This dissertation examines the life stories of Marsha Ethridge (all names are pseudonyms), a teacher who has taught for 46 years in one urban elementary school. The stories Marsha tells about her life are used as lenses to consider the following: (1) What influences most shaped Marsha’s practices and stories to live by as a teacher? (2) What has it been like for Marsha teaching reading in an urban elementary school for 46 years? and (3) What is the nature of caring in Marsha’s stories? The study draws on life story and portraiture methods. Data were collected over a period of three years and includes life story interviews, one focus group interview, observations, and artifacts. Through the process of constant comparative method, three themes emerged: literacy and accountability, teacher development and identity, and caring and connecting. The most salient theme was caring and connecting throughout Marsha’s stories, and it served as a unifying thread to pull her stories together. This study found that in Marsha’s first years of teaching there were few forms of accountability. She felt that this was the primary reason many of her sixth graders had made it through school without learning to read. In the following years she used a variety of measures for accountability, including high-stakes accountability, which caused her to experience increasing professional dissonance. The form of accountability she believed improved her teaching practices the most was accountability situated in the context of caring relationships and it led to hope for future success. Marsha experienced this face-to-face accountability in the teacher-initiated group she had been meeting with for 27 years. Research implications from this study include the need to further explore discourse in teacher-initiated groups over time and in different contexts, as well as consider how the relational dynamics and accountability within collaborative teacher groups contribute to teacher growth. Additionally, the analysis of Marsha’s life stories indicate a need for teachers, parents, researchers, and policy makers to lay aside discourse of blaming and shaming to create opportunities for extended conversations about alternatives to high-stakes accountability. / text

Teacher collaboration is being implemented in many schools for a number of reasons with various claimed benefits. Collaboration is being heralded by many as a fix for many of the problems affecting teachers. This study shows that teachers believe that collaboration improves their ability to teach subject content, improves teaching methods, improves teacher's ability to manage students, and provides benefits to teachers in general. The majority of participants in this survey, whether currently participating in collaboration or not, indicated that they agree that collaboration provides these benefits. This study also examines four potential indicators of teacher attrition: administrative support, teacher salaries, excitement and enthusiasm toward teaching, and intent to stay in the teaching profession. The data showed that the effect of participation in collaboration has a slight positive effect on the indicators of potential attrition but not a statistically significant influence. Low teacher salaries remain a major area of frustration for the majority of teachers and should be further examined as a contributor to teacher attrition. Teacher attrition is a problem that must be addressed if a solution to the current and future teacher shortage is to be found. Further studies need to be conducted into this critical issue to determine the causes of this problem and find solutions.

Ett ämnesövergripande arbetssätt har både en lång historia och genererar goda resultat,trots detta förskjuts lärarnas uppdrag mot andra, i vissa fall disparata, arbetsuppgifter inom utbildningsväsendet. Hur kommer det sig, är ett ämnesövergripande arbetssätt för svårt? Eller finns det andra förklaringar, det är det som denna studie skall försöka att titta närmare på.Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva hur lärare på gymnasieskolans naturvetenskapliga- och teknikprogram uppfattar och realiserar ett ämnesövergripande arbetssätt. Studien har genomförts genom samtalsintervjuer med empiristyrd tematisk analys som metodramverk. Resultatet av studien visar att de teman som lärarna beskriver är: ämnen och kombinationer av dessa, arbetsformer, eleverna, lärarkollegiet, resultatet av ett ämnesövergripandearbetssätt samt förutsättningar. Samarbetet mellan lärarna är inte alltid smärtfritt, dock är brist på tid till samordning och planering det som framhålls som den största stötestenen, och tydligaste resultatet, för ett välfungerande ämnesövergripande arbetssätt. Eldsjälarnas betydelse är ytterligare ett resultat av studien. En slutsats är att informanterna inte naturligt sett eller tänkt på sin egen undervisning i flera ämnen som ett ämnesövergripande arbetssätt. Den vanligaste formen avämnesövergripande arbetssätt är projektformen.Ytterligare en slutsats finns i att: när uppföljningen sker är det är arbetsformen somutvärderas och inte elevernas kunskapsutveckling. / Interdisciplinary working methods has both a long history and generate good results and yet it has a relatively hidden position within the educational system. How come, is it too difficult? Or are there other reasons? This is the objective for this study.This study will describe the experiences teachers, in the upper secondary school, express while working within interdisciplinary working methods. The study has been performed by a number of interviews and analyzed with applied thematic analysis framework. The result of the study shows that the themes the interviewees describe are; the subjects and combinations of those, ways of working, the students, the colleagues, the results and the prerequisites. The collaboration between the teachers is not a walk in the park, however the lack of time to perform planning and coordination are the major obstacles preventing successful interdisciplinary working methods.The importance of the enthusiasts is another result of the study. One conclusion is that the informants do not naturally thought about their own teaching of several subjects as a cross-disciplinary approach. The most common form of interdisciplinary working method is the project form. Another conclusion is that: when the follow-up is done, it is the work method that is evaluated and not the students' knowledge.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur svensklärare och SVA-lärare i lågstadiet beskriver sitt arbete och samarbete för att gynna SVA-elever i svenskundervisningen. Studien tar teoretisk utgångspunkt i det sociokulturella perspektivet och kollegialt lärande. Den metod som användes vid insamling av data var semistrukturerad intervju som bearbetades med hjälp av innehållsanalys. Resultatet tyder på att svensklärare och SVA-lärare arbetar på likartade sätt för att gynna SVA-elever i deras språkutveckling. Lärarna beskriver att de förklarar och förenklar ord samt använder digitala verktyg och bildstöd för att göra innehållet av lektionerna tydligt för SVA-eleverna. Resultatet visar även att samarbete mellan svensk- och SVA-lärarna om lektionerna och kontakt om SVA-elevernas språkutveckling varierar. Slutsatserna av studien är att (1) digitala verktyg och bildstöd främjar SVA-elevers språkutveckling; (2) om SVA-elevernas modersmål och flerspråkighet beaktas och ses som resurs gynnar det eleverna; (3) lärare som har gott samarbete skapar lektioner som är i högre grad överensstämmande gällande innehåll och att de har mer kontakt om SVA-elevernas utveckling.

Den här studien handlar om grundskolans interna samverkan kring elever med neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar (NPF). Syftet med studien var att belysa hur samverkan mellan olika professioner i grundskolan kan utvecklas för att skapa en tillgänglig lärmiljö för elever med NPF. De frågeställningar som besvaras är: Hur beskriver lärare sin samverkan med andra professioner i grundskolan när det gäller skolsituationen för elever med NPF? Vad behöver enligt lärarna utvecklas när det gäller samverkan kring elever med NPF? Studien utgick från verksamhetsteori som bidrog till att samverkan kunde studeras på ett djupare plan. Sex grundskollärare intervjuades med halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Med tematisk- och verksamhetsteoretisk analys på studiens empiri framkom att samverkan mellan lärare och skolans övriga professioner inte sker i den utsträckning som lärare önskar. Kunskapsmässiga svårigheter är det vanligaste motivet för samverkan mellan lärare och andra professioner i skolan, där stöd av elevers sociala svårigheter och skolans förebyggande arbete får stå tillbaka. Det som enligt lärarna behöver utvecklas är att rektorn blir delaktig i skolans specialpedagogiska processer; Skolors organisatoriska arbete kring elever med NPF behöver förtydligas, både gällande motivet för samverkan, professioners ansvarsområden och att skolor skapar forum och rutiner för skolans professioner att mötas kring elever med NPF. / This study is about the primary school's internal collaboration around pupil with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). The aim of this study was to highlight how cooperation between different professions in primary school can be developed to create an accessible learning environment for students with NDD. The questions that the study sets out to answer is: How do teachers describe their collaboration with other professions in elementary school regarding the school situation for students with NDD? According to the teachers, what needs to be developed in terms of collaboration around students with NDD? The study was based on an activity theory, which contributed to the fact that cooperation could be studied on a deeper level. Six primary school teachers were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. With a thematic- and activity theory analysis of the study's empirical data, it emerged that collaboration between teachers and the school´s other professions does not take place to the extent that teachers wish. Knowledge-related difficulties are the most common motive for teachers´collaboration with other professions in the school, here support of students´ social difficulties and the school´s preventive work may take a back seat. According to the teachers, what needs to be developed is for the principal to be involved in the school´s special education processes. Schools´ organizational work around students with NDD needs to be clarified, both regarding the motive for collaboration, professions´ areas of responsibility and that schools create forums and routines for the school´s professions to meet around students with NDD.

Effective ELL teaching and learning is profoundly influenced by the teachers' personal experiences and personalities (Farrell, 2016), their experience as language learners as well as language teachers (Farrell, 2007), and their beliefs about learning and teaching a second language (Farrell, 2015; Farrell & Ives, 2015). This study honored and examined in-depth the often-discounted stories/reflective narratives of our teachers. This paper reports a qualitative cases study that explores three veteran teachers' reflection on their personal and professional experiences with ELLs for self-discovery over years (Cirocki & Farrell, 2017) so that they can further reflect for their future actions with ELLs (Burns & Bulman, 2000; Farrell, 2007; Farrell & Vos, 2018). Data analysis revealed the teachers' different strengths and needs in working with ELLs. Four major dimensions (language, culture, culturally and linguistically sensitive pedagogy, and collaborative community) were identified as critical to effective teaching of ELLs and preparation of second language teachers.

The dissertation explores teacher professional development as a strategy for improving school performance. The theoretical part defines school quality, teacher quality, and instruction quality. It further talks about teacher professional development, specifically strategies that involve teacher's reflective practices and teacher collaboration. The practical part of the dissertation examines the characteristics and impact of a five year support model of school based teacher professional development. The process was closely observed through case studies of four subjects in a particular school. The findings reveal that the implemented model contributed to the changes in the principal's leadership style, school culture and climate the most. KEYWORDS Teacher professional development, school quality, teacher quality, instruction quality, teacher collaboration, teacher coach, team teaching.

No description available.

No description available.

There are mounting concerns to ensure that children are prepared for the literacy demands of the 21st century. Reading inability at 9 years of age portends a lifetime of illiteracy for the majority of struggling readers. Given the greater weight placed on expository text from the junior grades onwards, children with reading disabilities become increasingly constrained by their reading deficits, putting them at risk of falling ever further behind their normally achieving peers. This ethnographic study, extending over an 8 month period and finishing on the last day of the school year, targeted older poor readers at the junior level. Less is known about their reading deficits, relative to younger struggling readers. Therefore, the first of three principal objectives aimed to extend understanding of the processes whereby older poor readers interact with expository text by providing a qualitative finer-grained assessment of their particular difficulties than presently exists. The second objective was focused on developing and implementing a cohesive program of research-based interventions that targeted critical requirements of successful interactions with expository text, including the ability to summarize, locate information, and attend to text structure. The third objective involved establishing and describing a collaborative, intensive research partnership with two classroom teachers at the junior level to implement and evaluate research-grounded interventions for their students with reading difficulties, working within the context of the regular classroom. The dual researcher role, as collaborator with the teachers and instigator of the intervention program, shaped a reconfigured model of special education, responsive to a diverse range of student needs and abilities, and situated within a content-rich, challenging curriculum. Parallel lessons afforded the opportunity to tier instruction with increasing intensity for the children with the highest needs. Results showed the critical importance of aggressively promoting self-efficacy, self-regulation, and metacognitve awareness for older struggling readers. As these children’s strategic repertoire increased, so, too, did their comprehension and comprehension-monitoring. Differentiated instruction that was tiered, flexible, and responsive supported social inclusion and social collaboration. Social context and authentic content became interwoven and instrumental in engaging the children, maintaining their motivation and sustaining their commitment to read to learn. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-01-27 15:10:03.202