<p> This study examined the ways in which mid-career ensemble directors and administrators (some with musical and some without musical background) described the effect of implementing standardized teacher evaluations on their practices and perspectives. Participants described the application and critique of the evaluation tools, particularly the Danielson Framework for Teaching, on their process and pedagogy. There is little information on how in-service teachers&mdash;specifically ensemble directors&mdash;locate themselves in their practice and how they articulate their process and pedagogy. There is also little literature on mid-career teachers, both in identity formation and self-reflection. Mid-career ensemble educators who have an established professional identity may find imbalance in light of the new policies, and have to negotiate and manage the contemporary evaluation systems predominantly designed for English and Math. Further, if supervisors do not understand what learning and assessment processes look like in a middle or high school band, orchestra, or chorus setting, they might try to evaluate with criteria that apply to a social studies or chemistry class. Without critically reflecting on how these evaluations affect pedagogy and process, educators may fall into routines of trying to reach a particular benchmark, instead of imagining ways to engage with their students.</p><p> A phenomenological interview approach was used to solicit the participants&rsquo; voices and to allow their narratives to describe their lived experiences with teacher evaluation in ensembles. The participants&rsquo; personal and shared narratives help to better explain and navigate the changing waves of educational policy. Data collection involved interviews and document review of the contemporary evaluation systems, in particular, the Danielson Framework for Teaching. Data analysis uncovered themes of conflicting identities in the classroom, misaligned interpretations of student-centered learning, as well as discourses based on location and the privileges associated with place. Teachers negotiated their performer/conductor and educator selves; administrators negotiated their leader and educator selves.</p><p> This study found that the Danielson evaluative tool, when poorly implemented in an ensemble setting, is faulted and lacks content validity. Additionally, while ensembles function rather traditionally in public schools, embracing a more open rehearsal pedagogy with conductor as facilitator may help to assure more student-centered learning.</p>

Visual arts education provides the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for students to become more responsive and responsible citizens who are aware of the interaction among the visual, aesthetic, economic and social aspects of their culture. A well-prepared visual arts educator is an essential contribution to the quality of student learning in this area of education. The purpose of this study was to suggest a series of guidelines and recommendations for the improvement of the art and art teacher education at Al-Fateh University in Al-Jamahiriya (Libya). Development of these guidelines and recommendations was based on the following steps: (1) Review and examination of developments and trends in Al-Jamahiriya's formal education system. These included secondary education, teacher preparation, and visual art education. (2) Examination of the present art education program at Al-Fateh University and its role in preparing qualified visual art teachers for Al-Jamahiriya's secondary schools. (3) Comparative study of selected factors pertaining to art education teacher preparation at Al-Fateh University and four exemplary American universities. (4) Library research regarding current thought and practices in the areas of visual art education and teacher preparation. A questionnaire was also developed and sent to the art education department at Al-Fateh University to help obtain descriptive data concerning the teacher education program. A panel of experts at the University of Arizona had identified four exemplary American university art education programs. These programs were examined as part of this study. Recommendations are made regarding selected improvements in the art and art teacher preparation programs at Al-Fateh University.

Due to discipline specific shortages, web-based learning has been proposed as a convenient way to upgrade the content knowledge of instructors interested in learning to teach science. Despite quantitative evidence that web-based instruction is equivalent to traditional methods, questions remain regarding its use. The efficiency and practicality of this approach with teachers in particular has not been extensively studied. This investigation examines learning in an online biology course designed to help teachers prepare for science certification exams. Research questions concern flow teachers learn biology in the online environment and how this setting influences the learning process. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies are employed in an attempt to provide a more complete perspective than typical studies of online learning. Concept maps, tests, and online discussion transcripts are compared as measures of assimilated knowledge, while interviews reflect participants' views on the course. Findings indicate that participants experienced gains in declarative knowledge, but little improvement with respect to conditional knowledge. Qualitative examination of concept maps demonstrates gaps in participants' understandings of key course ideas. Engagement in the use of online resources varied according to participants' attitudes towards online learning. Subjects also reported a lack of motivation to fully engage in the course due to busy teaching schedules and the absence of accountability.

This dissertation is a study of what selected literature teachers report to be their sources of practical knowledge. The data for the study was collected through open-ended interviews with three practicing public school literature teachers in two school districts in a large southwestern city between 1996 and 1998. The informants were selected more on the basis of convenience of access than any other criteria, though I also considered their length of time in the profession and limited the study to persons who were actually teaching literature at the time of the study. The interviews followed an extended observation. After the interviews were transcribed, I analyzed them by the "constant comparison" method (Merriam, 1988, p. 138), using a set of data codes derived from the interview data, then sorted the data according to the codes. That permitted me to bring together pieces of conversation from various points in the interview in a way that is most useful to me (Rubin and Rubin, 1995, pp. 238--241). While the selection and data collection methods were such that I cannot extrapolate the findings to other literature teachers, the data shows quite clearly that, for these teachers, there is a disjuncture between what the research literature assumes are teachers' primary sources of practical knowledge and what the teachers themselves think it to be. Both their statements about their sources of practical knowledge and the metaphoric language they use to describe themselves argue that, for these three teachers, alternative sources of practical knowledge---self, publisher-generated materials, reading in the professional literature, conversations with colleagues, and professional conferences and staff development workshops---are more important sources of their practices than are the sources upon which the research literature puts its primary focus---the apprenticeship of observation, content courses, and pedagogy courses. This finding suggests to me that a broader, more detailed study of this question is warranted.

A systems thinking approach to classroom instruction is a relatively new instructional method, and effects of this approach have not been comprehensively documented even though interest in this approach is growing rapidly. This study examines teachers, emerging conceptions and implementation of systems thinking as a instructional methodology. The investigation explores the challenge of developing a systems thinking orientation among educators. Findings are based on the learning experiences of four middle school teachers working in an urban Northwestern school setting. A case study, ethnographic approach was used to investigate the teachers' emerging conceptions and implementation of systems thinking in their classrooms. Data were derived from journal entries, interviews, observation and classroom artifacts. Findings suggested that teachers perceived systems thinking as a beneficial classroom methodology, yet evidence supporting the validity of this perception was insufficient. In addition, teachers viewed systems thinking as an important life-long orientation and incorporated this view in their teaching. The impact of professional development structures such as training, resources, coaching, planning time, outside assistance, and a collegial atmosphere was significant. It was evident that teachers involved with systems thinking developed and articulated theories about the effects of systems thinking on their students.

This study is a form of professional explanation about language and the political dimensions of education reform, examined through sociocognitive orientations to individual and collective identity. Common signifiers among modes and content of literacy explanations were distilled from media and statist texts, especially the Los Angeles Times' Reading by 9 and Reading series, and 12 educator and six journalist semi-structured interviews. Classrooms and newsrooms were seen as political spaces in terms of identities and beliefs "underpin[ning] fundamental social institutions" through "cultural conceptions about language attitudes, standards, [and] hegemony." Participant literacy explanations developed three linchpins, or "feature clusters," recursively signifying orientations to particular sets of social relations. All six journalists concurred with the Los Angeles Times' proposition that reading by age nine in English leads to "success." Seven educators expressed "counter hegemony" comprising the status possibilities arising from student access to critical (powerful) literacy. Increasingly complex relationships among cognition and speech were entailed in the second and third linchpins. Six journalists and nine of twelve educators constructed a naturalized social/educational order where the privileged retain and pass on their status through "the freedom" to speak only English, the freedom to associate with those having similar test scores, and the freedom of the press to promote a semi-religious literacy crusade. Language and culture minority participants' (three educators and one journalist) discourse implicated subaltern language-sensitive social/educational identity constructions as the third linchpin. From powerful cognitive mechanisms as feature clustering, language itself was turned into a battlefield. Tolerance for a demonized Other was paradoxically advocated while advancing educational policies and processes that marginalized educator and parent attempts to question. Los Angeles Times' reading reform texts conflating social pathologies with literacy in crisis masked reproduction of stratified literacy in which only the "winners" in the economy have the right to critique. To transform increasingly narrow constructions of educators' and others' intellectual and material freedom, recommendations focus on continuing and expanding a principled, critical approach for (1) disengaging literacy from stratified status and paternalistic nationhood; (2) re-engaging literacy with autonomous personhood and agency.

This paper explores the impacts of an induction program on three beginning secondary science teachers. These teachers participated in a beginning teacher support program, the goal of which was to help bridge the gap between preservice experiences and traditional in-service education opportunities. The goal of the support program was to provide needed support, encourage the implementation of inquiry-based methodologies, and dispose teachers to reflect upon their teaching experiences. The study describes these beginning teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning and explores how these conceptions, along with instructional practices, developed during the induction period. Descriptions of each teachers' development were enriched through attention to individual personal backgrounds and professional contexts. Descriptive case studies were based on a framework established by the data collection, which then guided comparison of individual experiences and contexts across cases. There were several conclusions. First, development of beliefs about teaching and learning varied across cases over the span of the induction period. Second, the differing degree of inquiry-based implementation can be attributed to the context in which each teacher worked. Finally, the differing degree of impact of the program from one individual to the next can be explained in part by the beliefs about teaching and learning that participants brought to the program, as well as the context in which each participant worked.

The purpose of this study was to explore teacher leaders' experiences as they attempted to establish collaborative structures and relationships resulting in improved science instruction at their schools. Teacher leaders were middle school science facilitators, full-time classroom teachers who acted as liaisons between the science teachers at their schools and a change initiative funded by the National Science Foundation. This was a qualitative study, using interviews to create a case study. The researcher used a three-part interview design developed by Seidman (1991). Six research questions served as a framework for the data analysis. Participants identified the following as factors which contributed to their success: support from the principal, other science teachers, central staff personnel, and the district-wide group of science facilitators; professional development; and the successful completion of a scope and sequence for science instruction. Factors identified as hindering their success were: lack of support or conflict with the principal; resistance to change; time constraints; a district policy which limited meeting time; teacher and administrator turnover; tension between the middle school and junior high school models; and personal doubts. From descriptions of their understanding and exercising of leadership, the researcher concluded that teacher leaders had become empowered. The school culture was seen to have a great effect on teacher leaders. The contrasts between a school with a positive culture and another school in disarray were presented. Structures such as summer institutes and release time during the school day were identified as critical for giving teachers the time needed to establish more collaborative working relationships. Once greater trust and understanding were present, teachers were better able to examine their teaching practices more critically. Participants identified mentoring of new members, a continuing role for science facilitators, and central support as necessary for ensuring the sustainability of the changes made during the years of the grant initiative. The researcher concluded that teacher leaders can be a powerful force for bringing about change in schools when provided with training and time during the school day to work with colleagues.

In this study, I examine ideologies of language and schooling in the Republic of Guinea (West Africa). The focus of this study is a specific language policy that favored the use of African languages in the schools as media of instruction for more than 15 years (1968--1984). I discuss this policy from the standpoint of elementary teachers using a methodological approach that combines classroom micro-ethnography, interviews, and historical research. The research questions that guided my inquiry are as follows: How do teachers remember their personal experiences with the use of African languages as means of instruction in the past? What are the themes of those who express positive experiences and how do they relate with the themes of those who express negative experiences? Do age, gender, level of education, and place of residency/work make a difference in the perspectives of teachers? This is an exploratory study that approaches teachers' perspectives as flexible meaning-making processes influenced by time, space, and audience. The theoretical framework that guides this research is informed by historical approaches to the study of language ideologies (Bloomaert, 1999; Ricento, 2440; Ruiz, 1984). The findings of this study suggest that personal experiences and memories affect teacher beliefs and practices about language choice in the schools. For example, in this study teachers with experience in the classroom before 1984 appeared to be more sympathetic toward the use of African languages as means of instruction than their younger colleagues who lacked professional experience as teachers before 1984, Guinean teachers would have to confirm these findings for themselves through systematic research in formal and informal settings. This dissertation study makes a modest contribution toward this end by focusing on the beliefs and practices of elementary teachers. Also, this dissertation study highlights the importance of including historical and interpretive approaches to the study of language ideologies in language policy studies and in teacher education programs.

The purpose of this study was to examine the professional concerns of beginning special education teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students. Five beginning teachers were selected for this study. Three of the participants were beginning self-contained and two were beginning itinerant teachers. To examine their professional concerns, participants were asked questions in the domains concerning life, contemporary, and meaning-making experiences. The study used the in-depth phenomenological interviewing method. Shadowing and critical incident reports were used to triangulate interview data. Analysis-in-the field strategies were used to analyze field notes, critical incident reports, and interview data. Inductive analysis strategies were used to conduct in-depth within- and cross-case analyses. The results of the study revealed that the majority of participants were motivated to become teachers of DHH students by family support, experience with DHH students, personal preference for teaching DHH students, friends' encouragement and support, interest in sign language, and teacher support in high school. The study also showed that participants found audiology, reading, and speech classes to be particularly helpful. The majority of participants perceived their over all teacher preparation experiences as very positive and felt that their teacher preparation programs were very good. The professional responsibilities of participants vary according to the service delivery models in which they worked. All participants were responsible for teaching academics, supervision of students, assessments, and writing students' IEPs. Itinerant participants had expanded responsibilities. Participants' professional interactions were with students, parents of their students, school administrators, teachers, and other school personnel. The nature and purposes of these interactions vary among participants. Professional concerns of participants include lack of administrative support, non-accepting attitudes of regular education teachers towards DHH students, human relation, students' behavior problems, policy concerns, and parents' expectations. To address beginning teachers concerns, participants recommended administrative support, parents empowerment, training on inservicing regular education teachers who work with DHH students, inservices for special education directors on the needs of DHH students, and staff development activities. Participants recommended various classes, early exposure to real life teaching situations through internships, and more emphasis on teaching practical techniques for teaching and classroom management to preservice teachers.