This study presents a preliminary framework of the variables of effective citizen participation on mandated school advisory councils and systematically investigates the relative effects of participant-type (e.g., parent, teacher), council power, leadership style, and social climate on council member satisfaction and involvement with their councils. A group of 149 school principals and 505 of their council members provided data for the study. The major findings revealed that increased satisfaction, feelings of involvement, and actual number of activities engaged in by council members are related to higher degrees of council member power, more support from the principal for member involvement, clearer role and responsibility definition, and a person-oriented leadership style of the principal. It was also found that principals and teachers are less satisfied with council effectiveness than parents. Theoretical and intervention implications of the results are discussed.
The effectiveness of a 2‐day residential leadership training workshop for school principals designed to increase their ability to develop effective citizen participation on a School Advisory Council is reported. One hundred eight schools were included in this study. The experimental design included two trained groups and one waiting list control group. The major findings revealed that trained principals and their council members were significantly more satisfied with and involved in their councils and more likely to report that their councils benefited their schools' academic programs than were untrained principals and their council members. Council members of the former group were also more likely to express support for their school administrators' policies than were control group council members. Furthermore, perceived social climate variables were found to discriminate significantly as mediators between trained and untrained groups. This research exemplifies the application of psychology's knowledge base and methods to a new state‐level educational policy and contributes to community psychology's knowledge about citizen participation in public education.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.