Eureka! Institutional Repository

The aim of this research is to study teachers΄perceptions about the role of the Teachers' Association for a participatory and democratic administration in school units. In order to achieve the above goal, a quantitative research was implemented in schools of Primary Education of the prefecture of Trikala and specifically in a sample of 170 teachers, teachers for specialties that serve in them. In particular, it was examined whether there is participatory and democratic administration in the above Teachers' Associations, whether there is encouragement for teachers to participate in the way school administration is administered, ie whether there is a division of leadership and to what extent there is autonomy in school administration. Furthermore, it was checked whether there is a dependence between the demographic characteristics of the participants and the organizational characteristics of the school organizations in the way the participatory and democratic model of administration works. The data were collected with closed-ended questionnaires and the processing of the results with the statistical package PSPP. The findings showed that the members of the Associations are exercised in a middle position but with a positive attitude of participatory administration and the teachers express confidence in the Directors of the educational organizations where they work. As for the autonomy of the Teachers' Associations in the administrative organization and in the division of leadership, there is also a moderate attitude with a positive attitude with the teachers being encouraged to participate by their superiors. The highest average value from research questions is in terms of the existence of democratic governance in school units, as we have a clear positive trend in teachers' views. There were also small correlations between age and years of service and the existence of participatory and democratic governance. Finally, the organizational characteristics of educational units in the way the participatory and democratic model of governance works clearly had a greater impact both on building effective working relationships and on recognizing the potential of the existing legal framework and the conflict for finding a better solution.