Teacher Empowerment and the Capacity for Organizational Learning

Teacher empowerment has been the subject of considerable educational research in recent years, but the capacity of schools for organizational learning has received limited empirical attention. This study links these two research streams while identifying those dimensions of the capacity for organizational learning that are also the themes of school restructuring. Data for the study come from 24 site-managed public schools engaged in significant restructuring activities, eight at each of three grade levels (elementary, middle, and high). Multilevel analyses demonstrate a strong and consistent relationship between organizational learning and teacher empowerment, measured both as a school organizational characteristic and as an experience of individual teachers. The relationship is particularly strong for empowerment in the domains of teacher work life and student school experience.