Use of Teacher Perceptions in School Environment Research

The usefulness of teacher perceptual data in school environment research is illustrated by a study of Catholic and Government schools in Queensland Australia. A new 57 item instrument was developed to assess the seven dimensions of mission consensus, empowerment, student support, affiliation, professional interest, resource adequacy and work pressure. Comparisons of environment in Catholic non-order (co-educational), Catholic girls', Catholic boys' and Government co-educational schools revealed statistically significant differences on three scales, namely empowerment, student support and mission consensus. Catholic non-order and Catholic girls' schools had more positive environments than Government schools. In the Catholic schools teachers of religion perceived their school environment to have higher empowerment and resource adequacy compared with teachers of science. A comparison of male and female teacher perceptions of their school environment revealed no statistically significant differences.