The Influence of Organizational Structure on Teacher Empowerment: A Case Study of a Title I Elementary School
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Authors
Vining, Mary Beth
Issue Date
2018-05
Type
Dissertation
Language
en_US
Keywords
Dissertations, Academic--United States , Education , Structural frames , Power (Social sciences) , Elementary schools , Low-performing schools
Alternative Title
Abstract
This instrumental case study design addressed the lack of improvement in Georgia's Title I elementary schools. The purpose was to interview grade level teams and six individual teachers in a low-performing Title I school to determine if and to what degree organizational structure influenced empowerment and the teachers' ability to work effectively together. Using Covey‟s Maturity Continuum as the metric, teachers in a low-performing Georgia Title I elementary school were interviewed regarding the impact of organizational structure on their abilities to work effectively together. The findings in this study may provide national policy makers, federal and state departments of education, university and college teacher preparation programs, and regional and local education units with research and insights on how to better structure Georgia schools. The researcher found that the hierarchal structure created by administrators influenced Title I teachers to work dependently. The structure created by the administrators did not promote interdependency. The imposed structure included mandatory protocols, definitive decision-making, and absolute expectations, and lines of authority, which seemed not to have any effect on bottom-line measures of success. Perhaps there is a disconnect between teachers‟ definitions and understanding of empowerment and interdependence in this particular school which may apply to other schools as well. In a final analysis, it is the researcher'‟s opinion that in schools where structures impede interdependence there is a likelihood of continued low performance.
**Keywords:**
structural frame, empowerment, Covey's Maturity Continuum, low-performing Georgia Title I elementary school, organizational structure,
Description
Citation
Vining, Marci Beth. "The Influence of Organizational Structure on Teacher Empowerment: A Case Study of a Title I Elementary School," M.Ed., diss., Valdosta State University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10428/3092.
Publisher
License
This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgment. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.