Abstract
Purpose. This study identified elementary school principals' perceptions of their use of empowering strategies and determined teachers' perceptions of their level of opportunity for involvement in empowering strategies. In addition, the study determined there were significant differences between the perceptions of the principals and those of their teachers. Methodology. Data were collected from 22 principals and their 223 teachers in K-4, K-5, and K-6-configured elementary schools in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California, through the use of two survey instruments. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to describe the perceptions and to determine the differences in perceptions of teachers and principals. In schools where high levels of empowerment were found in both the principals and the teachers, follow-up interviews' with the principals were conducted to identify specific programs and practices which contributed to the overall perception of empowerment. Key Findings. There were significant differences between the perceptions of principals and those of their teachers in 82 percent of the items. In every strategy surveyed, principals rated their use of the empowering strategy higher than teachers rated their opportunity to be involved in it. Principals perceived themselves using strategies which boost the status of teachers most often, while using those which give teachers access to power least often. Teachers, on the other hand, perceived themselves having the most opportunity for involvement in those strategies having to do with increasing teachers' knowledge in their field and the least opportunity for involvement in status-boosting activities. Recommendations. If principals want to move toward empowering their teachers, they must make decisions using the input of the most people possible, personally and continuously recognize the good things teachers are doing, provide opportunities for teachers to select preferences for adjunct duties, provide release time for professional planning, professionalize teacher work outside teaching by providing stipends for it, and never forget what it was like to be a teacher. Principals who seek to be empowering must check perceptions regularly, talk about empowerment often, look for an empowering way to solve problems, and reward the empowered example.