this study was developed as a means to examine the assumptions arising from educational research on the use of the school audit process in building effective schools. these assumptions are evident in the work of fullan & hargreaves, mcloughlln, sackney and others. they are encompassed in the following belief which is represented schematically in figure 1 : school improvement requires significant change in school culture through understanding, collaboration and ownership. in this thesis these assumptions are tested against teacher perceptions collected through a school audit process. figure 1 is then modified to reflect the findings of this study.