| The purpose of this study was to explore the relation of selected personal qualities and social perceptions to voluntary in-service participation of home economics teachers. Those qualities and perceptions included locus of control, conceptual level, and social context. In addition, demographic characteristics were investigated in relation to voluntary in-service participation.;A 5.5 percent sample drawn in a random manner from western Washington Home and Family Life teachers completed questionnaires and a structured interview. Instruments consisted of Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control (1966), Harvey and Hoffmeister's Conceptual Systems Test (1971), and three instruments designed specifically for the study. Statistical analysis of the data included PPM correlation, chi-square, and one-way analysis of variance, as appropriate. In addition, multiple regression analysis was used to test the major study hypothesis.;No significant relationship was found between voluntary in-service participation and personal qualities or social perceptions when the criteria were locus of control, conceptual level, and social context. Instead, voluntary in-service participation was found to be significantly related to a more external locus of control, a greater need for structure and order, and lower general pessimism (more optimism) by use of multiple regression analysis (p < .05).;While early adopter characteristics were the focus in selecting variables for this study, the study results suggest that voluntary in-service participants possess characteristics more similar to the early majority as described in innovation theory.;Voluntary in-service participation was conceptualized in this study as an aspect of innovative behavior. An effort was made to link theories of change and innovativeness with theories of effective inservice delivery and with studies of teacher innovativeness. The study design was exploratory and ex post facto.;The measure of social context designed for this study was not adequate to assess the influence of the social context, but the structured interview data suggested that this is an important variable to measure.;Voluntary in-service participants were no different from their colleagues with respect to demographic characteristics, with the possible exception of the number of reported professional memberships. The PPM correlation of professional memberships with participation was significant (p < .01); however, the one-way analysis of variance with participation broken down by the number of professional memberships was not significant (p > .05).;The study of the relation of personal qualities and social perceptions to voluntary in-service participation is a complex problem, but it would appear to have the potential for offering some valuable insight into problems of developing effective in-service delivery systems. |
