A Questionnaire Method for Measuring the Autonomy/Equality Norm

Lortie has described teacher sentiments that meld into a structure called the autonomy/equality norm. This norm helps preserve the separation of teaching from organizational and collegial purviews. As part of a larger study which looks for conditions that affect and are influenced by variations in task interdependence among teachers, an effort was made to develop a questionnaire technique for measuring the norm simultaneously in a number of elementary schools. Questions were constructed on the conceptual and operational framework proposed by Jackson as a means to portray and measure norms. This largely methodological paper gives the essential underlying concepts and describes the instrument, its capabilities and scoring procedures. In addition, certain analyses are reported in which characteristics of the norm are shown in relation to other organizational features. The regulatory potential of the autonomy and equality norm seems rather stable over time but fluctuates with changes in membership stability and task interdependence. (Author)