An Exploration on Teacher Concerns about Organizational Change in Elementary Schools: Stages and Types Author: Chih-Lin Sun(Department of Educational Management, National Taipei University of Education),Chien-Ming Chen(Graduate Institute of Educational Policy and Management, National Taipei University of Education)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 52, No. 1
Date：April 2007
Pages：159-180
DOI：10.3966/2073753X2007045201008

Abstract：

Although organizational change in schools is an important part of the larger process of educational reform, we know relatively little about teacher concerns regarding such change. This study attempted to explore the stages and types of teacher concerns about organizational change in elementary schools. It focusd on the key role of teachers themselves in the process of implementing educational change. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model(CBAM) was deliberately chosen to explore the development of teacher concerns about school organization change. The model describes adoption of innovation as a dynamic process. Each teacher, according to this model, experiences a characteristic sequence of concerns as an innovation is implemented: (1) awareness; (2) information; (3) personal; (4) management; (5) consequence; (6) collaboration; and (7) refocusing. The subjects were 663 teachers from 50 elementary schools in Taipei city and Taipei prefecture. The instrument of this study was the “Questionnaire of Teacher Concerns about School Organizational Change” which consisted of seven subscales. Data were analyzed using the statistical methods of frequency, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, ANOVA, and the kai-square test. Results indicated that most teachers had high concerns about how the implementation of school organizational change.Teachers fall into two relatively well-defined categories in terms of their concerns regarding the innovation: the personal concern (stage 3) and the collaborative concern (stage 6). Furthermore, teacher concerns about school organizational change were also classified into three types: the moderate type, the efficient type, and the social type. Each type had its own characteristics and developmental stages of concern about the innovation. Based on these findings, several recommendations are offered to improve the process of school organizational change.

Keywords：school organizational change, teacher concern, stage of concern, type of concern

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