Embracing the Tensions: A Qualitative Case Study of Learning to Teach in a Social Justice Teacher Education Program

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-SmithIn recent years, the theme of social justice in teacher education programs has been the subject of considerable controversy, as it has become at once more popular and more vulnerable to criticism. More and more teacher education programs claim to prepare teachers to teach for social justice. Yet we know little about the experience of teacher candidates learning to teach in programs with explicit social justice agendas, and we know little about the impact of this agenda on teachers, and in turn, on the students they teach. This dissertation aims to increase our understanding of what it means for teacher candidates/graduates to be prepared in a teacher education program with a stated commitment to social justice. By focusing in depth on two cases studies with very different outcomes, my study examines the impact of this agenda on teachers and the students they teach over a relatively long period of time. A qualitative case study design was employed to collect and analyze data for two master's level teacher candidates/graduates over three years. Data included extensive interviews and observations, teacher candidates' coursework, the assignments the teachers created, and their students work in response to these assignments. In addition, interviews were conducted with teacher education faculty, as well as with cooperating teachers, mentors, supervisors, and principals. Based on a sociocultural framework, and drawing on Bakhtin's theories of discourse and ideological becoming, this dissertation argues that learning to teach in a program with a stated social justice agenda was a complex process of negotiating several different and, at times, competing discourses of social justice. These discourses represented a range of ideas, interpretations, and practices that the teachers had to investigate and adapt as they developed their own authentic perspective. Furthermore, the development of an authentic perspective as teachers for social justice required embracing tensions within and among these discourses, and recognizing that these tensions were essential to their development as educators for social justice. Finally, this dissertation argues that the case study teachers' relative success or failure engaging in this ideological struggle was influenced by the contexts in which their learning took place, the support they had to negotiate the challenges and tensions associated with learning to teach for social justice, and their own personal capacity to handle the conflicts they encountered.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction

A Longitudinal Study of Teaching Practice and Early Career Decisions: A Cautionary Tale

Although the turnover rate among beginning teachers has been a major concern for some time, most studies do not link teacher retention with teaching practice. In contrast, this study looks specifically at career decisions coupled with practice. Guided by a view of teaching as social and cultural practice, the study used multiple qualitative data sources, including extensive observations, interviews, and samples of teachers’ and students’ work. Based on within and cross-case analysis of 15 cases at four distinct time points within a 5-year period, the authors identified multiple patterns of teaching practice linked to early career decisions, which reflect considerable variation in quality of teaching and career trajectory. The authors argue that ‘‘stayers’’ and ‘‘leavers’’ are not homogeneous groups, as is often assumed in research and policy. Rather, there are multiple variations of practice coupled with career decisions, some desirable and others not, with different implications for policy and practice

A Longitudinal Study of Teaching Practice and Early Career Decisions: A Cautionary Tale

Although the turnover rate among beginning teachers has been a major concern for some time, most studies do not link teacher retention with teaching practice. In contrast, this study looks specifically at career decisions coupled with practice. Guided by a view of teaching as social and cultural practice, the study used multiple qualitative data sources, including extensive observations, interviews, and samples of teachers’ and students’ work. Based on within and cross-case analysis of 15 cases at four distinct time points within a 5-year period, the authors identified multiple patterns of teaching practice linked to early career decisions, which reflect considerable variation in quality of teaching and career trajectory. The authors argue that ‘‘stayers’’ and ‘‘leavers’’ are not homogeneous groups, as is often assumed in research and policy. Rather, there are multiple variations of practice coupled with career decisions, some desirable and others not, with different implications for policy and practice

Interpreting Early Career Trajectories

Career decisions of four teachers are explored through the concept of figured worlds in this qualitative, longitudinal case study. Participants were purposefully chosen for similarity at entry, with a range of career trajectories over time. Teacher career paths included remaining in one school, repeated changes in schools, attrition after relocation, and nonrenewal of contract. Data included interviews, observations, participants’ assessments, and pupils’ work. Cross-case analysis suggests that no single teacher attribute or workplace condition determined teachers’ career decisions; rather, teachers’ ability to refigure their identity within the figured world of teaching shaped career trajectory. Key factors such as ability to address disequilibrium, teacher identity, agency, and collaborative capacity are examined. Implications call for pre-service preparation and professional development to navigate cultures of schools, amended administrative involvement in teacher retention, and policy reform acknowledging the complexity of teachers’ figured worlds

"In Theory It's a Good Idea": Understanding Implementation of Proficiency-based Education in Maine

Education Development Center (EDC) partnered with 10 districts in rural Maine that were in the process of implementing the state's requirement that students graduate with a proficiency-based diploma, to study students' exposure to student-centered, proficiency-based education and the relationship between exposure and student academic performance and engagement. Using Latent Profile Analysis, a statistical technique used to uncover hidden subgroups (i.e., latent profiles) based on the similarity with which a group of individuals responds to a set of survey questions, we found that three distinct proficiency-based education (PBE) exposure profiles existed, in similar proportions across all the participating schools and within every school. Analyses of district level administrative data showed that having an IEP was associated with higher exposure to PBE practices but that other student characteristics, including free and reduced-price lunch status and gender were not associated with more exposure to PBE practices. We also observed a positive relationship between exposure to PBE practices and increased levels of student engagement, and a negative association between exposure to PBE practices and SAT scores. Finally, qualitative analyses revealed that implementation to date has largely focused on identifying graduation standards and implementing new proficiency-based grading practices, with traditional classroom practices still fairly commonplace

Postsecularism, piety and fanaticism: reflections on Jürgen Habermas' and Saba Mahmood’s critiques of secularism

This article analyses how recent critiques of secularism in political philosophy and cultural anthropology might productively be combined and contrasted with each other. I will show that Jürgen Habermas' postsecularism takes insufficient account of elementary criticisms of secularism on the part of anthropologists such as Talal Asad and Saba Mahmood. However, I shall also criticize Saba Mahmood’s reading of secularism by arguing that, in the end, she replaces the secular-religious divide with a secularity-piety divide; for example, in her reading of Nasr Abu Zayd’s secular Islamic hermeneutics. This inhibits the use of her framework of analysis for a criticism of a problem central to Habermas' postsecularism, namely that it remains focused on specific intensities of belief. I shall then argue that, combined with the anthropological critiques of the secular, the political-historical nature of the fanaticism-piety-violence nexus should be integrated into political philosophical debates on secularism and postsecularism

Interpreting Early Career Trajectories

Career decisions of four teachers are explored through the concept of figured worlds in this qualitative, longitudinal case study. Participants were purposefully chosen for similarity at entry, with a range of career trajectories over time. Teacher career paths included remaining in one school, repeated changes in schools, attrition after relocation, and nonrenewal of contract. Data included interviews, observations, participants’ assessments, and pupils’ work. Cross-case analysis suggests that no single teacher attribute or workplace condition determined teachers’ career decisions; rather, teachers’ ability to refigure their identity within the figured world of teaching shaped career trajectory. Key factors such as ability to address disequilibrium, teacher identity, agency, and collaborative capacity are examined. Implications call for pre-service preparation and professional development to navigate cultures of schools, amended administrative involvement in teacher retention, and policy reform acknowledging the complexity of teachers’ figured worlds