Since the Children and Families Act 2014, young people and parents appear (on paper) to have a bigger role than ever in negotiating Special Educational Needs provision for themselves/their children. However, recent studies have suggested this is not necessarily the case (Craston et al, 2013a; 2013b; 2013c), particularly for young people with a hidden impairment, such as dyslexia (Ross, 2013b; 2013c). This current study explored the experiences of dyslexic young people, their parents/carers and their teachers in relation to dyslexia-related support interventions. Over 5 months in 2015, fieldwork was undertaken at Hilltop View School (pseudonym), in a ‘Pathfinder’ Local Authority (The Stationary Office, 2011) in the South-West of England. Young people, parents and carers, and teachers participated in focus group sessions and one-to-one interviews. Lessons were also observed. Participants’ understandings of dyslexia, it’s effect on young people’s self-concept and subsequent ability to negotiate social spaces to secure provision of resources were explored within a framework based on Jenkins’ (2008) ‘levels of interaction’, grounded in a Bourdieusien model of the social world. Through the use of this unique theoretical framework, participants were found to have differing capacities to negotiate their own social space at different ‘levels of interaction’ (Jenkins, 2008). Young people and teachers were found to have the best capacity to navigate their social setting at an ‘interactional level’ (person to person interactions), while parents appeared to have more opportunity to engage at the ‘institutional level’ (person/institution to institution interactions). This study provides an understanding of the experiences of stakeholders within a changing policy framework and provides a new theoretical framework within which to undertake investigations into the experiences of stakeholders in SEND provision.

There is a national call for teacher leadership, which has occurred after many education reforms have struggled due to a perceived lack of teacher involvement. The purpose of this study was to examine whether teachers felt that their involvement in education policy had impact and whether there is ample teacher expertise in education policy. The overarching research question was to appraise educator perceptions of teacher impact on state education policy. The study revealed a perceived lack of teacher impact and education expertise. The conceptual framework was based on theories of adult learning and the development of expertise and supported the necessity of teacher expertise in policy discussions' because teachers are the ones who have developed classroom expertise and the potential impact of policy on classrooms. A case study methodology was applied with 5 state teachers of the year participants. The participants were from 4 states, recognized from 2012-2015, and had local, state, and national policy experience. Interviews were conducted to collect data, with direct interpretation and categorical aggregation through coding applied to analyze data during collection. After identifying a perceived lack of teacher impact, themes were identified that could create more effective impact. Themes were grouped into skills, knowledge, and dispositions that could be taught in a series of learning experiences, serving as curriculum for teachers to build expertise in policy. This project has the potential to assist educators in developing the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed to become more effectively involved in policy. It also has the potential to create social change in the United States by assisting teachers in getting meaningfully involved in policy, thereby positively impacting public education for their students in their classrooms, schools, districts, and beyond.

In this descriptive study, I researched five elementary general education teachers' reading assessment practices as they worked within the context of IDEA (2004), NCLB (2002) and Response to Intervention (RTI). My own connection to the classroom and reading assessment practices brought me to this research. I presented my personal and professional connection through vignettes about my own classroom assessment practices. Relevant literature on both the context and culture of assessment were pertinent to this research. I used a qualitative design, specifically, Colaizzi's (1978) method of phenomenological analysis. Data were three in-depth phenomenological interviews, relevant documents and artifacts, and use of a researcher reflective blog. I summarized the initial findings of this research through 10 clustered themes; shift of focus, ever changing accountability, independent efforts with data, collaborative efforts with data, working environment, interventions and reading assessment practices in action, authenticity in practice, lack of decision making power, teacher emotion, and teacher needs and wants and a composite narrative in order to describe the lived experience of these teachers reading assessment practices. Implications from my research with regard to policy include a perceived incongruence between an RTI framework and the teacher evaluation system with regard to active collaboration. Those toward practice include difficulty with the day-to-day implementation of an RTI framework and the perception of a singular focus of RTI as disability determination. My recommendations for future research include an action research agenda designed to explore increased involvement of stakeholders such as students, parents and other school personnel.

The COVID-19 pandemic has immeasurably impacted nearly every aspect of schools from day-to-day operating procedures to the way students attend classes to curricular and instructional matters. In the early stages of the pandemic, while COVID-19 spread across the country, the large-scale, nationwide closure of schools in March 2020 forced educators, students, and families alike to adjust to emergency remote teaching with virtually no warning or preparation (Marshall et al., 2020; Hodges et al., 2020). As the 2019–2020 school year came to a close remotely, states began the process of reopening after initial COVID-19 related closures; and the predicament of how to reopen schools in the fall became a major topic of debate. This contentious debate continued throughout the rest of the 2020–2021 school year as school buildings went in and out of in-person, hybrid and remote instructional models; and the public health crisis persisted. Caught squarely in the crossfire of the debate and on the receiving end of policy coming down from state governance were public-school classroom teachers. Historically, this top-down dynamic is certainly not new for the teaching profession (Lortie, 1975; Cohn et al., 1993; Gratch, 2000). Intersecting with this reality is the view of teachers as executors of policy that others create (Cohn et al., 1993; Cochran-Smith et al., 2009) — a view that situates teachers in a web of bureaucracy (Elvira, 2020) that is often at odds with their expertise and local knowledge of practice (Cochran-Smith et al., 2009). This view ultimately results in the exclusion of teachers’ voices in decision-making arenas (Cohn et al., 1993). While preliminary research investigating the impacts of COVID-19 on teachers and the teaching profession has established some of the emotional and physical toll that has occurred, more details with respect to the way that teachers experienced the work of teaching itself in conjunction with policy decisions is necessary. The three studies in this dissertation address these needs by teasing out teachers’ perspectives, challenging the lingering image of teachers as technicians and the status quo of top-down policy enactment, and determining a way to move forward. More specifically, these studies occur within the context of public-school teaching in the state of Massachusetts (MA) and involve data sources that include survey responses from full-time, public-school teachers in MA who actively taught in the 2020–2021 school year as well as policy memos that came from the MA state educational agency (SEA). The combination of articles in this dissertation examines topics including the status of teachers’ voices and influence in decision-making forums, the relationship between policy and teachers’ work, teachers as experts versus technicians, and teacher demoralization throughout the pandemic. By drawing upon teacher survey data from 122 full-time, public-school teachers in MA, the first study captures their experiences teaching during the pandemic from the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 through April of the 2020–2021 school year. This first study provides a window into the direct experiences teachers had teaching during the pandemic in comparison to teaching prior to the pandemic and sets the groundwork to show how teachers’ experiences do not align with images of teaching as put forth by the MA SEA and the policy rolled out during the pandemic. The second study uses document analysis to examine policy artifacts produced by state governance in the wake of COVID-19 and the way they communicate certain perceptions of teachers and the work of teaching. The third study returns to teacher responses to inquire about their perceptions of the state educational agency’s level of support and policy developed during the pandemic. As such, this third study demonstrates the teacher demoralization that results from the lack of inclusion of teachers’ voices in decision-making forums and the disconnect between policy and teachers’ work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together these studies reflect that the COVID-19 pandemic has further underscored the gap between the individuals in the classroom and those in decision-making forums. As such, it has revealed the need for a more detailed understanding of the commitments that teachers juggle at the classroom level in order to better align policy, research, and state and national responses with the daily needs of students and teachers.

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The purpose of this quantitative study was to develop a reliable and valid psychometric instrument, the Teacher Political Self-Efficacy Scale (TPSE Scale), for measuring K-12 teachers’ political self-efficacy in abilities to engage in activities that may directly or indirectly influence education public policymaking. Using Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory as a theoretical lens and the TPSE Scale for measurement, the problem of weak classroom teacher voice in education public policy process is explored. Two separate studies confirmed the reliability of the TPSE Scale. Construct and other forms of validity were confirmed using additional measures of Political Efficacy as citizens, teacher Instructional Efficacy, and teacher level of actual Engagement in political/civic/professional activities. Other elements to the investigative framework included Number of Years teaching, Gender, level of Educational Attainment, School Setting, and teacher perception of adequacy of school district Funding. Teachers’ reported overall low levels of TPSE which was also positively and significantly correlated to level of Engagement. While Political Efficacy as citizen and Number of Years teaching were positively and significantly related to TPSE, Instructional Efficacy was not. Male teachers were found to have significantly higher means of TPSE compared to female colleagues but there were relatively few men in the sample. Teachers with advanced degrees had significantly higher means for TPSE compared to those with bachelor’s degrees. Teachers who held perceptions that their school district had inadequate Funding had significantly lower means for TPSE compared to their colleagues who felt otherwise. There were no significant differences in the means for TPSE based on School Setting. In addition to establishing TPSE Scale reliability and validity, study results contribute to the understanding of marginalized K-12 teacher voice in education public policymaking. Results may inform the design of interventions for building teacher confidence and skill in this political domain of functioning. Scale use may also sensitize teachers to existing avenues for exercising voice that have been previously underutilized or that were not fully understood as opportunities for influencing a political process. It may influence teachers’ future choices about level of engagement.

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Low teacher morale and high attrition rates can be attributed in part to educational policy changes and instructional decisions made by individuals who are not connected to the classroom. Time constraints, logistical struggles of getting a critical mass of teachers together, and the geography of rural Iowa schools all play a role in teachers' inability to form a unified voice. The Voices Ideas Vision Action (VIVA) Idea Exchange-?¢ is an online process that combines crowd-sourcing methods with individual engagement strategies over a 6- to 8-week period. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact the VIVA program has on teachers' perceptions of their role within the educational system, specifically in the areas of morale, leadership, and ownership of school policy. The literature revealed when teachers were not involved in the process, they became disenfranchised, attrition rates rose, and student learning was impacted. The theoretical framework of positive administrative engagement was the basis for the research. Using a qualitative approach, individual interviews were conducted with 10 participants to determine the effectiveness of the VIVA with regard to participants' views on their ownership in school policy reform. Interview data were transcribed and coded for emergent themes and patterns. Analysis of data revealed 5 themes: (a) program format, (b) teachers' role in policy development, (c) improved communication needs, (d) VIVA as a proactive tool, and (e) moving forward with VIVA. This study may empower teachers earlier in their careers, which may result in lower attrition rates and a higher level of teacher buy-in to the policies and procedures instilled by local and state government. Implications are that the online VIVA exchange can build morale by positively engaging classroom teachers and infusing their voices in policy-making.

Years ago, I became one of the many educators to leave the classroom. When I was accepted into a doctoral program for educational policy, I joked that I had spent five years teaching and would spend the next five years trying to figure out what had happened to me. Like so many other educators, I could do something else and so I did. I became a leaver [...]