Through observations, life history research, and qualitative data analysis, this study seeks to answer the question: Who and what influences elementary school teachers to ultimately use or not use art in their current classroom practice? This study examines the personal histories of nine elementary school general education teachers in the United States and Japan. Through reflections upon life history, pre and post teacher education this study investigates what influences the use of the arts in teaching practice and what influences the recognition of the arts as a vehicle for learning in a cross cultural context. In order to have a deeper understanding of this study investigated what ultimately contributed to the shaping of trajectory and developing these beliefs which influence self-efficacy in the arts before entering into a teacher education program. It is with this self- efficacy already in place that teacher education programs make a mark on pre-service teachers' beliefs about arts integration, which ultimately leads to a new teacher's decision whether or not to practice using an arts integrative approach to teaching. This is a Cross-Cultural Comparative Ethnography. Using phenomenological based interviews and observations. The data was analyzed through a recursive analytic process which included both a deductive and an inductive approach. The study found four central concepts which reoccurred across the data sets. They are influences, self- efficacy, teacher education, and agency. The findings make explicit the similarities and differences across two cultures of how teacher's education, teacher's practice, and student learning are all influenced by the recognition of the arts within academic content areas.

<p> The implementation of the Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts and Mathematics into the kindergarten through 12^th grade curriculum in the United States presents a unique opportunity for teacher preparation programs to realign their curriculum with the curriculum of the primary and secondary schools. However, it is unknown how teacher preparation programs are approaching this possible change. This qualitative descriptive case study examined the organizational change process that was employed by one teacher preparation program to incorporate the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) into their curriculum. The change was examined through the organizational development lenses of Kotter and Rogers. Interviews and a focus group with key stakeholders in the change process (<i> N</i> = 13) along with analysis of documents such as syllabi, research plans, and curriculum provided data to answer the research question. Data were initially coded into 5 main organizational categories, establishing, defining, implementing, refining, and finalizing, then further coded based on emergent themes. The last 2 categories, refining and finalization, were not clearly evident in the data, and therefore it was more difficult to use a priori coding. The data revealed that the leaders of the organizational change developed and delivered professional development activities to train faculty and aligned syllabi of general education and teacher education classes with the CCSSM. The results of this study can be used to help other teacher preparation programs plan organizational change and provide motivation for programs that have yet to address the CCSSM.</p>

<p> With the start of every school year, new teachers enter classrooms across our country filled with excitement surrounding the impact they hope to have on students. Some teachers discover that teaching at the elementary level can often times involve more than teaching and loving children. The expectations, demands, and time constraints put on new teachers can become overwhelming and even lead some to leave the field of education early on in their career. </p><p> In regards to the teacher attrition rate, this study identified reasons why so many aspiring and newly employed elementary teachers leave their chosen profession so early in the game. The research also identified factors that encourage new teachers to remain in the classroom. </p><p> This active research focused on students enrolled at or recently graduated from the Lindenwood University Education Program in St. Charles, Missouri. The researcher studied soon to be and newly hired teachers in order to identify connections or disconnects between the perceptions of becoming a teacher as compared to the reality of the actual job. The qualitative study, over a span of three years, analyzed the results of both surveys and interviews that were developed by the researcher. Findings focused on teacher frustration and satisfaction in respect to both university preparation and school/district support. </p><p> The key areas that called for attention by beginning teachers included: 1) the need for more time to plan, communicate, handle additional responsibilities, and learn curriculum and resources, 2) the need for support including a mentor and grade level team to collaborate with along with a principal to connect with, 3) more training on how to teach and support special needs students and implement accommodations, 4) encouragement to overcome a dissolving sense of self-fulfillment, and 5) the need for strategies to efficiently handle responsibilities beyond teaching curriculum that take time from teaching such as supervision, meetings, parent communications, and more. Recommendations call for, first and foremost, ways to provide more time for dedicated new teachers to do the job well.</p>

<p> This qualitative study examines the enactment of culturally responsive teaching practices (Gay, 2010) within two African American elementary teachers' classrooms. Teacher interviews, classroom observations, and classroom documents were collected and analyzed to examine the supports and barriers these teachers encountered as they attempted to enact culturally responsive teaching practices. The descriptive case study reveals that both teachers engage culturally responsive teaching in similar ways. However, the difference in school context makes this effort more challenging for one teacher than another. Barriers included institutional requirements, classroom disruptions, student issues, and teacher isolation. Additionally, by implementing a collaborative coaching model as part of the study design, I briefly explored the role a teacher educator might play in supporting practicing teachers' engagement of culturally responsive teaching. Based on the findings, school structures are critiqued and suggestions for developing systems to support the enactment of culturally responsive teaching practices are introduced.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which activities within an undergraduate teacher education course in classroom assessment prepared preservice teachers for engaging parents in their children's education. Research indicates that few preservice teachers enter their first classrooms prepared, specifically in the areas of complex tasks such as assessment and parent engagement. Moreover, sound practices in assessment and parent engagement have been demonstrated to have positive impact on student achievement. If designed appropriately, professional development activities for preservice teachers can develop their knowledge, skills, and professional efficacy to enhance student achievement. To address this, preservice teachers enrolled in a classroom assessment course in an elementary teacher education program in a Midwestern U.S. university were given a set of role-playing activities requiring them to consider and respond to typical assessment conversations teachers often have with parents. These role playing activities included (a) explaining to parents the instructional and assessment frameworks used to address the learning needs of students in a class, (b) discussing a recent change in performance with two parents (one whose child improved and one whose child declined), (c) resolving a complaint from a parent about a child's grade, and (d) explaining and interpreting a child's standardized achievement results with a parent. Through a secondary analysis of data, the degree to which these activities did, indeed, prepare the preservice teachers for engaging parents through assessment was studied. As such, a pre-post measure design was used to test whether the experimental group improved as compared to another section (control group) of the assessment class that did not participate in the role-playing activities. Results indicated that participants in the experimental group gained more knowledge about parent engagement and communicating with parents than the control group but did not change in efficacy as compared to the control. Coding and analysis of the preservice teachers' role-playing assignments demonstrated that most of them gained valuable skills in working with parents on assessment issues, and the preservice teachers in the experimental group endorsed the role-playing activities as being valuable for their education as teachers. Results are discussed in terms of possible implications for teacher education.</p>

<p> Historically, new teachers have entered the profession woefully underprepared to immediately be highly effective, primary literacy teachers. The twenty-first century has brought to education extensive reforms in literacy instruction, but are teacher preparation programs keeping up? This research examines the varying levels of perceived preparedness with which new primary teachers are entering the profession. The researcher surveyed K-3 teachers throughout three districts of varying sizes in a northwestern state. The survey focused on determining teachers' perceptions of their levels of preparedness in literacy instruction in general, as well as in the core literacy elements of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension. The data collection portion of the survey differentiated between new teachers in their first 3 years, practiced teachers with 4-10 years of experience, and veteran teachers with 11 or more years of experience. The practiced and veteran teachers were asked to reflect upon their preparation and their first years of teaching when answering the survey questions. The researcher completed a comparative analysis of the three groups to determine if there has been improvement over time in perceived levels of preparedness for literacy instruction. The survey results determined that this sample population has, in fact, indicated an improvement in the level of literacy-related teacher preparation. This improvement better enables new teachers to be highly effective in primary literacy instruction, to the great benefit of their students.</p>

<p> ABSTRACT TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE CO-TEACHING MODEL: ANALYZING THE COOPERATING TEACHER/TEACHER CANDIDATE CO-PLANNING DIALOGUES by Jennifer Brownson The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2018 Under the Supervision of Drs. Hope Longwell-Grice and Linda Post Planning is a central component of the teaching experience in which the teacher draws on curriculum and pedagogy as well as learners and their context. Planning is also a teacher standard at both the state and national level (WI DPI Teacher Standards, InTASC, 2013). For teacher candidates (TCs), an opportunity to learn to plan occurs during the student teaching experience, and the planning session can reveal how the TC and cooperating teacher (CT) choose to meet the academic, social and emotional needs of their students (John, 2006). The power in the planning session has traditionally rested in the hands of CTs (Anderson, 2007); they make the decisions about what to teach and how to teach it, which may not provide the TC with enough opportunities to learn how to plan. </p><p> The co-teaching for student teaching model has shown promise in terms of increased agency for TC&rsquo;s when making decisions in the classroom, including opportunities to share reasons for choices of pedagogy and curriculum, and identify problems and solve them together. While in the co-teaching model for student teaching the CT and TC have been found to have more shared power, (Bacharach, Heck &amp; Dahlberg, 2010; Gallo-Fox &amp; Scantlebury, 2015), there is little research about how CTs and TCs plan for lessons in the co-teaching model, much less on how power is distributed between CTs and TCs during the co-planning session. The dilemma of the distribution of power for the CT and TC in the planning session, and how they participate in the planning session, was explored in this study. The purpose of this collective case study was to reveal and investigate the discourses CTs and TCs create in a co-planning session within the co-teaching model to explore the potential for engaging both participants to use their imaginations and create together, challenging the TC and CT to rethink and/or expand on ideas for planning; and talking about/creating/questioning/challenging each other when planning lessons that provide an equitable education for students.</p><p>

This life history research utilizes life story, a form of personal narrative, with a veteran teacher leader to understand what fosters and sustains teacher leaders. This research contributes to the literature by focusing on how the life story of one veteran educator, Dr. Nettie Webb, can inform possibilities rather than focusing on how personal narratives impede possibilities of change in the early years of teaching. I have selected Dr. Webb as an exemplar or instrumental case for her personal achievements as an African American woman located in the context of one Eastern United States community with cultural, institutional and historical commitments to valuing every citizen's contributions. The centrality of teaching across her career makes Dr. Webb uniquely positioned to inform the possibilities of teacher leadership in our current educational culture. Constructivist grounded theory strategies were used to analyze extensive in-depth conversational interviews, a subsequent dialogic interview on personal agency and a collection of career-spanning documents. Categories such as risk and feedback are explicated as implications for how we can foster and support the next generation of teacher leaders through the concept of personal agency. Praxis, the legacy of care and the culture of fear are discussed in the context of personal networks, professional learning communities and the historical norms of caution. Trustworthiness was established by multiple methods, including extensive member checking. The life story of an exemplary veteran teacher leader like Dr. Webb, a person committed to advocating for children in the context of the last five decades of social and educational reform, risks being lost. By capturing Dr. Nettie Webb's life work in print, it not only becomes an accessible memory of this woman and her work but a placeholder of possibility and a window to our educational and social history.

<p> This mixed methods study utilized a survey and semi-structured interviews to investigate upper elementary teacher knowledge for teaching reading to struggling readers to determine what a sample of third through fifth grade teachers knew and understood about the myriad factors that may have contributed to their students&rsquo; reading difficulties.</p><p> Quantitative findings revealed that the teachers possessed the strongest knowledge in the areas of comprehension, vocabulary, and reading fluency, and that their knowledge was the weakest related to foundational reading skills such as phonics and morphological awareness. Quantitative analyses also suggested that participation in certain types of professional development, most notably learning communities, may have improved the teachers' knowledge, but that in general, variables such as education, teaching experience, and professional development, had very little, if any, significant effect on the teachers' knowledge.</p><p> Qualitative findings included five themes, or five areas of teacher knowledge: knowledge about struggling readers&rsquo; foundational skills difficulties; knowledge gained from working with colleagues; knowledge gained from learning communities; knowledge about diagnosing students&rsquo; reading weaknesses; and knowledge about the effects of struggling readers&rsquo; lack of confidence. In each of these areas, teachers discussed the specific knowledge they felt they possessed or lacked, as well as the most significant sources from which they had developed this knowledge.</p><p> Comparisons of the quantitative and qualitative data suggested that experience teaching primary grades, effective work with reading specialists, and participation in learning communities may each have helped the teachers develop the knowledge needed to work with struggling readers. The quantitative and qualitative data comparison also indicated that while teachers did not always possess adequate knowledge for teaching foundational reading skills, they felt that this was an area of knowledge they needed and wanted to develop so that they could more effectively help their struggling readers.</p><p> This study concluded with a discussion of the implications of its findings, as well as recommendations for policy, practice, and future research. This study&rsquo;s findings may provide preservice and inservice teacher educators with valuable information they can use to inform their curriculum and support programs for upper elementary teachers.</p>

<p> <b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and describe the most important factors that motivate or deter teachers in deciding to take on the informal or formal role of teacher-leader in Riverside County elementary school districts. </p><p> <b>Methodology:</b> Endemic of a Delphi method, the instruments used within this study collected data from an expert panel of elementary school teacher leaders from Riverside County, California through electronic surveys in a four-round process. The expert panel consisted of teacher leaders in formal and informal roles as selected by elementary site administrators using criteria established by the researcher. The researcher collected data and tabulated frequency distribution, percentages of participant responses on the level of importance, median scores, and factors reaching 70% consensus. </p><p> <b>Findings:</b> The research data showed that increasing student achievement, making a difference, creating a collaborative community, being informed, and informing others are the most important factors motivating teachers in deciding to become a teacher leader in a formal or an informal role. Additionally, making decisions was important in a formal role, and recognition and respect were important in an informal role. The most important deterrents for a formal and an informal teacher leader role were lack of time, lack of support, lack of direction or goal, and increased responsibility. Another deterrent in a formal role was fear; for an informal role, it was not having enough pay. </p><p> <b>Conclusions:</b> These findings support the need to build a collaborative culture of authentic decision-makers through distributive leadership. The lack of time, support, and direction that teachers experience must be addressed by building teacher-leadership capacity. </p><p> <b>Implications for Action:</b> Districts should train teachers in the Teacher Leadership Model Standards, provide teacher pre-service coursework in leadership skills and distributed leadership, train or hire administrators and teachers who support an authentic collaborative leadership culture, recognize and monopolize individual&rsquo;s areas of expertise, re-examine job titles, change the traditional school calendar, create or change support personnel positions to be housed at the site level where teacher leaders can support teachers on-site.</p>