The pupil control ideology of school teachers in Harlow, England : an analysis of the relationships between teachers' pupil control ideology and certain personal and situational factors

Regular, Melvin McKinley (1973) The pupil control ideology of school teachers in Harlow, England : an analysis of the relationships between teachers' pupil control ideology and certain personal and situational factors. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The basic purpose of this study was to measure the attitudes of teachers toward pupil control (pupil control ideology) and to show the relationships between their attitudes and selected personal and situational factors. The underlying assumptions were: (a) a teacher's pupil control ideology can be measured, and (b) a teacher's pupil control ideology has considerable influence upon behavior, (performance). -- Pupil control ideology was, conceptualized as a continuum, ranging from extreme “custodialism" to extreme "humanism." A custodial ideology stressed the maintenance of order and traditional authoritarianism; a humanistic ideology emphasized the psychological and sociological bases of learning and behavior. -- The relationships between the dependent variable, Pupil .Control Ideology and nine other selected independent variables --- age, total teaching experience, sex, age level of students taught, hierarchical position in the school, length of training, marital status, years of administrative experience and subject taught --- were examined. -- The population chosen for the study consisted of all the full-time and part-time personnel (excluding non-professional staff) in the Comprehensive Schools in Harlow, England. Teachers were asked to complete a four-page questionnaire (Personal Data Sheet and PCI Form) which solicited their personal opinions on twenty statements about schools, teachers and pupils by choosing one of five possible answers: A --- strongly agree, B --- agree, C --- undecided, D --- disagree and E ---strongly disagree. -- In quantifying the answers 5 points were given to A, 4 to B, 3 to C, 2 to D and 1 to E. Statements five and thirteen were scored in the opposite direction. On this basis an extremely "custodialistic" respondent could receive a maximum score of 100 while an extremely humanistic respondent could receive a minimum score of 20. The "average" score theoretically would be 60. -- Of the 503 teachers in the Population, 326 completed a questionnaire. The range in individual PCI scores was from a low of 25 to a high of 87. The mean for all teachers responding was 57.9. -- The personal and situational variables were related to teachers’ pupil control ideology by means of Analysis of Variance, t-tests, the Scheffe Multiple Comparison of Means Test and the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient. The effects of intervening variables were controlled for by Covariance and Partial Correlation. Finally, comparisons of the study’s findings were made with those reported in other research. -- Subject taught was the variable most strongly related to teachers’ pupil control ideology; teachers of “academic” subjects were significantly more humanistic in their pupil control attitudes than teachers of “practical” subjects. In the case of the variables hierarchical position in the school and length of training, though not significant, the results were in the expected direction. The existence of relationships between variables was accepted at the .05 level of confidence. -- The results suggest that: (1) other factors, not considered in this study, may account for the range in teachers’ pupil control attitudes, (2) type of training may be more closely related to pupil control ideology than length of training, and (3) the degree of responsibility to superiors and parents for the safety of pupils and equipment is directly related to custodial attitudes on the part of teachers.

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