By reviewing teacher-made revisions of regularly taught curriculum units, this set of case studies attempts to describe the pedagogical content knowledge development of four concept-oriented middle school teachers. One strand is highlighted: The nature and use of their instructional representations. A primary goal of this effort is to trace the kinds of refinements teachers make in their teaching knowledge after years of blending subject matter with pedagogy. A second goal is to detail influences on such refinements in order to inform preservice and inservice teacher education aimed at teaching for conceptual understanding.

The purpose of this study was to describe the functions and structures within gay/straight alliances (GSAs) in the public schools of Massachusetts. Six questions guided this study: (a) What are the roots of GSAs? (b) What are the purposes of GSAs? (c) How are GSAs structured? (d) What are the outcomes of GSAs? (e) What are the strengths of GSAs? (f) What are the challenges faced by GSAs? Participants in this study were selected from two groups: current and former Safe Schools for Gay and Lesbian Students Program (SSGLSP) staff members at the Massachusetts Department of Education, Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, and Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth were interviewed and advisors of GSAs active in Massachusetts at the start of the 1998/99 school year were asked to complete surveys. The purposes of the SSGLSP are to provide support and safety for lesbian and gay students. GSAs fulfill the purposes of the SSGLSP by providing opportunities for support, social interaction, and education. Study participants perceived the outcomes of GSAs to be replacing silence with visibility, replacing isolation with connection, making known the presence of lesbian and gay students in schools, providing opportunities for positive risk taking, challenging norms of silence, and contributing to a new vision for schools. Perceived strengths of the GSA model are conceptualizing GSAs as support groups, including lesbian and gay and straight students in the support group, providing institutional support, encouraging students to speak out about issues facing lesbian and gay students, and taking action at the right time. Advisors perceived the strengths of GSAs to be the personal qualities of student members, consistency of meeting times, and the ability to persevere in spite of opposition. Governor's Commission and Department of Education personnel perceived the challenges faced by GSAs to be dealing with fear, meeting the needs of lesbian and gay students along with heterosexual students, balancing competing priorities, and meeting the needs of underserved groups. Advisors named three logistical challenges facing GSAs: maintaining or increasing GSA membership, finding a convenient meeting time, and inconsistent meeting attendance.

The lives and careers of teachers have been studied from several perspectives (e.g., teacher career stage development, adult development, and the organizational context of teachers). Teacher career stages have been the focus of much educational research since Fuller (1969) first outlined her stages of teacher concern. Over the course of the next three decades multiple models of teacher career development were proposed and tested. Teacher career development, as conceptualized by Burke and colleagues, emphasizes the influence of teachers' organizational (i.e., work) and personal (i.e., adult development) contexts on their development as teachers (Burke, Christensen, & Fessler, 1984; Burke, Christensen, Fessler, McDonell, & Price, 1987). Taking into account contexts in which teacher career development occurs provides a dynamic lens through which to view teacher development. Therefore, the teacher career cycle model served as the theoretical framework for this qualitative study of the lives and careers of urban physical education teachers. The purpose of this qualitative study was twofold. First, it was designed to understand how veteran urban physical education teachers experience their lives and careers. Second, it explored ways in which the factors influencing the lives and careers of these physical education teachers affected their career longevity in urban schools. Participants included 9 (4F, 5M) urban physical education teachers who had between four and 31 years of teaching experience in urban schools (mean = 10yrs.). Data were collected through observation and in depth interviews. Data analysis consisted of open and axial coding to identify themes and categories across participants. Results indicated that for this group of teachers, organizational context, personal context, and their development as teachers influenced their work lives and careers. In addition, as this group of teachers gained experience in urban schools, they developed skills necessary to maintain order to facilitate learning in their dynamic work environments. This study has implications for teacher education and professional development. As we learn more about the teachers who stay in urban schools we will be better able to prepare them to meet the needs of working in urban school contexts.

This study seeks to re-present the experiences of a group of secondary English teaches in what I argue is a postmodern situation. I have utilized Seidman's (1998) model of in-depth interviewing as a primary means of data collection, supplemented by informal interviewing, journal writing, and participant observation. In invoking a postmodern orientation with these approaches to data collection/analysis/interpretation/ presentation, I have attempted to resist the inclination to view the stories of participants as representative of some essential experience that is more “real” than each story, itself. I view these stories as the product of inquiry rather than as simple and direct representations of participant's experience. At the same time, in crafting the representation of these stories, I have also imagined and created another, neither more nor less real, story of what it is to be an English teacher. This re-presentation takes the form of an imagined dialogue between the Discourses of Teacher Mythology and the Social Science Profession and is crafted entirely from the verbatim data (as I have defined it). The central “question” that informs this study is: what is it like to be an English teacher? This question was used, throughout the research process, as a guiding principle for data collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation—elements of the process that I have come to see as inseparable. In using phenomenological interviewing as a model for the methodology of this study, I have sought to re-create or re-imagine the experiences of the participants in way that is accessible to readers and have avoided, to the extent possible, characterizing my “take” on this re-presentation as “the findings” of this study. In re-presenting the participants' stories, I offer a text that I hope can be useful to others in seeking new problems in their familiar settings, and I include responses to this study offered by several people working in secondary education as models for that sort problem-posing. I also provide suggestions for further use of these research and representation methods.

Although some safe schools analysts assume a link between climate and school violence and disorder, there has been little empirical data to support this assumption. Using survey data from 20 Florida middle and high schools, this research explored relationships between a school's climate and students' perceptions about the safety of their school environments. Climate was measured by students' perceptions of the following: fairness of discipline, consistency of discipline enforcement, teacher control over classroom disruption, fairness of grading, teachers' willingness to assist with schoolwork problems and whether teachers cared about students. Controlling for student demographics, attitudes and behaviors as well as for unique school characteristics, school climate was found to be a key determinant of students' perceptions about safety. Students were more likely to report feeling safe and less likely to report serious classroom incidents in schools where teachers were perceived as having control over classroom misbehavior and discipline was seen as consistent and fair. In addition, students were more likely to report feeling safe in schools where teachers were seen as caring and helpful with schoolwork problems. Students were also less likely to report serious classroom incidents in schools where grading was seen as fair. These positive climate factors were not only key factors in making schools safer, they were better predictors of serious classroom incidents and feeling safe than were student qualities or other school factors. Climate factors were also better predictors of student reports of feeling safe than serious incidents or other school qualities. Even in schools with a higher frequency of serious classroom incidents or higher proportions of disadvantaged students, students were more likely to report feeling safe in schools with positive climate factors. Challenging a major assumption of safe schools programs, these results suggest that simply focusing on reducing the frequency of serious classroom incidents will not guarantee that students will feel safe. Rather, findings indicate that positive climate factors need to be an integral part of any program for developing a “safe” school. Finally, the results suggest that educators can reduce the likelihood of aggressive incidents in classrooms by improving the school's climate.

Data collected in this study indicated significantly greater pre-to-post test score gains, confidence level gains, and increased student engagement in learning about electric circuits through model-based instruction compared to students who learned through more traditional teaching methods. Since the teachers in the model-based group were known to widely utilize guided whole-class discussions to foster the students' construction of explanatory models, it was deemed important to study the specific types of teaching strategies that may be supporting these positive effects. An in-depth analysis was conducted to identify teaching strategies used during whole class discussions by the two teachers whose students had the largest pre-to-post test gains. A new diagrammatic system for representing the parallel use of several nested levels of teaching strategies and their interaction with student reasoning moves was developed to support these microanalyses. This study found evidence that, in addition to previously documented dialogical strategies that teachers utilize to engage students in effectively communicating their scientific ideas in class, there is a second level of more cognitively focused model-construction-supporting strategies that teachers use to foster students' reasoning about the construction of explanatory models of scientific concepts. A compendium was developed of thirty nine whole-class discussion-based teaching strategies, each of which contributes to one of four phases (Observation, Model Generation, Model Evaluation and Model Modification) of a model construction cycle. While the thirty nine strategies were identified within the teaching of high school electric circuits, it is believed that they are general enough to apply to other topics and levels of instruction. It was discovered that even though considerable differences were observed between two model-based teachers in the ratios of student and teacher contributions to the model construction process taking place during whole-class discussions, both teachers were able to support high levels of student participation in these conversations as well as virtually identical pre-to-post test gains in circuit problem solving outcomes. This result suggests that there is not "one best way" to facilitate model-based learning. The study attempts to contribute to a coherent model of how teachers can support students' conceptual change processes through a process of scaffolding whole-class discussions.

This study examined teacher and student beliefs about physical education by addressing the following questions (a) what beliefs about physical education do the teacher and students bring with them to class? (b) are there differences between the beliefs held by the teacher and those held by the students? and (c) what role does context play in facilitating or inhibiting the translation of these beliefs into action? Participants in this case study were one high school physical education teacher and twelve students from the same physical education class. Methodology included qualitative field notes taken during observations of two activity units (volleyball and team handball), five interviews with the teacher, four interviews with each student, and administration of the repertory grid. Data were analyzed concurrently using constant comparison to identify common themes. Throughout the study data were returned to the participants for their responses. The teacher's beliefs formed an intricate, multi-dimensional system with the core belief that, "physical education should provide an equitable environment for all students." Secondary level beliefs included for example, "the teacher is responsible for creating a safe atmosphere," and, "physical education should be recreational." The two student belief systems were, "gym class is not important now or in the future," and "it's really important to have friends in gym class." There were five key differences between teacher and student beliefs focused on the following issues, (a) the importance of physical education, (b) whether it should be mandatory, (c) the definition of learning, (d) the importance of equity, and (e) the role of the teacher. Although the teacher and students held very different beliefs about physical education, they co-existed in the same class by manipulating the context to facilitate the translation of their beliefs into action. While the teacher acted on her beliefs, she never explained them in class and the students left this program with no understanding of how the teacher viewed physical education or why she believed it to be important. Instead, students' beliefs were strongly influenced by other contextual factors and they embraced the marginal status of physical education promoted by parents, administrators, and teachers.

The main focus in this study is on teacher empowerment. This case study, involving interviews with twelve middle school teachers in a New England middle school, looks at teacher empowerment at two levels: micro and macro. At the micro level, teacher empowerment is conceptualized as investing in teachers the right to exercise professional judgment about the content of the curriculum and means of instruction, i.e. the right to make decisions on classroom-related issues on a daily basis. At the macro level, teacher empowerment is conceptualized as investing in teachers the right to participate in the determination of school goals and policies. This study is an attempt to explore how the philosophy and approach a school adopts impacts teacher empowerment. The study seeks to provide administrators and educators some insights into the extent to which teachers in a school that has adopted a progressive educational philosophy and approach feel empowered.

This qualitative research study examines the holistic experience of secondary classroom teachers who are changing their predominant instructional technique from a mostly traditional teaching method to a student-centered, problem-based approach to curriculum delivery. Using field notes, interviews, focus groups, observations of classrooms and faculty meetings and related document study in conjunction with, and as driven by, simultaneous analysis, the researcher inquired about the nature of implementing change in instructional delivery and those influences that both help and hinder the process. Data revealed four categories with related findings: practices of changing instructional delivery, a teacher focus on students, elements of working within a culture of change, and the personal experience of implementing a change in instructional delivery.

This dissertation explores implications about teacher inquiry group (IG) practices through the representations of achievement gap (AG) discourses. The study draws from the challenges, struggles, and accomplishments of a middle school inquiry group of teachers and staff that worked collaboratively, as an institutionalized practice, with the intention to develop recommendations for closing the AG. After five years of collaborative work, the group did not get to develop an action plan. This longitudinal, ethnographic, qualitative study unveils multiple and contested representations of AG discourses and unpacks three assumptions about teacher inquiry group practices as a strategy for institutional and/or individual change: (1) that the group can resolve the issue at task; (2) that members embody the role of researchers; and (3) participation in the group can provide opportunities for transforming discourses. Critical discourse analysis provides the lens for analyzing four years of data collection: field notes, audio and written records from monthly sessions, written feedback and reflections, as well as interviews. My dual role, as member and teacher-researcher, and the use of CDA allowed me to identify critical moments. I describe critical moments as instances in which discourses of AG changed, reproduced, but not necessarily transformed. The analytical tools facilitated intertextual and discourse meaning connections. Data analysis indicated relevant findings: that the inquiry group provided opportunity for discourses to reproduce and change; that critical moments provided possibilities for transformation; that members did not always recognize these moments for which transformations may have eluded them; that inquiry groups have the potential to be a transforming intuitional practice. In general, findings suggested the need for structures that support, encourage, and engage members in “Self” reflection praxis for personal, and collective transformations, if the status quo is to be interrupted.