The relationship between pupil control ideology and subject faculties in ACT government high schools

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish that a relationship existed between teacher Pupil Control Ideology (PCI) and membership of a practical subject faculty or of a humanities subject faculty in ACT government high schools. It was hypothesized that teachers in practical subject faculties and teachers of practical subjects would be custodial in their PCI. Teachers in humanities subject faculties and teachers of humanities subjects would he humanistic in their PCI. A subsidiary purpose was to replicate earlier research findings of a relationship between PCI and years of teaching, sex, position in the school administration, and type of school. The PCI Form was administered to a population sample of 116 teachers from five high schools in the Belconnen area of Canberra. The results were subjected to t-test and one-way analysis of variance. Statistically significant relationships were observed between PCI and teacher variables of subject faculty, subject taught, and sex of teacher. Earlier findings for other variables were not replicated. The direction of findings was surprising. Teachers in practical subject faculties and of practical subjects were more humanistic than humanities faculty and subject teachers. Female teachers were more custodial than male teachers. An analysis of variance showed no interaction effect between variables sex and faculty, and sex and subject taught. More research on possible causes of the relationships, such as student attitude to subject, and teacher sense of achievement, is needed before the findings can have practical application.

Date of Award	1985
Original language	English