Abstract:

According to Geijsel (2001) evaluations of the innovative efforts of schools have shown large-scale innovations to produce disappointing results in many cases. Hopkins (2001) states that the failure of recent reforms to accelerate student performance in line with policy objectives has been widely documented (e.g. Hopkins & Levin, 2000; Rinehart & Lindle, 1997). It is said that the role of individual teachers is often underestimated by the change leaders (Choi, 2011) and the innovation effort provokes resistance (Cunningham et al., 2002). Particularly, it seems to be extremely difficult to accomplish changes in teaching practices (Geijsel, 2001). Research of the past twenty years confirms that teachers play an important role in the implementation and continued success of school innovations (Polettini, 2000). In addition, most policy-makers and school change experts increasingly consider teachers and teacher learning to be the spindle of educational change (Datnow, Hubbard, & Mehan, 2002;).

This study investigates teachers’ motivation to change in social and ethnically segregated schools. A leading theory to study human motivation is the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) which has shown to be efficacious in identifying the contingencies that affect motivation and behavior in numerous domains (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Besides being descriptive this study also aims at explaining differences in teachers ‘ motivation to change by looking at leadership style, success of previous innovations and job satisfaction of teachers. Many studies show that (school) leadership contributes to school effectiveness by the actions they take at school and classroom level (Halllinger, 2003), for example through the creation of willingness to change. Conceptually we used transformational and instructional leadership to operationalise leadership styles in schools (Geijsel, Sleegers, Stoel, & Krüger, 2008; Hallinger, 2003; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005).

The paper reports on a written survey on the perception of teachers on current innovations in their school. On the basis of a path analysis (structural equation modelling), the existence and strength of the relationships presented in the conceptual model are tested. Data were gathered using a convenience sample consisting of 181 teachers out of 23 Flemish primary schools. The paper will describe teachers’ motivation for innovation in terms of self-determined (autonomous) versus controlled types of motivation. Furthermore, the impact of leadership style, success of previous innovations and job satisfaction on the quality of motivation for innovation is cleared out. The theoretical and practical value of these findings will be discussed and insights for (re)designing (research into) change interventions will be elaborated.

Keywords:

Innovation, self-determination theory, leadership style, survey.