Pupli control ideology and the salience of teacher characteristics

Australian Pupil Control Ideology (PCI) studies have generally utilized small samples in an endeavour to establish significant relationships between teacher/administrator control orientation, and a variety of person-specific variables. The present study examines the tenability of a number of American biographically-derived hypotheses in the Australian context. The explanatory power of the combined biographical variables of teacher age, experience, sex, organizational status and academic qualifications for variances in PCI is seriously questioned since as little as 6 percent of PCI variance may be explained by reference to these particular variables. Some potentially more fruitful avenues of enquiry for future PCI research are proffered.