How much control should teachers have over what happens in their own classroom? This question has become something of a hot potato over the last few years. The National Education Union has, for instance, suggested that central control only serves to “deepen the crisis in our schools”. There has been particular ire about the relaunch of Oak National Academy (£), with grave warning about the impact that this may have on teacher autonomy.
But, when teachers do have more control over what happens in their own classroom, do pupils outcomes improve?
In a new academic paper being published in the British Educational Research Journal, Sam Sims, Andrew Morgan and I investigate this issue.
We do so by drawing upon data from a sample of mathematics teachers from across eight countries who completed a questionnaire asking about how much control they have over various aspects of their classroom (amongst other things).
