment and they promote the extent of learning. Over time many changes have taken place in organizations because technology has been consistently advancing. Just a decade or so ago the postal system and the fax machine were the fastest ways to get things done. In today's environment we use emails and scans for the majority of written correspondences (Edelman, 2006). In the days gone by, in-person conferences were a daily ritual but in our fast pace world of cell phones and conference call the slow means have been replaced and it is now possible for people across the United States to purchase, finance and close deals without ever leaving their homes. Individuals today cannot live without a blackberry and a computer. Individuals and companies have to work daily with all the available advances in Technology. They are constantly in different computer programs to help with daily activities of the office (Frank, 2003). Companies are also using all types of office equipment to actively stay in touch with their clients. Without the new world of cell phones, email, multi line phone systems and faxes it would take weeks to do what is done today in just a matter of hours. Firms rely heavily on the latest advancements in the coffee world to stay

Enhancing Employability Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Enhancing Employability - Term Paper Example The possible influence of IT in employment creation is both direct as well as indirect. Directly, IT sector can create new employment opportunities and indirectly, the implementation of IT by other industries help to enlarge the assortment of services and as a result inspire the evolution of IT sector. The indirect influence of IT is much bigger compared to direct influence. In the USA, it is expected that for each employment generated in the IT industry, at least ten further IT-oriented employment can be developed in other industries where IT has been implemented. Though the use of IT eradicates certain specific labor-intensive employments, it can generate far more employment opportunities. Several businesses such as computer training, research and development among others are directly related with IT industry (Jacobs, 2008). According to a study of National Research Council of the USA, it had been found that IT has an inspiring effect on the development of service industry. The fastest growing sectors of service industry such as education, financial services, health services and insurance sectors among others are expanded with the help of adaptation of IT. IT provides benefits towards generation of employment and enhances skill level. Several evidences specify that IT supports towards the development of labor and overall skill advancement in the workstation (Jacobs, 2008). The research for IT business will be conducted on the basis of secondary data and primary data. The main focus of this research will be to understand the condition of the IT industry in the USA and to analyze the self-employment opportunity in this sector. In order to conduct the research, firstly, information regarding IT sector trends such as computer sales and revenues in the USA will be collected, the number of employment generated by the IT sector will be analyzed and ultimately the data will be segmented for creating a fruitful finding of the research. These data will help to understand the condition of the IT sector and its prospects for employment for graduates or self-employment.

Paul Klee: Art Analysis

Paul Klee: Art Analysis PAUL KLEE Paul Klee, a German national Swiss painter, was born on 18th December 1879 in a place called Mà ¼nchenbuchsee bei Bern in Switzerland.He grew up in a music family and was himself a violinist. After many years, he chooses to study art, not music, and he attended the Munich Academy in 1900. He joined Der Blaue Reiter, an expressionist group that contributed much to the development of art abstract. After World War 1 he taught at the Bauhaus School. In 1931 he began teaching at Dusseldorf Academy. He was a natural draftsman who experimented and researched most of the time in obtaining new color combinations and most of them in natural and shining forms. He mastered color theoryand wrote vastly in his writings. He worked in German Bauhaus School of art, design and architecture, where he used his skills extensively. His paintings reflect his thinking, mood, beliefs and humor. Paul Klee has a very definite style. His pictures are little difficult to classify. He had wide variety of painting styles such as oil paint, watercolor, ink, pastel, and etching. He also used canvas, burlap, muslin, linen, gauze, cardboard, metal foils, fabric, wallpaper, and newsprint. He did not satisfy with the above so he also tried using spray paint, knife application, stamping, glazing, and impasto. He is well associated with feelings of expression, cubism, and futurism etc. He also used mixed media oil with water colors and similar. He used to experiment for long time in developing different color sequences and mixtures. The color textures used by him are very unique. They include highly glaring colors and in contrast very smooth and light color combinations. He created many color combinations and used them in his paintings. The various styles and color combinations used gave him a unique identity. The Golden Fish, Ad Parnassum, and The Death and Fire are discussed below. The Golden Fish: Paul Klee created this masterpiece in 1925. It was painted by using oil and watercolor on paper, which was mounted on cardboard. He had affection towards pets and animals. He also painted Trilling Nightingale, a Migratory Bird and many others. The Golden Fish is a magical fish with flashing gold color and a number of runic signs all over its body. The golden fish hasscarlet color uncommon fins and a pink flower as an eye. He swims imperially with a lot of freedom in the deep and dark blue sea. The great golden fishis very much prominent in dark water with light blue plants everywhere. The painter is very keen to highlight the golden fish, so it was painted with glaring gold color, where others are dull colored. The other fishes are small and are in different colors in order to get the feel of an ocean or sea. It can be inferred from the picture as the golden fish is moving and also the other small fishes in the picture are running away form huge, beautiful golden fish. We may or may not understand its significance, but it draws the mysteriousness of his freedom and his secret world. This quite nobility and brightness are clearly visible through his paintings in common and specifically in the golden fish. The spellbinding color and dramatizing images is very well observed in this painting. Also there might be a strong reason for drawing many pictures of fishes. Reference: PAUL KLEE, THE GOLDENFISH, Page No: 104 Ad Parnassum: It was painted by using oil and casein on canvas in 1932. It is one of the major and most finely worked paintings in divisionist group. He was at his peak of his creative work during the time of Ad Parnassum. Ad Parnassum is a conclusion to the series â€Å"Magic Squares†, created by Klee in 1923. This conclusion came in 1932 that is 9 years after creating magic squares series. Here each element (in the painting) is similar to a theme in a polyphonic arrangement. Klee himself gives the definition of polyphony as, ‘the simultaneity of several independent themes.The golden-yellow morning sun and the divine mountain can be observed. Small dots are now recognizable tiny squares and rectangles. The color combinations used are perfect and are changeable, so anyone who sees can experiencethe transitions of colors. Both the dawn and the noon can be identified in the picture by having a clear look. The white narrow pointed wedge below the mountain and above the temple is noon and the long, sharp, narrow triangle above the sun signifies its dawn. Klee has never showed such phenomenon of time in his earlier paintings, as shown in this. The contours of the mountain and the ruins are very much clear. This shows that he had another picture in mind and tried to show his intentions and ideas of the second one in this picture only. The white narrow pointed wedge seems to be a platform. It can be observed that the light is brighter inside the pyramid rather that outside. Also each artistic element in Ad Parnassum is itself a dilution and distillation of several ideas and own personal experiences. The graphic element illustrates the entrance to Mount Parnassus, i.e. the home of Apollo an d the Muses. This picture brings mosaics, which Klee admired in Venice. Reference: PAUL KLEE, AD PARNASSUM, Page No: 126. Park Of Idols: It was painted by using watercolor on blackened paper in 1939. His creative works in that period were majorly based on angels and demons. When we first hear the name Park of Idols, we get two questions blinking in our minds. They are, what kind of â€Å"idols†, and where are they placed, i.e. what kind of â€Å"park† is it. Three idols and be clearly identified from the picture with distinct colors and shapes. The colors are not exactly decaying but they are pearlescent. The round ball like item in the picture is nothing but sun and the landscape is blue and grey-blue in color according to the painting. Here sun is not meant as a heavenly body but as an idol of worship, along with the idols in greenish yellow and reddish brown color. The black background on which the painting is painted gives us divided feelings. The gaps between the idols where we can find the black background can be paths or they can be nothingness that confers numinous quality upon this picture. As all know everything looks different in black and can be inferred in different ways and depends on ones thinking. The usage of black background is apt because, on any other background their placement would be much less striking. Reference: PAUL KLEE, PARK OF IDOLS, Page No: 150 Online Referencess: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/klee/ http://www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klee.html http://www.sai.msu.su/wm/paint/auth/klee/ http://www.answers.com/topic/paul-klee

Our Grandmothers By Maya Angel Essay -- essays research papers

Imagery In The Poem “Our Grandmothers'; by Maya Angelou Image (Imagery) – Descriptive poetry flourished. One basic meaning for ‘image’ is provided by that context, but other, looser and more treacherous, meanings have accreted: any sensuous effect provoked by literary language; any striking language; metaphor; symbol; any figure. Maya Angelou’s poem, “Our Grandmother’s,'; vividly exemplifies a sense of imagery that is brought to life. The most effective way that, Maya Angelou presents imagery to the readers is through the setting. Firstly, at the beginning of the poem the narrator describes the current state of the main character and gives a brief description of the setting through imagery. “She lay, skin down on the moist dirt, / … the whispers of leaves…/ the longing of hounds…'; (“Our Grandmothers';, 1-4). These lines are very effective to the readers because the imagery behind these lines allows the readers to feel the cool breeze blowing, hear the leaves rustling and even sense the smell of fear; everything that one could think of to enhance the setting of a plantation. Reading this poem is an escape from modern day life. As readers, we observe everything that the narrator and the main character experience. To fulfill the imagination of the readers, Maya An gelou concentrates primarily as to how the readers are going to interpret certain events. S...

Keats Ode Poems Essay

This essay will work in unifying themes of Keats’ poems, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Melancholy, Ode to Psyche, Ode to Indolence, and Ode on a Grecian Urn. The paper will analyze these poems and then apply thematic links. In Keats’ poem Ode to a Nightingale, the first stanza begins with the narrator describing heartache. The following emotions each illustrate this main point through the use of words such as ‘drowsy numbness’, and ‘dull opiate’ (Lines 1-3). The first stanza introduces the reader to the natural element of the nightingale, ‘light-winged Dryad of the trees’(Line 7). This nightingale juxtaposes the narrator’s emotion in a contrasting point of happiness, and thus elicits of the narrator a response of envy (Crawford 478). The narrator’s intent on comparing their lot with the happiness of the nightingale is one full of earnest just as much as envy. The narrator wants to have the nightingale’s happiness as is proven with the lines, ‘O for a draught of vintage†¦That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim’(Lines 11-20). Thus, the desire of escape is an established theme in Keats’ poem Ode to a Nightingale (Crawford 476). This idea of escapism is further established in the third stanza as it reads, ‘Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget†¦The weariness, the fever, and the fret’ (Lines 21-23). The wish to be a nightingale, of the thins in life the speaker wishes they could own is all tied up in this tiny songstress, and its life is envied all that much more because of the unattainable nature of the speaker to become like the bird (Columbia Encyclopedia 12356). It is a different world that the speaker desires, one in which heartache, loss, and fretful worries of the mundane world are too heavy to bear, and so their escape is not only to leave society, to wander off into the woods, or even to leave the country, but to transmogrify into another creature, a bird, in which the very symbolism of flight alludes to escape, and a fast one. Not only is escape the ideal of the speaker but to be able to forget about the worry enough to create a beautiful song is the other objective in desiring to become a nightingale. These illusions, and ponderings of transformation is the theme which runs throughout Keats’ poems. For, in the speaker’s present state in this poem, because, presumably, of their inability to see the world before them, as is interpreted in the lines, ‘I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs’(Lines 41-42). Thus, in becoming a nightingale, the narrator will shed the worries of his present human state in society and be able to engross themselves in the natural world (Stillinger 595). In the same mood of transformation the speaker suggests that perhaps death is a great escape, ‘I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath’(Lines 52-54). Here then is seen the ultimate escapism theme; Death. These two themes, that of escape through nature (nightingale) and through supernatural (Death) run in opposing directions, as Keats points out in the poem, â€Å"Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! ’(Line 61). Thus, the bird is proven to be an eternal symbol and thus, the poem’s narrator must find which persuasion; the natural or the supernatural will win them over (Smith 400). In Keats’ poem Ode to Melancholy, the theme of wanting joy is read throughout the poem. The poem seems to be an inspirational change from Ode to a Nightingale as the poem illustrates a sort of derision from death in the lines, ‘For shade to shade will come too drowsily, And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul’ (Lines 9-10). Thus, death’s personification is in the shadows which the narrator portends to be the end of life, where a person should not go (Lethe). The struggle of depression between happiness is a very simple theme in all of Keats’ poems, and one that is no different in this poem, yet its syntax is more intricately woven (Stillinger 596). The poem states that happiness cannot be gotten without melancholy and the greater the depression the greater the happiness. The desire of the narrator in this poem, as in Ode to a Nightingale is to be joyous, although the pathway to this joy is complicated with desperate thoughts, and the dragging of reality. This compare and contrast of melancholy and happiness is best seen in the lines, ‘ She dwells with Beauty-Beauty that must die’ (Line 21). Thus, the transcendence of the ethereal of Beauty, as with the nightingale’s song, is something that is captured once, and then is gone, either changed into a memory, a dream, an illusion, or death. The achievement of beauty, joy, and happiness is the main objective for Keats’ poems. This objective is perfectly illustrated in his poem Ode to Psyche in which the narrator professes the beauty of the goddess. The narrator is questioning the beauty of Psyche, not to test its reality but to wonder whether or not they truly did see her, ‘Even into thine own soft-conched ear: Surely I dream’d to-day, or did I see, The winged Psyche with awaken’d eyes? ’ (Lines 4-6). Thus, Psyche’s beauty is not contested, but the vision of her beauty is by the speaker. The speaker goes on to elaborate on the forest scene as had been done with the escapist route imagined in Ode to a Nightingale. The narrator goes on to discuss the nature of their vision as two nymphs embracing arm in arm, a winged boy and Psyche. Thus, the element of the supernatural is combined with that of the natural, which was clearly defined in Ode to a Nightingale with the bird and death; in this poem they collaborate with the goddess being seduced in a forest glen. Thus, these elements, natural and supernatural, work together to form a collaborating image for the reader. This poem dwells more on the illustration of a scene of Psyche being made love to, and the extreme beauty of her, while the previous poems were mainly focused on the narrator’s interpretation of their world in terms of escape and melancholy. The escapist route taken in this poem may best be described as escapism through beauty. The divine is predominately seen in this poem that its presence in comparison to the melancholy wishes found in the previous poems points the decisive reader towards the viewpoint that in beauty, especially of mythological proportions, is found a different form of escape. The belief in the ethereal realm, the realm found beyond the mundane, banal, and real, and into the heavens. The desperation found in the previous cited Keats’ poems is found in Ode to Psyche in the element of wanting Psyche, of desiring her in this (the narrator’s) modern day, ‘Too, too late for the fond believing lyre, When holy were the haunted forest boughs, Holy the air, the water, and the fire’ (Lines 37-39). The dedication to this mythological realm is fully witnessed with the narrator in the final stanza, ‘Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane’ (Line 50). Thus, the narrator professes to want to be in servitude to the goddess and makes many vows, and paints a pretty picture of what such a life of servitude would be like. This picture involves a lot of natural settings of the forest with trees, bees, birds, streams, stars, flowers, etc. Thus, the image of the real, the natural, is given to support the claim of making the supernatural as real as possible; the theme of the natural and supernatural are seen once again. It does not seem as though Keats is writing with personification; that is, making a woman into the image of the goddess Psyche, but he is using the actual image of the goddess to fulfill a desire. Ode to Indolence deals with temptation and innocence. The poem begins, again, with a very Keats’ hallucination involving robed figures, with urns. The connotations of death, and of mythology are seen in this imagery. This poem has the narrator ask the three figures why did not leave the speaker alone; this means that the speaker wishes to remain in their state of indolence as Keats writes, ‘my pulse grew less and less’. When the speaker is done questioning the figures, and they leave the narrator, the poem takes a different turn, as the speaker state, ‘Then faded, and to follow them I burn’d And ached for wings, because I knew the three: The first was a fair maid, and Love her name; The second was Ambition, pale of cheek, And ever watchful with fatigued eye; The last, whom I love more, the more of blame Is heap’d upon her, maiden most unmeek, – I knew to be my demon Poesy’ (Lines 22-31). The speaker then is preoccupied with wanting something of the supernatural world, as is seen in the previous poems discussed, ‘They faded, and, forsooth! I wanted wings’ (Line 32). The desiring of a different world, the world with the shadows is felt just as strongly in this poem as was analyzed in the previous poems. The dream world also survives in this poem as a theme for Keats. It is in the dream that the soul exists more fully than in the actual world, that is the fact that the soul is the conduit through which joy is realized, and so it is in a dream, or a dreamlike world that the speaker is able to find happiness. The longing for the shadows in this poem is the final image which Keats leaves the reader with, ‘Fade softly from my eyes, and be once more In masque-like figures on the dreary urn’ (Lines 57-58). With the image of the urn in this poem, the obvious allusions to death cannot be misinterpreted, and so, death as a supernaturally desired figure as with Ode to a Nightingale is seen by the reader (Mauro 290). The theme of escapism, although quite obvious in the other poems analyzed in this paper is undoubtedly seen in the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn. The idea of negative capability is also read in this poem, or uncertainties. The reader is not given the identities of the figures on the urn, although their impact on the speaker is obvious. The figures are representational of Keats’ own uncertainty (Negative Capability). The poem serves to focus the use of the imagination as a gateway into the supernatural realm which in itself, and its mysterious are not always known in the corporeal realm. The relationship of art to real life is the inspiration for this poem. The same idea of negative capability, or mystery as was seen in Ode to Indolence with the hazy three figures, and the reader’s own ignorance on their identity is once again seen in Ode to a Grecian Urn. This ‘mystery’ or ignorance is most importantly read in the last three lines of the poem, ‘Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st, ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,–that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know’ is said by the urn or is the poet’s, Keats own view. Each poem analyzed and compared and contrasted in this paper has had an underlying theme of truth; that is, the speakers attempt to find out their own soul, their own personal truth in the realm of the supernatural while at times either forsaking the natural, or dwelling more in the natural in order to make the supernatural seem that much more tangible as is seen in Ode to Psyche. The theme of escape was very strong in Keats’ poems, it was not all together the main focus of the poet’s viewpoint; instead the focus may also be the singular point of desiring a change. The idea of transformation is what truly captures the reader’s imagination with Keats, and it is with transformation that a true concurrent theme is found. Works Cited Crawford, A. W. Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale. Modern Language Notes. Vol. 37, No. 8. (Dec. , 1922). pp. 476-481. John Keats Selected Poetry. 3 April 2009. < http://englishhistory. net/keats/poetry. html> Mauro, Jason. The Shape of Despair: Structure and Vision in Keats’s ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’. Nineteenth-Century Literature. Vol. 53, No. 3. (Dec. , 1997). pp. 289-301. Smith, Hillas. John Keats: Poet, Patient, Physician. Reviews of Infectious Diseases, Vol. 6, No. 3. (May-June 1984). pp. 390-404. Stillinger, Jack. Keats and Romance. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Vol. 8, No. 4. (Autumn 1968). pp. 593-605. The Columbia Encyclopedia. Criticism. 6th Edition. 2007.

Empowerment Essays

Empowerment Essays Empowerment Essay Empowerment Essay There have been countless studies on how to improve the teaching profession. But what do educators themselves think What do they say they need to excel in their jobs And what obstacles do they commonly face . Teachers want to work in schools where they can thrive, and theyâ„ ¢re not going to thrive and extend themselves if they donâ„ ¢t feel comfortable with their colleagues and the management. | | It comes down to leaders creating a clear and compelling vision around learning and really going to bat for teachers. They have to create a safe environment for teachers†an environment where teachers feel they can make decisions that matter in both their classrooms and their institute. More broadly, effective leaders create structures in which itâ„ ¢s clear that teachers have a certain authority. In some states, according to our surveys, we have only a third of teachers agreeing that they are centrally involved in school decision-making. What they want from leaders is to have processes where they can really understand their role in learning and can really respond to situations and engage in ways that make sense to them. The pressures on principals today are overwhelming. Principals must deal with federal and state accountability systems, assessments, parents and community, and in the end, they are ultimately accountable for performance. It is difficult to let go and empower others when you know it is your neck on the line for results. But of course, in the end, it is that team effort and drawing the best from staff that will generate improved performance. Thatâ„ ¢s just a tough leap. And itâ„ ¢s even tougher for principals if they donâ„ ¢t have supportive environments, either. Many were not prepared to serve as the visionary, instructional leaders we now expect. They receive little induction and professional development of their own, and are often not empowered to make decisions at their school that they believe are necessary due to local, state, and federal policy. This is why we have started to ask principals specific questions about their support and work environment on the survey. To better understand how to empower teachers we need to understand how to empower and support strong school leaders. Are there things that teachers themselves can do to improve their career satisfaction Thatâ„ ¢s a great question, and itâ„ ¢s something weâ„ ¢ve had to think about a lot. I mean, can you have teacher empowerment when the school leadership isnâ„ ¢t necessarily willing to create safe structures and engage teachers as partners I think the answer is yes, but itâ„ ¢s not easy. I think teachers in that situation need to find other outlets to be advocates for themselves, for their profession, and for their students. Between opportunities at the state and district levels, and working with parents and other community members, I think there are ways teachers can be engaged in their work and take on more active roles even when not encouraged internally to do so. The other thing weâ„ ¢ve seen is teachers working with colleagues on their own to start creating the kind of environments they want in their schools. They create professional learning communities, finding time to collaborate. They seek out their own professional development opportunities and advocate for themselves to be able to go and learn, so they can bring that knowledge back to their colleagues. But again, this takes a lot of care and commitment†and time. Itâ„ ¢s hard for teachers to sustain over the long haul if they arenâ„ ¢t given support from leadership. What changes do you see in the teacher profession in the years ahead Schools and districts are already starting to look at recruitment and retention in very different ways. For a number of reasons, for a long time teaching has been viewed as a life-long career. We had this expectation that teachers would kind of come in on day one and have their classroom and then 30 years later theyâ„ ¢d be doing the same thing. But now you have younger people†the Gen-X and Gen-Y folks†who are looking at different ways of engaging in teaching and serving schools. The perception among many elite students who are interested in teaching is that itâ„ ¢s less of a career and more of a short-term way to gain experience and engage in meaningful work. I think this is just reality, and schools are starting to acknowledge this and figure out how to leverage the staff diversity it creates†and this involves using teachers differently. There are still going to be a lot of amazingly accomplished teachers who want to make education their lives. The important question is going to be, how can we design schools to give these teachers the flexibility and leadership capacity to mentor and get the best out of younger teachers who are maybe only planning on being in the profession for two or three years We need to draw upon our best teachers to ensure that these short-term educators are the best they can be and that they are really hitting on all cylinders while they are in the profession. We need to find new ways to identify these core, accomplished teachers and to give them new avenues to spread their expertise†through technology, for example. We need to create new career-advancement opportunities for them, give them greater decision-making authority and responsibility, and allow them to be successful in their work. So I think weâ„ ¢re going to see a greater diversification of roles for teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 Influence of teacher empowerment on teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment, professional commitment and organizational citizenship behavior in schools Ronit Boglera,*, Anit Somechb aDepartment of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, P.O. Box 39328, 16 Klausner Street, Tel Aviv 61392, Israel b Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel Abstract The present study focuses on the relationship between teacher empowerment and teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment, professional commitment (PC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). It examines which subscales of teacher empowerment can best predict these outcomes. The data were collected through a questionnaire returned by a sample of 983 teachers in Israeli middle and high schools. Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses indicated that teachersâ„ ¢ perceptions of their level of empowerment are significantly related to their feelings of commitment to the organization and to the profession, and to their OCBs. Among the six subscales of empowerment, professional growth, status and self-efficacy were significant predictors of organizational and PC, while decisionmaking, self-efficacy, and status were significant predictors of OCB. Practical implications of the study are discussed in relation to teachers, principals and policy-makers. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. During the past decade, teacher empowerment has received a great deal of attention from researchers who studied its relationship to various organizational outcomes. In their extensive literature review, Sweetland and Hoy (2000) state that though a thorough examination has been conducted to study the relationship between teacher empowerment and various organizational and personal characteristics, [t]he results are confusingâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (p. 710). The current study aims to examine teacher empowerment in relation to outcomes that reflect the behavior of teachers in school. These outcomes†teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment (OC), professional commitment (PC), and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)†are key factors in their performance in a school setting (Howell Dorfman, 1986; Diefendorff, Brown, Kamin, Lord, 2002). 1. Theoretical framework 1.1. Teacher empowerment Research on teacher empowerment began to appear in the literature in the late 1980s (Edwards, ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. Tel.: +972-3-6460617; fax: +972-3- 6465468. E-mail addresses: [emailprotected] (R. Bogler), [emailprotected] (A. Somech). 0742-051X/$ see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2004.02.003 Green, Lyons, 2002). Empowerment, as perceived by Short, Greer and Melvin (1994) is defined as a process whereby school participants develop the competence to take charge of their own growth and resolve their own problemsâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (p. 38). It is individualsâ„ ¢ belief that they have the skills and knowledge to improve a situation in which they operate. In their national study on empowerment of teacher leaders, Rinehart and Short (1991) found that reading recovery teacher leaders were more highly empowered than reading recovery teachers or classroom teachers. This finding was explained as a result of reading recovery teacher leadersâ„ ¢ having more opportunities to make decisions and grow professionally, having control over daily schedules and feeling a high level of teaching competency. According to Maeroff (1988), teacher empowerment consists of improved status, increased knowledge and access to decisionmaking. Short and Rinehart (1992) identify six dimensions of teacher empowerment: decisionmaking, professional growth, status, self-efficacy, autonomy and impact. In a study devoted to the concept of teacher empowerment, Short (1994a) describes the six dimensions in detail. Decisionmaking refers to teachersâ„ ¢ participation in critical decisions that directly affect their work, involving issues related to budgets, teacher selection, scheduling, and curriculum. To be effective, teachersâ„ ¢ participation in decision-making must be genuine, and the teachers need to be confident that their decisions actually impact real outcomes. Professional growth refers to the teachersâ„ ¢ perception that the school provides them opportunities to grow and develop professionally, to continue to learn, and to expand their skills during their work in school. Status refers to the professional respect and admiration that the teachers perceive that they earn from colleagues. Respect is also granted for the knowledge and expertise that the teachers demonstrate, resulting in support of their actions from others. Self-efficacy refers to the teachersâ„ ¢ perception that they are equipped with the skills and ability to help students learn, and are competent to develop curricula for students. The feeling of mastery, in both knowledge and practice, that results in accomplishing desired outcomes is critical in the teachersâ„ ¢ sense of selfefficacy. Autonomy refers to the teachersâ„ ¢ feeling that they have control over various aspects of their working life, including scheduling, curriculum development, selection of textbooks and planning instruction. This type of control enables teachers to feel free to make decisions related to their educational milieu. Impact refers to the teachersâ„ ¢ perception that they can affect and influence school life. Teacher empowerment has been studied in relation to job satisfaction (Rinehart Short, 1994), participation in decision-making (Gruber Trickett, 1987; White, 1992), commitment (Wu Short, 1996), conflict (Johnson Short, 1998; Rinehart, Short, Johnson, 1997; Short, 1994b), instructional practice and student academic achievements (Marks Louis, 1997; Smylie, 1994), and principal leadership (Blas!e Blas!e, 1996; Johnson Short, 1998; Kirby Colbert, 1994; Rinehart, Short, Short, Eckley, 1998). Previous research (Sweetland Hoy, 2000), supports four assumptions regarding teacher empowerment: first, teacher empowerment is most effective when it is oriented to increase teacher professionalism; second, empowerment has at least two dimensions: organizational and classroom; third, empowering teachers has its greatest impact on student achievement when the emphasis is on the core technology of teaching and learning in schools; fourth, to be effective, teacher empowerment needs to be authentic (pp. 710â€Å"711). Teacher empowerment is, therefore, perceived as a crucial factor that affects school effectiveness (Wall Rinehart, 1998). In the present study, we chose three variables that the literature found as related to school effectiveness: organizational commitment, PC and OCB. Teachersâ„ ¢ commitment to the organization†the school†has been found to predict school effectiveness (Howell Dorfman, 1986; Rosenholtz, 1991). A positive relationship has been found between organizational commitment and regular employee attendance, and an inverse relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention (Balfour Wechsler, 1996; Porter, Steers, Mowday, Boulian, 1974). Employees who are highly committed to both the profession and the organization were found to perform better than the less committed ARTICLE IN PRESS 278 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 ones, a behavior which results in improved overall effectiveness of the organization (Aranya Ferris, 1984). Teachersâ„ ¢ PC has been found to be critical to good instruction (Firestone Pennell, 1993). Finally, the impact of OCB on the school organization is dramaticâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢; it contributes to the overall effectiveness of the school and reduces the management component of the administratorâ„ ¢s roleâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (DiPaola Tschannen-Moran, 2001, p. 434). OCB promotes organizational performance because it presents effective measures to manage the interdependencies between members of a work group, and consequently increases the outcomes achieved by the collective (Organ, 1990, Smith, Organ, Near, 1983). This study aims to investigate the relationship between teacher empowerment and these three outcomes: teachersâ„ ¢ organizational and PC and their OCB. More specifically, we attempt to determine which subscales of teacher empowerment can best predict these outcomes. 1.2. The relationship between teachersâ„ ¢ empowerment and their organizational and PC Organizational commitment, as defined by Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979), is the relative strength of an individualâ„ ¢s identification with and involvement in a particular organizationâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (p. 226). This concept is based on three factors: the acceptance of the organizationâ„ ¢s goals and values (identification), the willingness to invest effort on behalf of the organization (involvement), and the importance attached to keeping up the membership in the organization (loyalty). These characteristics imply that the members of the organization wish to be active players in the organization, have an impact on what is going on in it, feel that they have high status within it, and are ready to contribute beyond what is expected of them. This is especially true when the leaders of the organization are perceived as adopting consultative or participative leadership behavior, where shared decision-making is prevalent (Yousef, 2000). In this case, when leaders are perceived as participative, employees feel more committed to the organization, express higher levels of job satisfaction, and their performance is high. Among the empowerment subscales, the literature refers to a number of dimensions that relate to organizational commitment. In a number of studies (reviewed by Firestone Pennell, 1993), teachersâ„ ¢ autonomy in making classroom decisions, their participation in school-wide decisionmaking, and their opportunities to learn were among the organizational conditions that showed a strong association with teacher commitment to the organization. A positive relationship was also found between organizational commitment and job involvement (Blau and Boal, 1989). PC is the degree to which a personâ„ ¢s work performance affects his self-esteemâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (Lodahl Kejner, 1965, p. 25). For a person who is professionally committed, work is a vital part of life. This means that both the work itself and the co-workers are very meaningful to the employee, in addition to the importance s/he attaches to the organization as a whole. Active participation in decision-making increases involvement and PC, which result in a higher level of acceptance and satisfaction. Evers (1990) suggested that teachersâ„ ¢ successful participation in decision-making could be explained by the feeling of ownership that comes from initiating ideas rather than responding to othersâ„ ¢ proposals. Gaziel and Weiss (1990) claimed that teachersâ„ ¢ participation, based on establishing a strong voice in decisions and policies, was a characteristic of professional orientationâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢, and fostered better working relations among staff members. With regard to self-efficacy, studies have shown that teachers with a greater sense of efficacy are more enthusiastic about teaching (Guskey, 1984), report a higher level of commitment to teaching (Coladarci, 1992; Evans Tribble, 1986), and are more likely to remain in teaching (Glickman Tamashiro, 1982). Wu and Short (1996), who studied the relationship between teacher empowerment and teacher job commitment and job satisfaction, found that among the six subscales that compose the teacher empowerment scale (SPES), professional growth, self-efficacy and status were significant predictors of job commitment. We were interested to see whether similar results would be found in this study with regard to other outcomes, such as organizational commitment and OCB. ARTICLE IN PRESS R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 279 1.3. The relationship between teacher empowerment and OCB The concept of OCB, derived from Katzâ„ ¢s (1964) conception of extra-role behavior, was first introduced by Organ (1977) who defined it as behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organizationâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (Organ, 1988, p. 4). Researchers have recognized the significant impact of OCB on the success of an organization (e.g., Chen, Hui, Sego, 1998; Karambayya, 1989). As several scholars have noted (e.g., George, 1996; Katz Kahn, 1966; Organ Konovsky, 1989), OCBs are important to the organization because through formal job descriptions, organizations cannot anticipate the whole range of behaviors needed for the achievement of organizational goals (Vanyperen, van den Berg, Willering, 1999). OCB provides the organization with additional resources and eliminates the need for expensive formal mechanisms otherwise crucial to successful restructuring processes. Today, as schools move into a new era of reorganization (Blas!e Blas!e, 1996; Clement Vandenberghe, 2000; Reitzug, 1994; Wall Rinehart, 1998), performancedefined as prescribed by task roles†is necessary but not sufficient for predicting school effectiveness. Therefore, schools will have to be more dependent on teachers who are willing to exert considerable effort beyond formal job requirements, namely, to engage in OCB. (Somech Drach-Zahavy, 2000). OCB refers to various dimensions such as altruism, conscientiousness (also termed generalized complianceâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢), sportsmanship, courtesy, and civic virtue (Organ, 1988); obedience, loyalty, and various types of participation (Van Dyne, Graham, Dienesch, 1994); and helping and voice (Stamper Van Dyne, 2001; Van Dyne LePine, 1998). The notion of behaviors directed towards the individual and the organization was first introduced by Williams and Anderson (1991), and in the educational setting, it corresponds to behaviors directed towards students, teacher colleagues, and to the whole school. OCBs operate indirectly; they influence the social and psychological environment of organizations, which in turn influence the technical core (Diefendorff et al., 2002). OCB affects the technical core since it involves extra role behaviors of some teachers toward students and teachers. These teachers help students with class materials, acquire expertise in new areas that contribute to their work, prepare special assignments for higher- or lower-level students, volunteer for school committees, set up learning programs for substitute teachers, help absent colleagues by assigning learning tasks to their classes, and work collaboratively with others. All these OCBs relate to the technical core of the organization. However, in the case of teachers who exhibit OCBs, they also help to achieve organization goals. This is reflected through extra role behaviors toward the organization, expressed by teachers organizing social activities for the school, volunteering for roles and tasks that are not part of their jobs, providing innovative suggestions to improve the school and by organizing joint activities with parents above the norm. Research on OCB in schools is very limited (DiPaola Tschannen-Moran, 2001). In this study, we have adopted the concept of OCB as investigated in educational settings. Based on Zimmerman and Rappaport (1988) who view the concept of empowerment as a sense of civic dutyâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ involving democratic participation and affecting community life and social issues (p. 136), one can expect to find a relationship between empowerment and OCB. Participation in decision-making, one of the characteristics of teacher empowerment, has been found to lead to engagement in OCB in various contexts (Porter, Lawler, Hackman, 1996). Self-efficacy has been found to be related to OCB toward the team and the organization, but not related to the student (Somech Drach-Zahavy, 2000). To date, limited research has been conducted on the relationship between teachersâ„ ¢ commitment to the organization, their PC, OCB, and teacher empowerment. Since the current literature cannot lead to definite hypotheses regarding the relationship between the subscales of teacher empowerment and school outcomes, it is our goal to determine which subscales best predict the three outcomes: teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment, ARTICLE IN PRESS 280 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 PC and OCB. The findings of the study may have important implications for teachers and principals, and consequently for the entire school. 2. Method 2.1. Participants The teachers in this study were sampled from a random sample of schools located in the northern and central parts of Israel. The sample consisted of 983 teachers in 25 middle schools (grades 7â€Å"9) and 27 high schools (grades 10â€Å"12). Although it was not possible to reach a random sample of all schools in Israel, care was taken to select urban, suburban and rural schools from diverse populations that represent the composition of teachers in Israel with regard to gender and religion, age and education. Seventy-two percent were women; 73 percent Jewish and the rest Arab. Of the Jewish teachers, 78 percent were female, and of the Arab teachers, almost half (46 percent) were male. The average age was 38.5, with an average of 10 years of seniority in the current school, and 13.5 years of seniority as teachers. Sixty-four percent had a Bachelorâ„ ¢s degree, 26 percent had a Masterâ„ ¢s degree and 10 percent had a professionalâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ degree (equivalent to a junior college diploma, with teaching credentials). These demographic characteristics were similar to those found in comparable studies on teachers in Israel (Rosenblatt, 2001; Somech Drach-Zahavy, 2000). 2.2. Research instrument A quantitative questionnaire, combining four Likert scales measuring OC, PC, OCB and teacher empowerment, was mailed in 2001 to teachers in 52 middle and high schools. The respondents were asked to refer to their current school, and to answer a range of questions about their feelings of empowerment, their commitment to the school and the profession, and their OCB in school. Teacher empowerment was measured using the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES) (Short Rinehart, 1992). The SPES measures teachersâ„ ¢ overall perception of empowerment. It is a 38-item instrument on a 5-point scale (scored from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). Factor analysis of the SPES revealed six dimensions at the basis of the construct. The dimensions and their internal consistency estimates (coefficient alphas) are: involvement in decision-making (0.89); opportunities for professional growth (0.83); status (0.86); self-efficacy (0.84); autonomy (0.81); and impact (0.82). The overall scale has reliability of 0.94 and the same reliability level of alpha was found in the current study. Examples of items are: I make decision about the implementation of new programs in the schoolâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (decisionmaking), I am treated as a professionalâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (professional growth), I believe that I have earned respectâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (status), I believe that I am empowering studentsâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (self-efficacy), I have the freedom to make decisions on what is taughtâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (autonomy), and I believe that I have an impactâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (impact). Organizational commitment was measured using Mowday et al.â„ ¢s (1979) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). This 15-item instrument measures affective rather than normative or continuance commitment, by asking the respondents to refer to their identification with and involvement in a particular organization. Examples of items are: I tell my friends that this school is a great school to work forâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ and I feel very little loyalty to this schoolâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (reverse coded). A 7-point scale (scored from 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree) was used. Scores on the 15 items were averaged to yield a summary score representing organizational commitment. The internal reliability estimates for the OCQ scores were strong across Mowday et al.â„ ¢s (1979) six samples (ranging from 0.82 to 0.93) and resulted in a single-factor solution. In the current study, the reliability level of alpha was 0.87. Professional commitment was measured using Lodahl and Kejnerâ„ ¢s (1965) 20-item scale, specifically adjusted to the educational setting. This instrument focuses on teachersâ„ ¢ job involvement and on the importance of work to them in general. Examples of items are: I live my job as a teacher 24 h a dayâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ and Most things in my life are more important than my workâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (reverse coded). A 5- point scale (scored from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree), was used. Scores on the 20 ARTICLE IN PRESS R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 281 items were averaged to yield a summary score representing PC. The reliability level of alpha in this study was 0.87. Organizational citizenship behavior was measured using a 23-item scale developed and validated in the school context (Somech Drach- Zahavy, 2000). This instrument refers to discretionary behaviors that go beyond existing role expectations and are directed toward the individual, the group, or the organization as a unit. The OCB scale consists of three subscales: (a) eight items relate to students (e.g., I stay after school hours to help students with materials covered in classâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢), with a reliability level of alpha of 0.80; (b) seven items relate to colleagues (e.g., I help an absent colleague by assigning learning tasks to the classâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢), with a reliability level of alpha of 0.77; and (c) eight items relate to the school as a unit (e.g., I make innovative suggestions to improve the schoolâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢), with a reliability level of alpha of 0.87. A 5-point scale (scored from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree), was used. Scores on the 23 items were averaged to yield a summary score representing OCB. The reliability level of alpha in the current study was 0.92. 3. Results Preliminary analyses of t-tests were performed to determine whether there were gender and type of school (secondary/high schools) differences with regard to the research variables (i.e., teacher empowerment, organizational commitment, PC and OCB). The results revealed no significant differences (p > 0:05). In addition, the correlations between the other demographic variables (education and length of tenure) and the research variables were marginal (below 0.09); hence, we treated the participants as one group. Means, standard deviations and intercorrelations for the research variables are shown in Table 1. An examination of the means of the subscales of the SPES revealed that the subscales that received the highest scores were status (M ? 4:1), professional growth (M ? 3:8), impact (M ? 3:7) and self-efficacy (M ? 3:7). The lowest average score was ascribed to decision-making (M ? 3:1). The Pearson correlation matrix revealed that all six subscales were significantly (po0:0001) and positively correlated with organizational commitment (ranging from 0.34 to 0.65), PC (ranging from 0.37 to 0.68) and OCB (ranging from 0.21 to 0.61). The more the teachers perceived themselves as practicing any of the teacher empowerment components, the more they expressed commitment towards the organization, the profession, and OCBs. In addition, the correlation between organizational commitment and PC was positive and significant (r ? 0:68). Multiple regression analysis was employed to identify which empowerment dimensions best ARTICLE IN PRESS Table 1 Descriptive statistics and correlations Variable Mean s.d. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Decision-making1 3.1 0.73 0.54 0.34 0.60 0.63 0.63 0.34 0.41 0.61 2. Professional growth1 3.8 0.69 0.72 0.74 0.55 0.73 0.65 0.60 0.36 3. Statusa 4.1 0.62 0.62 0.44 0.67 0.58 0.51 0.21 4. Self-efficacya 3.7 0.65 0.56 0.77 0.53 0.58 0.50 5. Autonomya 3.3 0.84 0.61 0.37 0.37 0.39 6. Impacta 3.7 0.72 0.50 0.54 0.44 7. OCb 4.3 0.83 0.68 0.41 8. PCa 3.4 0.59 0.20 9. OCBc 3.1 0.72 Variables 1â€Å"6 are subscales of teacher empowermentâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢. All correlations are statistically significant, po0:0001: a Rating scale: 1=Strongly disagree; 5=Strongly agree b Rating scale: 1=Strongly disagree; 7=Strongly agree c Rating scale: 1=Very seldom; 5=Very often 282 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 predict teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment, PC and OCB (see Tables 2â€Å"4). Tables 2â€Å"4 show the results of the multiple regression analysis for each of the outcomes: organizational commitment, PC and OCB, respectively. For each regression, all six components of teacher empowerment were included in the equation. Table 2 shows that three predictor variables† professional growth, status, and selfefficacy† were statistically significant predictors of organizational commitment and explained 44 percent of its variance (F?3674? ? 173:65; po0:0001). Results of the second multiple regression analysis (Table 3) indicate that the same three predictors†self-efficacy, professional growth, and status†were statistically significant predictors of PC and explained 40 percent of its variance (F?3665? ? 148:1; po0:0001). Results of the third multiple regression analysis (Table 4) indicate that three predictors†decision-making, self-efficacy, and status†were statistically significant predictors of OCB and also explained 40 percent of its variance (F?3640? ? 144:23; po0:0001). An evaluation of the assumptions of each of the three regression models yielded no violations of assumptions of linearity, normality, and homoscedasticity of residuals. 4. Discussion The findings regarding the means of the six dimensions of teacher empowerment appear to be consistent with previous studies. Wall and Rinehart (1998), for example, found that the most frequent dimensions of empowerment, amongst high school teachers, were in descending order: status (M ? 4:14; s.d.=0.51), self-efficacy, impact, professional growth, autonomy and decisionmaking (M ? 2:94; s.d.=0.72). In the present study, we found very similar results: status (M ? 4:10; s.d.=0.62), professional growth, impact, self-efficacy, autonomy and decision-making (M ? 3:06; s.d.=0.73). These findings imply that teachers feel that they are respected (status), have opportunities for professional growth, are effective at their job (impact) and perform well (selfefficacy). Yet, in both the American sample and in our population, teachers did not feel that they were involved in the process of decision-making. We can speculate that either teachers are not aware of their involvement, or that they really ARTICLE IN PRESS Table 2 Regression coefficients and F-test value for organizational commitment Variable B SE b F R2 Professional growth 0.62 0.07 0.44___ 87.69 0.44 Status 0.36 0.07 0.22___ (6,671, po0:0001) Self-efficacy 0.23 0.07 0.15 Autonomy 0.01 0.05 0.01 Decision making 0.03 0.06 0.02 Impact 0.12 0.07 0.09 Constant 0.63 0.20 ___po0:0001: Table 3 Regression coefficients and F-test value for professional commitment Variable B SE b F R2 Self-efficacy 0.25 0.05 0.29___ 75.47 0.41 Professional growth 0.19 0.05 0.23___ (6,662, po:0001) Status 0.11 0.04 0.12_ Autonomy 0.05 0.03 0.07 Decision making 0.06 0.04 0.08 Impact 0.05 0.04 0.06 Constant 1.08 0.12 _po0:01; ___po0:0001: Table 4 Regression coefficients and F-test value for organizational citizenship behavior Variable B SE b F R2 Decision-making 0.46 0.04 0.46___ 71.88 0.40 Self-efficacy 0.39 0.06 0.35___ (6,637, po:0001) Status 0.17 0.05 0.14___ Autonomy 0.002 0.04 0.002 Impact 0.003 0.06 0.003 Professional growth 0.04 0.06 0.03 Constant 1.04 0.16 ___po0:0001: R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 283 were not given the opportunity to participate in various forms of school decision-making. (Wall Rinehart, 1998 suggest these considerations in their discussion about the role of the school councils in the schools they sampled). The results of the present study showed that two of the six subscales, self-efficacy and status, significantly predicted all three outcomes: organizational commitment, PC and OCB. Another subscale, professional growth, predicted two of the outcomes: organizational and PC. Participation in decision-making predicted OCB. The results regarding the criterion variable, organizational commitment, correspond with earlier findings that investigated the SPES subscales (Wu Short, 1996). In their study, Wu and Short found that professional growth, self-efficacy and status predicted organizational commitment and explained 45 per cent of its variance. These same subscales were found to explain 44 per cent of the variance of organizational commitment in the present study. Self-efficacy is oneâ„ ¢s perception of oneâ„ ¢s competence and ability to act. In educational settings, it was found that when teachers believe that they can make a difference with their students, they do (Gibson Dembo, 1984). The importance of selfefficacy as a predictor of all three outcomes can be understood if we relate to the original concept of self-efficacy developed by Bandura (1977). According to Bandura, self-efficacy is based on two dimensions that he labeled outcome expectancyâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ and efficacy expectancyâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (p. 79). Outcome expectancyâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ implies that an individual estimates that a given behavior will result in certain outcomes. Efficacy expectationsâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ refer to behaviors toward the expected outcomes. Not surprisingly, where teachers report higher levels of self-efficacy, they exhibit more organizational behaviors. Teachers who have high expectations of themselves to perform effectively and successfully in school will carry out extra functions beyond the formal ones and will feel more committed to their school and to the teaching profession. With regard to status, our findings demonstrate that teachers who have a high sense of status in their work tend to invest in more OCBs and to feel more committed to the organization and to the teaching profession than teachers who do not express that level of status recognition. Teachers who perceive that they have the professional respect and admiration of their colleagues, in addition to acknowledgement of their expertise and knowledge, will be more inclined to contribute to their schools. Their contribution will be exhibited in the expression of greater commitment to the profession and the organization and in practicing OCBs that reflect helping others (students, colleagues, and the organization as a whole). Professional growth, oneâ„ ¢s belief that one works in a supportive and nurturing environment that stimulates professional growth and development, may impact oneâ„ ¢s feeling of commitment to the organization and the profession. The more teachers perceive that they have opportunities for professional growth, the more they will strive to act for the good of the organization and the profession. According to Firestone and Pennell (1993), the knowledge demands of the new teaching strategies have stimulated the need to bring about the professionalization of teaching, of which professional growth is one measure. Teachersâ„ ¢ commitment depends on their drive and will to grow professionally, a fact that has implications for the quality of instruction that the teachers will maintain. Lastly, participation in decision-making, the subscale of teacher empowerment that was one of the predictors of OCB, was found in previous research to be linked to OCB (e.g., Vanyperen et al., 1999). Participation in decision-making is joint decision-making or decision-making that is a product of shared influence by a superior and his or her employee (Koopman Wierdsma, 1998). It was found to affect job satisfaction (Rice Schneider, 1994) and as such, it is reasonable to assume that teachers satisfied with their jobs will, among others, exhibit more OCBs. A number of studies have shown a positive relationship between participation in decision-making and organizational commitment (e.g., Hoy, Tartar, Bliss, 1990; Louis Smith, 1991). In the present study, there was significant positive correlation between the two; however, decision-making was not found to be a predictor of organizational commitment ARTICLE IN PRESS 284 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 but rather of OCB. One might expect that teachers who report that they participate in decisionmaking processes in their school will show more OCBs that are reflected in activities beyond their existing role expectations. However, it was surprising that participative decision-making was not found to be a predictor of organizational commitment. One explanation for this finding may be the fact that decision-making was treated as a onedimensional construct rather than a two-dimensional one. Decision-making in the school setting involves participation in decision-making in the technical domain (i.e., dealing with students and instruction), and in the managerial domain (i.e., dealing with school operations and administration). By combining these two dimensions, which may sometimes conflict, we may have caused cancellation out of both. In another study, Somech and Bogler (2002) found that teachersâ„ ¢ participation in technical decisions did not predict organizational commitment; however, teachersâ„ ¢ participation in managerial decisions was found to predict organizational commitment. Findings regarding the significant positive correlation between organizational commitment and PC confirm previous research (e.g., Cohen, 2000), and contradict other research that asserted that there may be a conflict between the two concepts (e.g., Wallace, 1993). The results of the present study may imply that there is no inherent conflict between organizational commitment and PC, although a tension between the two may exist (Aranya Ferris, 1984). Teacherâ„ ¢s perceived autonomy and impact were the least effective predictors of any of the outcomes examined, since both these variables were excluded from the regression equation. Although these findings are consistent with other research which examined the predictors of job satisfaction and organizational commitment among the six dimensions of teacher empowerment (Wu Short, 1996), they are somewhat surprising. One would expect teachers who experience a high level of autonomy and feel that they have great impact on what is going in school, to report higher levels of commitment to the school and to their profession and to contribute more than expected of them to the school. The current results imply that the two constructs, autonomy and impact, may not be directly related to the outcomes examined here since individuals who feel that they are autonomous and have impact in their workplace do not necessarily translate these feelings into behaviors that reflect great commitment to the organization, to the profession, or to OCB. It is interesting to relate OCB to the concept of a teacher professional community or a teacher learning community (Darling-Hammond Sykes, 1999). A professional community of teachers is characterized by three key features: a common set of activities that provide frequent face-to-face interaction, specific organizational structures to assist in developing common understandings, values and expectations for behavior to evolve, and a core of shared values regarding what students should learn, how faculty and students should behave and the shared goals to maintain and support the community (Louis, Kruse, Bryk, 1995). Obviously, such a professional learning community involves the establishment of a school-wide culture that makes collaboration expected, wide-ranging, authentic, continuing, and focused on student outcomes (Toole Louis, 2002, Chapter 8). In order for such a community to exist, it is expected that extra-role behaviors, in addition to in-role behaviors, should be implemented in the school setting. Without applying discretionary behaviors that go beyond the existing role expectations, and that are directed to the students, the teachers and the school organization as a unit, it would be almost impossible for a community of teachers to become a professional learning community. Kruse, Louis and Bryk (1995) indicate that one of the preconditionsâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ for the development of a professional learning community is the openness to improvement, trust and respect, access to expertise, supportive leadership and socialization. To achieve these human and social resources, it is crucial that teachers demonstrate OCB, since this affects the social and psychological environment of the organization reflected in shared norms and values, a focus on student learning, reflective dialogue with colleagues, and peer collaboration. ARTICLE IN PRESS R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 285 5. Conclusions and implications This study primarily investigated the relationship between teacher empowerment and organizational commitment, PC and OCB. The findings demonstrate that a number of teacher empowerment dimensions have an impact on these outcomes in the school setting, but a number of limitations should be considered when interpreting these findings. First, since all measures used are self-reports, common method variance is a problem, as well as social desirability effects. Although self-report data are commonly used to measure individual self-perception (Spector, 1994), one should bear in mind that they may not reflect the actual performance of the respondents. Second, although in selecting the sampled schools, care was taken with regard to the representation of urban, suburban and rural schools serving diverse populations that represented the composition of teachers in Israel with regard to gender, religion, age and education, we cannot generalize from this sample to all middle and high schools in Israel since the schools were located in the northern and central parts of Israel. Related to the issue of sampling is our 41 percent response rate, a rate not unusual in social science studies (e.g., Bogler, 1994; Kidder, 2002; Williams Shiaw, 1999), but a factor which should be kept in mind when attempting to generalize to a larger population. A study that randomly and representatively samples all the middle and high schools in the country could allow such generalization. In addition, this study viewed each variable as a single scale rather than as a multi-faceted one. In contrast, organizational commitment was studied elsewhere (Hartmann Bambacas, 2000) as a multi-method scale with three dimensions: affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment. This multi-level method may provide a better understanding of the phenomenon than using a single scale. One of the important contributions of the present study is that it underscores the relative effects of four teacher empowerment dimensions on the important outcomes of organizational commitment, PC and OCB in the school. These outcomes have been found to be beneficial to organizations. PC is considered a major determinant of organizational effectiveness (Pfeffer, 1994) and individual motivation (Hackman and Lawler, 1971). Organizational commitment has been found to affect employee identification with the organization, level of effort, and turnover (Stroh Reilly, 1997). OCB has been linked to increased performance (Brief Motowidlo, 1989). Two of the teacher empowerment dimensions, self-efficacy and status, appear to be crucial in predicting all three organizational outcomes and should therefore be strongly acknowledged by school principals who strive to raise teachersâ„ ¢ commitment to the organization and to the profession and to increase teachersâ„ ¢ motivation toward OCB for the benefit of the school. Principals need to establish working conditions that will bring teachers to perceive themselves as having a high level of competency, and experiencing high status and selfesteem. Second, teachers who view themselves as professionals or perceive opportunities to grow professionally may contribute more to the school as their commitment to the organization and to the profession increases. Principals need to recognize that the feelings and perceptions of teachers about their schools, and their desire to attain opportunities for professional growth, are beneficial to the organization itself. Finally, based on the finding that participation in decision-making is a predictor of OCB, school principals should acknowledge the significance of the extra-role, rather than the inrole, nature of OCB since it carries great advantages for other members in the organization, including other teachers, students and the school as a whole. Thus, principalsâ„ ¢ practice of jointdecision- making should be recognized as highly important to the organization and its members. The findings of the study should also be acknowledged by policy-makers outside the school on the assumption that achieving high levels of organizational commitment, PC and OCB are important to them. Thus, the Ministry of Education, as the centralized office, and its operational units on the local level, should encourage participation of teachers in seminars and programs that stress teachersâ„ ¢ professional growth and self-efficacy. It is assumed that once the teachers experience ARTICLE IN PRESS 286 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 greater opportunities for professional growth and acquire greater trust in their ability to achieve high-order goals (i.e., greater self-efficacy), their status will rise as well. As a result, and in addition to participating in shared decision-making with the principal, teachers may feel empowered at school, a fact that will reflect on their feelings of commitment toward the organization, the profession and their extra-role behavior. Possible extensions of this study could be to examine the effects of other variables, such as perceived supervisory support (Vanyperen et al., 1999) or job satisfaction, as mediating variables in the relationship between teacher empowerment (or its subscales) and school outcomes (either those that were examined in the present study or others). In addition, since the current study was conducted in middle and high schools, it may be worthwhile to investigate elementary schools to determine whether the results presented here reflect the general situation of teachers on all levels. References Aranya, N., Ferris, K. R. (1984). A re-examination of accountantsâ„ ¢ organizational-professional conflict. The Accounting Review, 59, 1â€Å"15. Balfour, D. L., Wechsler, B. (1996). Organizational commitment: Antecedents and outcomes in public organizations. Public Productivity and Management Review, 29, 256â€Å"277. Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191â€Å"215. Blas!e, J., Blas!e, J. (1996). Facilitative school leadership and teacher empowerment: Teachersâ„ ¢ perspectives. Social Psychology of Education, 1, 117â€Å"145. Blau, G., Boal, K. (1989). Using job involvement and organizational commitment interactively to predict turnover. Journal of Management, 15, 115â€Å"127. Bogler, R. (1994). University researchersâ„ ¢ views of private industry: Implications for educational administrators, academicians and the funding sources. Journal of Educational Administration, 32(2), 68â€Å"85. Brief, A., Motowidlo, S. (1989). Prosocial organization behaviors. Academy of Management Review, 11, 710â€Å"725. Chen, X. P., Hui, C., Sego, D. J. (1998). The role of organizational citizenship behavior in turnover: Conceptualization and preliminary tests of key hypotheses. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(6), 922â€Å"931. Clement, M., Vandenberghe, R. (2000). Teachersâ„ ¢ professional development: A solitary or collegial (ad)venture Teacher and Teaching Education, 16, 81â€Å"101. Cohen, A. (2000). The relationship between commitment forms and work outcomes: A comparison of three models. Human Relations, 53, 387â€Å"417. Coladarci, T. (1992). Teachersâ„ ¢ sense of efficacy and commitment to teaching. Journal of Experimental Education, 60(4), 323â€Å"337. Darling-Hammond, L., Sykes, G. (1999). In Teaching as the learning profession: handbook of policy and practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Diefendorff, J. M., Brown, D. J., Kamin, A. M., Lord, R. G. (2002). Examining the roles of job involvement and work centrality in predicting organizational citizenship behaviors and job performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 93â€Å"108. DiPaola, M., Tschannen-Moran, M. (2001). Organizational citizenship behavior in schools and its relationship to school climate. Journal of School Leadership, 11, 424â€Å"447. Edwards, J. L., Green, K. E., Lyons, C. A. (2002). Personal empowerment, efficacy, and environmental characteristics. Journal of Educational Administration, 40(1), 67â€Å"86. Evans, E. D., Tribble, M. (1986). Perceived teaching problems, self-efficacy and commitment to teaching among preservice teachers. Journal of Educational Research, 80(2), 81â€Å"85. Evers, C. W. (1990). Schooling, organizational learning and efficiency in the growth of knowledge. In J. D. Chapman (Ed.), School-based decision-making and management. London: The Falmer Press. Firestone, W. A., Pennell, J. R. (1993). Teacher commitment, working conditions, and differential incentive policies. Review of Educational Research, 63(4), 489â€Å"525. Ford, R. C., Fottler, M. D. (1995). Empowerment: A matter of degree. Academy of Management Executive, 9(3), 21â€Å"31. Gaziel, H. H., Weiss, I. (1990). School bureaucratic structure, locus of control and alienation among primary schoolteachers. Research in Education, 44, 55â€Å"66. George, J. M. (1996). Group affective tone. In M. A. West (Ed.), Handbook of work Group psychology (pp. 77â€Å"94). New York: Wiley. Gibson, S., Dembo, M. H. (1984). Teacher efficacy: A construct validation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 36(4), 569â€Å"582. Glickman, C., Tamashiro, R. (1982). A comparison of firstyear, fifth-year, and former teachers on efficacy, ego development, and problem solving. Psychology in Schools, 19, 558â€Å"562. Gruber, J., Trickett, E. J. (1987). Can we empower others The paradox of empowerment in an alternative public high school. American Journal of Community Psychology, 15, 353â€Å"372. Guskey, T. R. (1984). The influence of change in instructional effectiveness upon the affective characteristics of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 21, 245â€Å"259. Hackman, J. R., Lawler III, E. E. (1971). Employee reactions to job characteristics. Journal of Applied Psychology, 55, 259â€Å"286. ARTICLE IN PRESS R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 287 Hartmann, L. C., Bambacas, M. (2000). Organizational commitment: A multi method scale analysis and test of effects. The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 8(1), 89â€Å"108. Howell, J. P., Dorfman, P. W. (1986). Leadership and substitutes for leadership among professional and nonprofessional workers. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 22, 29â€Å"46. Hoy, W. K., Tartar, C. J., Bliss, J. R. (1990). Organizational climate, school health, and effectiveness: A comparative analysis. Educational Administration Quarterly, 25, 260â€Å"279. Johnson, P. E., Short, P. M. (1998). Principalâ„ ¢s leader power, teacher empowerment, teacher compliance and conflict. Educational Management and Administration, 26(2), 147â€Å"159. Karambayya, R. (1989). Organizational citizenship behavior: Contextual predictors and organizational consequences. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Katz, D. (1964). The motivational basis of organizational behavior. Behavioral Science, 9, 131â€Å"133. Katz, D., Kahn, R. L. (1966). The social psychology of organizations. New York: Wiley. Kidder, D. L. (2002). The influence of gender on the performance of organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Management, 28(5), 629â€Å"648. Kirby, P. C., Colbert, R. (1994). Principals who empower teachers. Journal of School Leadership, 4(1), 39â€Å"51. Koopman, P. L., Wierdsma, A. F. M. (1998). Participative management. In P. J. D. Doentu, H. Thierry, C. J. de- Wolf (Eds.), Personnel psychology. Handbook of work and organizational psychology, Vol. 3 (pp. 297â€Å"324). Hove, England: Psychology Press/Erlbaum (UK) Taylor and Francis. Kruse, S., Louis, K. S., Bryk, A. (1995). An emerging framework for analyzing school-based professional community. In K. S. Louis, S. D. Kruse (Eds.), Professionalism and community: Perspectives on reforming urban schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Lodahl, T. M., Kejner, M. (1965). The definition and measurement of job involvement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 49, 24â€Å"33. Louis, K. S., Kruse, S. D., Bryk, A. S. (1995). Professionalism and community: What is it and why is it important in urban schools In K. S. Louis, S. D. Kruse (Eds.), Professionalism and community: Perspectives on reforming urban schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Louis, K. S., Smith, B. (1991). Restructuring teacher engagement and school culture: Perspectives on school reform and the improvement of teacherâ„ ¢s work. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 2, 34â€Å"52. Maeroff, G. I. (1988). The empowerment of teachers: Overcoming the crisis of confidence. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Marks, H. M., Louis, K. S. (1997). Does teacher empowerment affect the classroom The implications of teacher empowerment for instructional practice and student academic performance. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 19, 245â€Å"275. Mowday, R. R., Steers, R. M., Porter, L. W. (1979). The measurement of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14, 224â€Å"247. Organ, D. W. (1977). A reappraisal and reinterpretation of the satisfactionâ€Å"causesâ€Å"performance hypothesis. Academy of Management Review, 2, 46â€Å"53. Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: the good soldier syndrome. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Organ, D. W. (1990). The motivational basis of organizational citizenship behavior. Research in Organizational Behavior, 12, 43â€Å"72. Organ, D. W., Konovsky, M. (1989). Cognitive versus affective determinants of organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 3â€Å"10. Pfeffer, J. (1994). Competitive advantage through people: Unleashing the power of the work force. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Porter, L. W., Lawler, E. E., Hackman, J. R. (1996). Ways groups influence individual work effectiveness. In R. M. Steers, L. W. Porter, G. A. Bigley (Eds.), Motivation and leadership at work (pp. 346â€Å"354). New York: McGraw-Hill. Porter, L. W., Steers, R. M., Mowday, R. T., Boulian, P. V. (1974). Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover among psychiatric technicians. Journal of Applied Psychology, 59, 603â€Å"609. Reitzug, U. C. (1994). A case study of empowering principal behavior. American Educational Research Journal, 31, 283â€Å"307. Rice, E. M., Schneider, G. T. (1994). A decade of teacher empowerment: An empirical analysis of teacher involvement in decision-making, 1980â€Å"1991. Journal of Educational Administration, 32(1), 43â€Å"58. Rinehart, J. S., Short, P. M. (1991). Viewing reading recovery as a restructuring phenomenon. Journal of School Leadership, 1(4), 379â€Å"399. Rinehart, J. S., Short, P. M. (1994). Job satisfaction and empowerment among teacher leaders, reading recovery teachers, and regular classroom teachers. Education, 114(4), 570â€Å"580. Rinehart, J. S., Short, P. M., Johnson, P. E. (1997). Empowerment and conflict at school-based and nonschool- based sites in the United States. Journal of International Studies in Educational Administration, 25, 77â€Å"87. Rinehart, J. S., Short, P. M., Short, R. J., Eckley, M. (1998). Teacher empowerment and principal leadership: Understanding the influence process. Educational Administration Quarterly, 34, 630â€Å"649. Rosenblatt, Z. (2001). Teachersâ„ ¢ multiple roles and skill flexibility: Effects on work attitudes. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38, 684â€Å"708. Rosenholtz, S. J. (1991). Teachersâ„ ¢ workplace: The social organization of schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Short, P. M. (1994a). Defining teacher empowerment. Education, 114(4), 488â€Å"492. ARTICLE IN PRESS 288 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 Short, P. M. (1994b). Exploring the links among teacher empowerment, leader power, and conflict. Education, 114(4), 581â€Å"584. Short, P. M., Greer, J. T., Melvin, W. M. (1994). Creating empowered schools: Lessons in change. Journal of Educational Research, 32(4), 38â€Å"52. Short, P. M., Rinehart, J. S. (1992). School participant empowerment scale: Assessment of level of empowerment within the school environment. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52(6), 951â€Å"960. Smith, C. A., Organ, D. W., Near, J. P. (1983). Organizational citizenship behavior: Its nature and antecedents. Journal of Applied Psychology, 68, 653â€Å"663. Smylie, M. A. (1994). Redesigning teachersâ„ ¢ work: connections to the classroom. In L. Darling-Hammond (Ed.), Review of educational research, Vol. 20 (pp. 129â€Å"177). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Somech, A., Bogler, R. (2002). Antecedents and consequences of teachers organizational and professional commitment. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38(4), 555â€Å"557. Somech, A., Drach-Zahavy, A. (2000). Understanding extrarole behavior in schools: The relationships between job satisfaction, sense of efficacy, and teachersâ„ ¢ extra-role behavior. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 649â€Å"659. Spector, P. E. (1994). Using self-report questionnaires in OB research: A comment on the use of a controversial method. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15, 385â€Å"392. Stamper, C. L., Van Dyne, L. (2001). Work status and organizational citizenship behavior: A field study of restaurant employees. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 517â€Å"536. Stroh, L., Reilly, A. H. (1997). Loyalty in the age of downsizing. Sloan Management Review, 38, 83â€Å"88. Sweetland, S. R., Hoy, W. K. (2000). School characteristics and educational outcomes: Toward an organizational model of student achievement in middle schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 36(5), 703â€Å"729. Toole, J.C., Louis, K.S. (2002). The role of professional learning communities in international education. In: K. Leithwood, P. Hallinger (Eds.), Second International handbook of educational leadership and administration, Vol. 8. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers (http://education. umn.edu/CAREI/Papers/JULYFINAL.pdf). Van Dyne, L., Graham, J. W., Dienesch, R. M. (1994). Organizational citizenship behavior: Construct redefinition, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 765â€Å"802. Van Dyne, L., LePine, J. A. (1998). Helping and voice extrarole behaviors: Evidence of construct and predictive validity. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 108â€Å"119. Vanyperen, N. W., van den Berg, A. E., Willering, M. (1999). Towards a better understanding of the link between participation in decision-making and organizational citizenship behaviour: A multilevel analysis. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72, 377â€Å"392. Wall, R., Rinehart, J. S. (1998). School-based decisionmaking and the empowerment of secondary school teachers. Journal of School Leadership, 8, 49â€Å"64. Wallace, J. E. (1993). Professional and organizational commitment: Compatible or incompatible Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 333â€Å"349. White, P. A. (1992). Teacher empowerment under idealâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ school-site autonomy. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 14(1), 69â€Å"82. Williams, L. J., Anderson, S. E. (1991). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship and in-role behaviors. Journal of Management, 17, 601â€Å"617. Williams, S., Shiaw, W. T. (1999). Mood and organizational citizenship behavior: The effects of positive affect on employee organizational citizenship behavior intentions. The Journal of Psychology, 133(6), 656â€Å"668. Wu, V., Short, P. M. (1996). The relationship of empowerment to teacher job commitment and job satisfaction. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 25, 85â€Å"89. Yousef, D. A. (2000). Organizational commitment: A mediator of the relationships of leadership behavior with job satisfaction and performance in a non-western country. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 15(1), 6â€Å"28. Zimmerman, M. A., Rappaport, J. (1988). Citizen participation, perceived control, and psychological empowerment. American Journal of Community Psychology, 16(5), 725â€Å"750. ARTICLE IN PRESS R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 289