<p> Data from recent national studies indicate teacher job satisfaction is decreasing. Currently, accountability-propelled media coverage is overwhelmingly critical of the educational system, in which teachers feel less appreciated, less motivated, and less satisfied. Principals can positively influence teachers&rsquo; job satisfaction when they promote growth and autonomy through increased empowerment in educational settings. As principals work with teachers in their schools, they must understand how their own leadership style impacts their teachers&rsquo; job satisfaction. This study examined the extent to which teachers&rsquo; perceptions of their principals&rsquo; servant leadership behaviors correlate with teacher job satisfaction. The population included all high school teachers in the state&rsquo;s 144 public and 18 private high schools. The final sample size consisted of 76 teachers. </p><p> The study utilized two separate survey instruments to collect perceptions of principal servant leadership characteristics and of job satisfaction data. Servant leadership characteristics included accountability, authenticity, courage, empowerment, forgiveness, humility, standing back, and stewardship. Questions investigating teacher job satisfaction were broken into two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic. </p><p> Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to analyze the relationship between principal servant leadership behaviors and job satisfaction of teachers. Data from the surveys were evaluated for statistical significance at the .01 level. Results indicated a statistically significant relationship between South Dakota principals&rsquo; perceived overall servant leadership behavior and overall teacher job satisfaction. Data also show statistically significant relationships between each of the eight servant leadership characteristics and overall teacher job satisfaction. Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) items that focused on extrinsic job satisfaction indicated statistically significant relationships with overall servant leadership and each of the eight servant leadership characteristics. MSQ items that focused on intrinsic job satisfaction also indicated statistically significant relationships with overall servant leadership. </p><p> However, only seven of the eight dimensions of servant leadership indicated statistically significant relationships with MSQ items that focused on intrinsic job satisfaction. Finally, none of the demographic factors of teacher gender, years in education, years working with same principal, highest degree held, or school size suggested statistically significant relationships with teacher job satisfaction.</p><p>

In spite of the proclivity to organize educational practices around the concept of gender and the pervasive presence of women in public school teaching, little research exists which focuses on women's experience teaching in a patriarchal school environment. Even less exists on the experience of women student teachers in that same school context. This dissertation describes and develops an understanding of what it means to be a female learning how to teach in public secondary schools during the student teaching phase of preservice education. It focuses on how connecting the individual experiences of these women provides insight into the gender issues embedded in their lives and in the secondary schools where they did their preservice work. The gender issues that emerged from the study center on women's self-esteem and ways of knowing, patriarchal attitudes and other forms of harassment by male students and faculty, and collaborative and non-collaborative relationships between women student teachers and male and female cooperating teachers. I have used in-depth, phenomenological interviewing to ask women to reconstruct their student teaching experience in the context of their life history and inquire how they understand the meaning of that student teaching experience (Seidman, 1991).

There are about 16,000 middle schools in the United States; the half million teachers who teach in them affect the academic and emotional lives of about a hundred students while working cooperatively with an array of adult personalities and endeavoring to cover the curriculum. Although research has been conducted on many components of the middle school, an in-depth look at teachers’ experiences with the concept is missing. The purposes of this study were to explore three ideas: the complexities of the work experiences of teachers who participate on interdisciplinary teams in urban middle schools, the possible interactions of the structures and principles of the middle school philosophy with their work lives, and how the reality of interdisciplinary teams connect to the ideals in the middle school and organizational theory literature. I conducted three in-depth phenomenological interviews with 15 urban middle school teachers. Teachers shared their teaching experiences, life histories (to put their experiences in context), and how teaching fits in with their lives. Subject matters, ethnicities, ages, and years experience varied. They came from 9 schools in 5 school districts in the Northeast. I include a brief history of how the junior high morphed into the middle school. The “ideal” practices, programs, and philosophy of the middle school and teaming (as defined by middle school and organizational theory literature) are explained and then contrasted with the realities. Results indicate that the “ideal” characteristics, as described in the literature, do not exist in all urban middle schools. Teachers lamented their absence and described their frustrations with student behavior, colleagues, administrators, and state testing. They also shared the joy they find in seeing their students progress, giving back to the community, and making a difference in students’ lives. I propose that these rewards make up for the incredible difficulties they face daily. I conclude that teachers need team planning time to implement the middle school characteristics and overcome the difficulties of teaching urban students, which include transience, absenteeism, poverty, lack of familial support, and a belief that being smart is “lame.” I also propose increasing community involvement and providing alternative schools.

Although public school teaching by its inherent nature presents numerous classroom challenges, the public high school teacher today is faced in addition with multiple external mandates from several outside stakeholders. Given the established track record of professional learning communities (PLCs) to provide teacher support and development, I created a PLC that would serve as an intervention designed to support teachers in their classroom work and with their multiple mandates as well. This enhanced PLC was informed by interviews with administrators, researched best practices of traditional PLCs, and uniquely, by what teachers told me they needed in an optimal PLC experience. The PLC was facilitated and based on inclusive, holistic social justice principles that provided a framework for and experience of inclusive teaching practice, while specifically addressing ongoing teacher concerns and issues raised by the multiple mandates. The PLC intervention I designed was for participants only, and I studied them along a range of outcomes that were compared to a control group of teachers identified from the same general population, but who did not experience the intervention. I used a multiple methods, predominantly qualitative approach, that included closed and open field questions taken before and after the intervention. I concluded by conducting in-depth end of term interviews with the participants in the intervention, enriched by my own field notes and observations. Findings included participants unanimously reporting this PLC uniquely satisfying, both professionally and personally. Professionally, they reported a significant gain across a range of knowledge, skills, self efficacy, and classroom management; an enhanced understanding of student diversity, and of the complex interactions between their choices of pedagogy and curriculum within the learning experience between and among students and teacher—leading to more effective professional interactions. After closely examining a published holistic teaching and learning model, participants exercised their professional power by creating one organizing tool to help them personalize and connect the apparently disparate mandates, and another organizer that schematically designed their future professional development requirements. Post-PLC, participants felt affirmed, empowered, less stressed, more closely affiliated, and spiritually supported by the PLC. Many continue to meet since the study’s conclusion.

Though attention to academic language is a key component of the Teacher Performance Assessment and the new Common Core Standards, little has been researched regarding how pre-service teachers build academic language knowledge and integrate it into their practice teaching experience. This study focuses on the construction and delivery of academic language knowledge to pre-service teachers in a one year immersion teacher preparation program. It studies the pre-service teachers' use of academic language knowledge in their planning, teaching, and assessment throughout a practicum and clinical experience, as well as their use of academic language knowledge as part of reflective practice. Through analysis of classroom observation notes, interviews, and artifacts, the data show that after receiving instruction on academic language concepts in the areas of content-area terminology and language use, reading, and writing, pre-service teachers consciously integrated an attention to the terminology and language use of their content area into their practicum experience. However, faced with understanding themselves as teachers while navigating their mentor teacher's expectations, learning the curriculum they are teaching, and developing classroom management skills, etc., attention to academic language instruction in reading and writing was limited. Recognition that content-area terminology and language use is key to accessing content, though, influenced reflection on how content knowledge is accessed. This conscious understanding of the role terminology and language use plays in accessing content knowledge opened the door for a deeper reflection on the role academic language plays in the classroom. And, during their post-practicum clinical experience, these pre-service teachers were able to more knowledgeably reflect on how to integrate specific content-area reading and writing instruction into curriculum. These conclusions suggest that an introduction to academic language concepts and practices can reveal "blind spots" that enable pre-service teachers to better address content-area literacy in their future practice. They also suggest that more focus in academic language instruction in teacher education programs could help pre-service teachers more efficiently learn the complexities of their new role.

High school science teachers cite "academic preparation" as the primary goal of their instruction. Almost universally, they focus their courses' content and design on the skills and knowledge that they believe are necessary for success in subsequent courses in that particular science. This study challenges the accuracy and efficacy of that priority. Data on completion of high school chemistry courses were disaggregated, analyzed, and compared with grade performance in first-year college chemistry at three institutions of higher education in Maine. Completion of any level of high school chemistry failed to correlate with academic performance in college chemistry. The study compared scores on the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA) in mathematics and reading and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in quantitative and verbal areas with grade performance in first-year college chemistry. It revealed positive correlations between test scores and course grades with the mathematics section of the MEA and with both portions of the SAT. Maine high school chemistry teachers cited different priorities for varying levels of high school chemistry. Those teaching the highest level courses reported covering more of the textbook material, but spending less time using a text than did their colleagues teaching lower level courses. Teachers using the American Chemical Society's "Chemistry in the Community" program articulated substantially different course goals, expectations, and use of instructional time than did their colleagues using other text based programs. This study involved administering a pre and post questionnaire to students enrolled in first-year college chemistry, gathering data from their high school and college records, and surveying Maine high school chemistry teachers. The study employed non-parametric statistics, correlations and comparisons of means to analyze the data.

The purpose of this study is to determine middle school teachers' thoughts on ability grouping. Specifically, this study identifies the reasons that teachers retain (R group) or eliminate (E group) ability grouping practices. Data from thirty-one teachers were categorized through the use of qualitative research methodology. This study focuses on three research questions: (1) What do middle school teachers perceive to be the advantages of ability grouping? (2) What do middle school teachers perceive to be the disadvantages of ability grouping? (3) What alternative grouping practices do middle school teachers utilize to replace ability grouping? Teachers who support ability grouping do not believe what they read and hear about ability grouping. For them, ability grouping may not be the best way to work with young adolescents in schools, but it works reasonably well and they do not believe another way of grouping is worth the effort, or works any better. They may not want to change for a variety of other reasons. Their beliefs may limit thinking or they may not want to invest the time, energy, and thought necessary to alter ability grouping practices. These ideas, coupled with the notion that teaching ability grouped classes is easier and change is difficult, form the basis for their perceived advantages of ability grouping. R group teachers state as many disadvantages of ability grouping as they do advantages. E group teachers are more adamant in their perceptions. They state fewer advantages of ability grouping, and many times more disadvantages. They believe that non-ability grouped methods, coupled with other teaching methodologies, are effective ways to teach middle school students. Sixteen of seventeen teachers interested in eliminating ability grouping had taught in both ability grouped and non-ability grouped classrooms. The opposite was true for the teachers who wished to retain ability grouping. Only one of the fourteen R group teachers had taught both ability grouped and non-ability grouped classes. This suggests that to be supportive of eliminating ability grouping in classrooms, teachers must use both types of instruction. Teachers who have chosen to eliminate ability grouping in their schools and classrooms have bridged the gap between acceptance of the status quo and taking action. Their actions are based upon a strong belief that they can be successful and benefit all students, both academically and socially.

There is an inherent contradiction in a system of education in which a significant number of those who are to be taught, do not learn. The schools in the United States have contributed to a generations long pattern of non-achievement which contributes to many of society's ills. The author contends that many of these underachieving students have more ability than they are able to demonstrate easily. An experiment was conducted that empowered remedial mathematics students to pursue some mathematical problems in depth by removing the dual obstacles of poor computational skills and the lack of confidence that their computations produce correct answers.

The purpose of this study was to obtain a realistic portrait of National History Day (NHD)--a secondary school, history related program in which students research and develop presentations on a topic related to an annual theme. My goal was to determine: whether the positive claims for NHD were realistic; why and how the program grew from a local program with 129 students in 1974 to over 500,000 students in 48 states in 1991; and what implications there were for educational processes. For this ethnohistorical case study, which combined ethnographic and historiographic methods, I collected historical data through documentary material and interviews; perspectives of teachers and students through interviews and observations; and supplementary and validating data through interviews with state coordinators and former students. The study participants were the "founding fathers" and Executive and Associate Directors of NHD, 13 students and 4 teachers from 3 schools in different states, and 3 state coordinators and 6 former NHD students from corresponding states and schools. The data support the claims of superior cognitive, affective, and skill development through student participation in NHD. The data also show that the teachers and students in this study participated mainly because NHD provided opportunities for self-determination, self-comparison, close student-teacher relationships, community contribution, receiving recognition, and having fun. Furthermore, results indicate that these motivational dynamics account, at least in part, for the program's phenomenal growth. Additionally, findings suggest that for these participants competition was the driving force behind the level of involvement and calibre of work. While all study participants claimed major benefits and few drawbacks to the competition format, most considered the judging process to be inconsistent and a weakness in the program. Implications for educational practice revolve around how to incorporate the motivational components of the NHD process into the curriculum. The implications for the teaching and learning of history relate to methodology. The participants indicated that through the NHD process students gained a deeper comprehension of historical content and concepts and a greater ability to think critically and to develop their own knowledge than was possible in a traditional, teacher-dominated classroom.

The underrepresentation of women and minorities in science is an extensively studied yet persistent concern of our society. Major reform movements in science education suggest that better teaching, higher standards, and sensitivity to student differences can overcome long-standing obstacles to participation among women and minorities. In response to these major reform movements, researchers have suggested teachers transform their goals, science content, and instructional practices to make science more attractive and inviting to all students, particularly young women and minorities (Barton, 1998; Brickhouse, 1994; Mayberry & Rees, 1999; Rodriguez, 1999; Roychoudhury, Tippins, & Nichols, 1995). One of the more dominant approaches currently heralded is the use of feminist pedagogy in science education. The purpose of this study was to examine the ways eleven middle and high school science teachers worked collaboratively to engage in systematic, self-critical inquiry of their own practice and join with other science teachers to engage in collaborative conversations in effort to transform their practice for a more equitable science education. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews, whole group discussions, classroom observations, and review of supporting documents. Data analysis was based on grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) and open coding (Miles and Huberman, 1994). This study described the collective processes the science teachers and university researcher employed to facilitate regular collaborative action research meetings over the course of six months. Findings indicated that engaging in collaborative action research allowed teachers to gain new knowledge about feminist science teaching, generate a cluster of pedagogical possibilities for inclusive pedagogy, and enhance their understanding for science teaching. Additional findings indicated dilemmas teachers experienced including resistance to a feminist agenda and concerns for validity in action research. This study revealed that there are no uniform solutions or standard methods to address issues of equity and accessibility in science education. This study recommends teachers be given time, support, and freedom to collaborate with other teacher-researchers, enact decisions for change, and reflect on and make public the results of their work. Additional implications suggest science teacher educators collaborate with practicing science teachers to devise practical applications and feasible resources for a wider audience.