Teacher autonomy and responsibility variation and association with student performance in Didaktik and curriculum traditions

The primary objective of the study was to empirically test theoretical claims made about differences between Didaktik and curriculum traditions concerning teacher autonomy (TA) and teacher responsibility (TR). It tests the hypothesis that TA and TR are higher among Didaktik than curriculum countries. The second objective was to explore associations of TA and responsibility measures with students’ science performance? Nationally representative data from 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), collected through a two-step random selection process were used. For TA individual items Mann–Whitney rank-sum test was employed, while a difference of proportion test was used for TR items to examine the differences. Hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) was used to examine association of TA and TR items with students’ science performance in PISA 2009. Overall and contrary to the initial hypothesis, teachers in curriculum countries enjoy both more autonomy and responsibility than teachers in Didaktik countries, but differences were substantively weak. Furthermore, within-country associations of autonomy and responsibility measures with students’ science performance were found in a few countries. Further research is recommended to address TA and responsibility and complexities that accompany them in current stakeholder-crowded school contexts.