PRINCIPAL BEHAVIOUR AND CURRICULUM DECISION MAKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AND METHODS OF CURRICULUM DECISION MAKING

This article reports a study on the relationship between organizational climate and one aspect of school based curriculum development, namely, who makes the curriculum decisions and how. In a systematically selected sample of 20 primary schools in N.S.W., two questionnaire were administered: the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire (OCDQ) to measure organizational climate, and the Curriculum Decision Making Questionnaire (CDMQ) to determine who makes the curriculum decisions and how. The results indicated a highly significant relationship between the organizational climate factor of principal supportiveness, and curriculum decision making by a group of staff, with group decision making more likely to occur when the principal was supportive. Conversely, there was less likelihood of curriculum decision making by the class teacher acting alone, when the principal was supportive.