Dr. Lisa Kensler: Abstract

THE ECOLOGY OF DEMOCRATIC LEARNING COMMUNITIES

This cross-sectional, explanatory study integrated three complex social processes, democratic community, trust, and organizational learning into one model, for the first time. A new principle-based measure of democratic community allowed for this larger scale quantitative investigation of democratic community in schools, extending the qualitative research base. The review of the literature demonstrated substantial evidence for the two proposed models. Democratic Community was defined as a school community where the individual practices, principal practices, and organizational systems and processes all reflect the action of ten democratic principles (Fenton, 2002). Trust was defined as one’s willingness to be vulnerable to another based on the confidence that the other is benevolent, honest, open, reliable, and competent (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 1998). Finally, organizational learning was defined as the capacity to integrate people and structures in order to move toward continuous learning and change (Yang, Watkins, & Marsick, 2004).

The data for the study were compiled from approximately 3,000 teachers from 79 public middle schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The final group of participating schools was statistically similar to the original randomly selected sample of 600 PA and NJ middle schools on urbanicity and school size. Teachers from each school completed one of three surveys measuring Democratic Community, Trust, or continuous & team learning. Having each teacher respond to only one of the three variable measures minimized the time for participation and minimized the effects of common method bias. 

Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was the primary method of analysis. The school served as the level of analysis, with teacher responses aggregated to the school level. The data adequately fit the proposed models. Trust did meet the standards for mediation between the two variables Democratic Community and continuous & team learning (Baron & Kenny, 1986). Further research, including data collection over time, is necessary to fully understand the pattern of causal relationships among Democratic Community, Trust, and continuous & team learning.

Multivariate Analysis of Variance was employed to further understand the differences among the high and low scoring schools on the continuous & team learning measure. The perceived practice of each of the ten democratic principles differed significantly between the higher and lower performing groups on continuous & team learning. However, decentralization, purpose & vision, and integrity contributed the most to separating these performance groups.

To learn more, please contact Tamara Palmer at tlp205@lehigh.edu or 610.758.3226.