This qualitative dissertation explored the professional learning experiences and perceived needs of four beginning high school English teachers in two NYC schools and the ways and means those needs were being addressed or not addressed. Through in-depth interviews with the teachers, my renderings from the interviews focused on how discourse shapes an understanding of the professional learning opportunities that operate as openings and constraints for teachers’ professional growth. I drew on the work of historian Michel Foucault as a theoretical framework to examine the production of a teacher’s sense of “self” as an effect of power/knowledge relations circulating within the dominant school discourses in which they are situated and the larger educational context at this historic moment.

This dissertation explores teacher identities as they emerge, recede and collide with one another in the classrooms of four participating English teachers at the Cooperative School, a pseudonymous, single school site that is home to the researcher as well as to the study participants. Focusing first on how these teachers see themselves and how they articulate their roles, the study then turns to an analysis based on Judith Butler's theories of identity formation. The role of normative power in identity formation is exemplified by what the paper calls "The Regime of Teacher Norms," i.e., Teacher as Expert, Teacher as Guide, Teacher as Professional and Teacher as Boss.

The purpose of this study is an investigation of instructors‟ perceptions of composition learning objectives focusing on which should be taught and which should be emphasized. The researcher observed that instructors do not regard all course objectives in English Composition courses equally; emphasizing some and giving others brief consideration. From this observation, this study was developed to measure objectives as well as to examine principal reasons for the differences in perception. Using an 18-question (16 content area and two demographic) survey based on content areas chosen to mirror general learning objectives in composition courses, along with six focused interviews, the researcher discovered some levels of agreement, some of disagreement, and some areas of neutrality. The researcher has established some connections and some disconnects between some of the general learning objectives from English Composition courses, which are intriguing and thought provoking. Since instructors deliver instruction using learning objectives as the goals to be achieved in the English Composition courses they teach, it is prudent to be concerned with how these objectives are perceived and implemented by the users. The data collected conclusively reflects instructors‟ perceptions of learning objectives are not all the same. As the researcher measured instructors‟ perceptions of English Composition learning objectives, the results demonstrate that there are stronger relationships with some of the learning objectives, and some objectives have no relationships; some objectives are well matched and others are not. The purpose of this study, understanding relationships between instructors‟ perceptions of learning objectives in FY English Composition courses, will provide us with research to help improve objectives and positively impact instruction.

The present study investigated the perceptions and attitudes of two groups each of ESL teachers and students in the United States regarding World Englishes (WE) pronunciations before and after watching a video on WE accents. Data gathered via online surveys were analyzed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The results show that the perceptions of the teachers in the study ranged from somewhat negative to mildly positive, both pre- and post-video, which is consistent with Brown's (1993) findings that teachers' perceptions changed little if at all after being briefly exposed to WE stimuli. The education of the teachers in this study did not seem to influence their responses, either. Both groups of teachers responded almost identically even though the Midwest (MW) teachers' education ranged from no TESOL training to MA TESOL and all the teachers in the Northwest (NW) had MA TESOL degrees. These teachers' exposure to WE topics also varied greatly from teacher to teacher. Although the results of the study could not establish a correlation between lack of WE exposure and lack of WE classroom implementation, the teacher responses were, again, consistent with the literature in that the advantages of WE implementation are often appreciated only after extensive training on the matter. Student results were slightly more encouraging than their teachers', as students were generally more enthusiastic about WE before and after stimuli. A majority of students surveyed expressed they would like their teachers to incorporate more WE materials into their lessons and, after watching the video, all but one student indicated they would take an Accents of the World class as they considered it "important to learn about the ways people in other parts of the world speak English."

Technology, in one or more of its various forms, is now a part of everyday life for most South African citizens. Many schools are equipped with various forms of technology, at great cost to sponsors, schools, parents or the government. However, this technology is not always exploited and full use is not made of it. As access is not the issue, other factors needed to be considered: in this case, teachers’ beliefs, attitudes and knowledge. This thesis explores the cognitive factors which affect the acceptance and use of technology. Teacher cognition and the factors which influence teacher cognition were examined. Following Borg, teacher cognition is defined as “the unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching – what teachers know, believe and think” (Borg, 2003, p. 81). Teacher cognition determines whether or not a teacher will use technology, if the external barrier of access is removed. In order to study the various aspect of teacher cognition, a case study was performed, which studied 6 teachers at 4 schools. All the schools in this study had some level of access to technology. Following Borg, initial experiences with the educational system (i.e. the teacher’s experience as a learner), teacher training, the context the teacher worked in (as well as social factors and private use) and classroom experience were all examined in order to discover the factors which most affect technology acceptance in teaching. The findings show that having easy access to well-maintained and functioning technology cannot be underestimated. In the study, support from other teachers, particularly those in leadership roles, led to an increase in technology use. This support needed to be explicit; general support did not seem to be effective. These findings suggest that technology integration needs to happen at a ‘whole school’ level.

随着教师研究关注点从教师行为发展到教师认知，教师信念成为重要的研究议题。职前教师教育政策性文本也开始关注教师信念等问题，促进师范生信念的改变成为职前教育的目标。在教师信念研究中，基于中国大陆职前教育背景的师范生信念的动态研究相对比较少。 / 本研究采用质性研究取向、个案研究策略，选取了P师范大学英语专业和学前教育专业共8位师范生为研究对象。通过深度访谈、文件分析等方法搜集田野研究数据，探究在职前教育阶段师范生信念的发展变化，并分析影响师范生信念发展变化的因素。 / 研究发现，在专业课后，学前教育专业师范生都转向幼儿中心的信念取向；实习后，学前教育专业师范生信念出现回归倾向。英语专业师范生在专业课后信念发展变化有一些多样性。师范生信念的转变可以分为两组，专业课学习之后，EFL-X、EFL-Q这两位师范生信念呈现整合的特点，实习后，两位师范生信念转向以传统教师中心取向为主。而另外两个英语专业师范生则呈现另一类型。专业课后，EFL-Z、EFL-R两位师范生持有学生中心的信念取向，实习后，他们的信念呈现整合的特点。师范生信念的发展是一个动态的过程，师范生信念由基于个人经验的信念发展初期，发展到基于理论的信念发展阶段，再发展到基于情境的、经验的信念发展阶段，这一阶段师范生信念出现具体化，回归传统两种发展变化形态。 / 在不同的阶段中，影响师范生信念的因素具有差异性。在专业课学习阶段，学前教育教育专业师范生信念受职前教育课程影响比较明显。师范生接受专业理论课程时，师范生进行一致性检验，新习得的信息与原有的基于个人经历形成的信念不一致，出现认知冲突，认知冲突是信念改变的开始。专业课传递的理念处于比较强势的地位，同化了之前基于社会文化及个人因素形成的信念，基于专业课形成的信念还要反复地通过实践环节进行一致性的检验。学前教育专业主干课程的课程内容强调儿童中心，理论课程的学习阶段有见习环节，见习的重要作用在于及时强化师范生在专业课程中习得的信念。大学教师在教学中注重学生参与、注重实践性，课程组织以及大学教师的教学方式都符合情境学习理论所强调的通过即时的情境、注重学习材料的真实性，在参与实践的过程中学习的理念。结合真实的情境进行学习，容易引起师范生的认知冲突，因此，学前教育专业师范生信念改变比较明显。英语专业职前教育课程理论课程与实践课程相分离，在专业课形成理念得不到及时的强化，不利于师范生信念的改变。英语知识课程理念和教师职业教育类课程所强调的理念有一些不一致，是导致专业课后英语专业师范生信念出现差异性的原因之一。 / 实习过程中，师范生信念主要受情境性因素、基于实践的反思、社会性互动影响。师范生在实习过程中教学实践与信念的一致性强化专业课习得的信念，信念的发展形态为具体化。如果实践和师范生持有的信念不一致，出现认知冲突，伴随比较消极的情绪，师范信念开始动摇，出现回归的倾向，出现信念的重新整合或回归教师中心的信念取向。 / 个人、社会方面的因素对师范生信念有所影响，高中学习经历是影响大一英语专业师范生信念形成的因素。实习阶段，受考试文化因素的影响，师范生信念发生回归传统的倾向。另外，师范生的个人性格、个人性别、其他学习经历制约职前教育课程对个人信念影响的大小。 / With the shift of focus in teacher research from teachers’ behavior to teachers’ cognition, teachers’ beliefs have become an important research issue. Recently, pre-service teacher education policies have begun to pay attention to teachers’ beliefs. Promoting changes in the beliefs of pre-service teachers should be one of the central tasks of pre-service teacher education. However, few studies of pre-service teachers’ beliefs have been conducted in the context of mainland Chinese pre-service teacher training programs. / The present research followed a qualitative research approach and employed the case study method. Eight students of a normal university, four pre-service teachers majoring in English and four majoring in preschool education, participated in the study. The researcher collected data through in-depth interviews and document analysis to address the following questions. How do pre-service teachers’ beliefs develop during pre-service teacher education? What factors would effect changes in the beliefs of pre-service teachers? / The results show that before their teaching practicum the preschool education majors tended to hold child-centered beliefs, whereas after it their beliefs tended to reflect a traditional teacher-centered orientation. The changes in the beliefs of the English majors exhibited greater variety, although two general types of belief-changes were observed. Two of the English majors showed an integration of teacher-and student-centered beliefs before the teaching practicum, and reverted to teacher-centered beliefs after it. The other two originally held student-centered beliefs, and then moved toward an integration of teacher-and student-centered beliefs after the teaching practicum. / The influential factors in changing the participating pre-service teachers’ beliefs differed at different stages of the research. The preschool education majors were affected by the university curriculum in significant ways, and then tried to reconcile their experience in the teaching practicum with a theoretical perspective. Cognitive conflict arose when there was a discrepancy between teaching experience and earlier held beliefs, leading to a change in beliefs. Beliefs based on formal education tend to be influential and to assimilate pre-existing beliefs based on personal experience and the prevailing culture, but need to be consolidated by practice. The preschool education curriculum emphasizes child-centered beliefs, which are to be strengthened by internship experience. Normal universities emphasize the full participation of pre-service teachers, and preschool education majors have many opportunities to learn through practice. The organization of the curriculum and teaching methods are in line with situated learning theory, which emphasizes the situated nature of the learning process in the immediate context and the use of authentic learning materials. For English majors, in contrast, the curriculum and practice are separated. Beliefs shaped by the courses taken are not immediately strengthened by practice, and are thus more resistant to change. What is more, there are inconsistences between English subject courses and educational theory courses. That discrepancy appears to be the main reason for the diversity in pre-service teachers’ beliefs observed in this research. / During the teaching practicum, participants’ beliefs were affected by the context, reflection on practices, and social interaction. Consistency between practice and beliefs reinforced their beliefs, whereas discrepancies led to negative emotions and belief-regression. / Personal factors and the assessment-centered culture that prevails in mainland China also affected the participating pre-service teachers’ beliefs. The main influence on those beliefs was the participants’ own educational experience, which was largely characterized by an emphasis on assessment. During the teaching practicum, this assessment-centered culture prompted the English majors to resort to a traditional teacher-centered orientation. Also, personal factors such as personality, sex, and additional learning experiences, influenced the effectiveness of the teacher training program in shifting the beliefs of all participating pre-service teachers. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 李玲. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-261). / Abstracts also in English. / Li Ling.

For the domain of compensation structure, the three factors extracted from the alternative bases for paying teachers including differential pay, competencies pay and teach load pay are significant predictors of their retention tendency. / For the domain of working conditions for teachers, the results show that the classroom teaching conditions and the school support are two extracted factors that have predictive effects on the retention tendency of English subject teachers in Hong Kong. / Teachers and teacher salaries are the two major scarce resources in the provision of education. Teacher shortage problems are common and have been a concern in nearly all countries. High teacher attritions other than retirement have called public and government attention in enhancing retention of teachers as a way to solve teacher shortage problems. The shortage of teachers varies with subjects and levels. In Hong Kong, the shortage of quality English teachers has long been a social concern because of the importance for its citizen to attain high English proficiency levels to maintain the competitiveness as an international city. / The predictors in the personal variables domain are: Major in English, professionally trained and taking professional development programmes. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / The purpose of this study is to investigate the predictors affecting the retention tendency of inservice English teachers in Hong Kong secondary schools from the labour economics perspective with a quantitative survey. Through a more thorough understanding of the predictors affecting their retention tendency, policies can be formulated with a view to enhancing the retention of English subject teachers. The survey was carried out in September, 2002. Questionnaires were sent to 111 publicly funded secondary schools in Hong Kong. A total of 490 completed questionnaires have been collected from an estimated sample size of 1332 English subject teachers in Hong Kong secondary schools. The response rate is 36.8%. / The results show that three domains of predictors: compensation structure, working conditions and personal variables affect the retention tendency of English teachers to continue teaching English. The variance explained by the whole model is 0.211. / Ko Kwok-wai. / "July 2003." / Adviser: Yue Ping Chung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-07, Section: A, page: 2391. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 294-313). / Available also through the Internet via Current research @ Chinese University of Hong Kong under title: The effects of compensation structure and working conditions on the retention tendency of English subject teachers in Hong Kong secondary schools (China) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics