Teachers’ Perception of Control over Curriculum Decisions and the Relevant Influential Factors

The present research aims to study junior high school teachers' perception of control over curriculum decisions and identify factors that influence it. The survey method was used for this descriptive research, and the statistical population consisted of all junior high school teachers in the region of Babol in 2017. Using single-stage cluster sampling, 202 teachers were selected as the statistical sample. The Paik questionnaire (2015) was used to collect data, and Pearson correlation as well as simultaneous linear and multiple regression were used for data analysis. The results point out that teachers understand quantitative control in all areas of decision making. In regard to educational strategies, they show the highest level of cognition of control, while in content, the lowest level of cognition of control is indicated. Teachers' attention to the curriculum guide, the teacher's book, students' needs, and local matters showed a meaningful correlation, whereas their attention to the textbooks and assessment proved to have a negative correlation with their perception of control. Teachers' positive beliefs regarding the curriculum, content knowledge, teachers' pedagogical knowledge and collaboration with other teachers proved to be correlated to teachers' cognition of curriculum. In particular, in the case of content knowledge, teachers' pedagogical knowledge and collaboration with other teachers, correlation was shown to be high. However, teachers' knowledge of how to use the content in the curriculum showed no meaningful correlation with their cognition of the curriculum. Moreover, teachers' collaboration proved to be meaningfully correlated with increasing their cognition of decision making, while the correlation was not meaningful in the case of using the curriculum and improving teachers' knowledge.