The researcher, 5 teachers, and the principal at one elementary school engaged in action research in order to explore, implement and document practitioner initiated change. The research questions included: (1) What changes do practitioners choose to make? (2) How do practitioners make sense of the change process? (3) What is the nature of structural and institutional factors that foster and/or constrain change? (4) What is the nature of school and community culture with respect to educational change? (5) What roles does the researcher play when educational change is initiated by practitioners? and (6) What is the nature of the relationship that develops between researcher and practitioners throughout the change process? / The methods employed in this interpretive study involved the collection of qualitative data through participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, document analysis, and dialogue journals. Following in the tradition of symbolic interactionism, a constructivist epistemology was embodied into collection and interpretation of data. / Three stories of change (the teachers', the principal's and the university researcher's) are reported. The stories of 5 teachers revealed that teacher voice is a necessary component of change efforts. The development of teacher voice occurred when spaces were created at the school-level for teachers' voices to be heard. The principal's story documents the change process of Ted Jones as he engaged in reflective practice to make sense of his roles and the desired changes he wished to make. Metaphors were used as a conceptual tool for sense-making as the principal reconceptualized his roles. The university researcher's story documents the relationship that developed between the practitioners and researcher through an examination of the traditional myths and metaphors that govern educational research. / A collective examination of the teachers', the principal's, and the university researcher's stories reveal that changes in the teachers, the principal, and the researcher all were facilitated through the examination of the nature of voice and through engagement in critical reflection -in and -on practices. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that change is not a linear process. Rather, it is a circular process of reflection, voice, and action. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-09, Section: A, page: 3131. / Major Professor: Kathryn Scott. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76485 |
| Contributors | Dana, Nancy Fichtman., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 202 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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