Pluralistic Ignorance and Pupil Control Ideology

Abstract

Pupil control ideology, which is expressed in terms of a custodial‐humanistic continuum, refers to educators' views concerning the rights and status of the school's pupil clients. Pluralistic ignorance is defined as the shared misperception of an attitude, norm or belief held by members of a group. 480 respondents were asked to complete four identical forms of the PCI instrument—first, as they personally reacted to the 20 Likert items and then as they estimated the responses of the typical teacher, principal and counselor respectively. Findings revealed inter alia that teachers and principals attribute to each other a much greater custodial pupil control ideology than is reported by members of the respective groups.