Teacher Empowerment in Secondary Schools: A Case Study in Malaysia

The main purpose of this study is to seek the answer to the question of teacher effectiveness through teacher empowerment in secondary schools in Malaysia. This present study consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the demographic variables of the teachers toward their perception of empowerment and the second part of the study focuses on the relationship between teacher empowerment, commitment and satisfaction of teachers in the secondary schools in Malaysia. It examines which of the teacher empowerment subscales can best predict the teacher satisfaction and commitment outcomes. The data were collected through questionnaires returned by a sample of 1090 teachers from 67 secondary schools in 3 states in Malaysia. These states were Melaka, Selangor and Putrajaya. Results from the first part of the study shows that there were significant differences in the demographic variables such as school and teachers characteristics towards their perception of the teacher empowerment. Overall, it shows that decision making which has been specifically extra emphasized by the Ministry of Education in Malaysia was the lowest in the teacher empowerment dimensions. Status was the highest reported in this study followed by self-efficacy, professional growth, impact and autonomy. As for the second part of the study, Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression Analyses indicated that teachers’ perceptions of their level of empowerment are significantly related to their feelings of commitment and satisfaction. Among the six subscales of teacher empowerment, professional growth and status were the only subscales that were significant predictors of the teachers’ commitment and satisfaction. Finally, three intervention levels are suggested in this study with each level targeting at teachers, principals and the education department in Malaysia to elevate the teachers’ perception in all of the six dimensions of teacher empowerment.