A Typology of School Climates Based on Teacher Participation: A Q-Technique Study with School as the Analytic Unit.

Approximately 600 teachers in 32 public elementary schools and secondary schools from 1 urban southeastern school district participated in a study conducted to identify prototypes of school climate concerning decisional participation cultures. A 19-item decisional participation measure was used, and the median score of the teachers at each school was computed on each item. A Q-technique factor analysis was conducted to isolate the prototypes. Three school prototypes were identified. The first cluster of schools might be characterized as involving climates that were student-interactions-targeted. The second cluster involved school climates that were policy-focused. The third cluster involved climates that focused on instructional-formalities. Related variations in participation patterns were also analyzed. Three tables, 4 figures, an appendix of schools sorted into groups, and 32 references are included. (Author/SLD)