Is it all about attitude? The role of attitude on the implementation of educational standards
Sprache des Vortragstitels:
Englisch
Original Tagungtitel:
Closing the Gaps? Differential Accountability and Effectiveness as a Road to School Improvement
Sprache des Tagungstitel:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
A positive attitude towards a new, evidence-based governance in the educational system has been proposed as crucial factor for its successful implementation (Rogers, 1995). Previous studies investigating attitude formation and the overt behaviour in context of educational reforms typically assumed a direct influence of attitude on overt behaviour, not considering that attitude formation is mediated by additional factors such as subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (i.e. Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; see also Ajzen, 1991).
This study explores on what type of attitudes, norms and behavioural control actors rely on in the context of educational reforms. Moreover, the impact of each of these factors on behaviour is portrayed. The data was collected in a qualitative long-term approach, including interviews with teachers at seven primary school sites in Austria.
The results indicate, that attitudes themselves cannot explain behaviour. In particular, factors subsumed under perceived behavioural control mainly influenced actors? implementation of educational standards. Four different types of teachers were classified, representing different manifestations and combinations of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. The results will be discussed with regard to their impact on governing educational reforms.