Teacher Research

Closing the Racial/Ethnic Gap Between Students of Color and Their Teachers: An Elusive Goal

by Katie Strom

This article examines minority teacher recruitment policies and programs of the past two decades and
explores... more This article examines minority teacher recruitment policies and programs of the past two decades and
explores their influence on the racial/ethnicmakeup of the teaching force in elementary and secondary
public schools. The results show that while important progress has been made toward increasing the
overall number and proportion of minority teachers in the public schools, those gains have been
eclipsed by the rapid growth of the minority student population. As a result, the racial/ethnic gap
between students of color and their teachers has actually increased over the years. The authors provide
an overview of current minority teacher recruitment state policies and introduce the Teacher-Student
Parity Index, a new metric for comparing the proportions of teachers and students from different
racial/ethnic groups to gain a more textured understanding of the demographic reality of today’s
schools than is presently found in the literature. The authors conclude with recommendations for
policy and research.

Teachers' attitudes and students' opposition. School misconduct as a reaction to teachers' diminished effort and affect.

by Jannick Demanet

published in 'Teaching and Teacher Education'

Recent decades have seen many studies dealing with the effects of teacher expectations. While most have focused on... more Recent decades have seen many studies dealing with the effects of teacher expectations. While most have focused on students’ cognitive outcomes, we relate teacher expectations to student deviancy. We expect low expectations to be associated with students’ feelings of futility and less teacher support, which, according to respectively strain theory and social control theory, give rise to misconduct. Multilevel analyses of data (2004e2005) from 11,844 students and 2104 teachers in 84 Flemish secondary schools suggest that, in schools where teacher expectations are low, students report less perceived teacher support, which is associated with higher rates of self-reported school misconduct.

Discursive enactment of power in Iranian high school EFL classrooms

by Faiz Sathi Abdullah

Co-authored with Kobra Hosseini; published in GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, Volume 12(2), Special Section, May 2012, pp. 375-392.

Teachers’ dominance in teaching environments has been criticized as an oppressive educational practice by critical... more Teachers’ dominance in teaching environments has been criticized as an oppressive educational practice by critical theories of education. While critical pedagogy that espouses a problem-posing model of education has sought to promote a more equitable and dialogical teacher-student partnership and to transform the oppressive conditions of the ESL/EFL classroom, the claimed potential of the approach has had only limited success in practice. Drawing upon Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis to make for a principled analysis of EFL classroom practice, this study investigated the discoursal features of unequal power relations in Iranian high school EFL classes. The data was collected via observation of two classrooms, one located in an urban area and the other in a semi-urban area of Iran. The analysis of the observation data, which included transcripts of classroom lessons as well as field notes, indicated that teachers played a disproportionately dominant role to the extent that the students were kept
apparently passive and powerless via a range of discursive strategies including maximizing teacher-controlled talking time, turn-taking, topic control, modes of meaning-construction, and elicitation strategies. The findings of this study are expected
to provide critical and emancipatory insights into ESL/EFL classroom practice and contribute to the transformation of its status quo.

Making waves with critical literacy: A teacher researcher study around the texts, contexts, and recontextualizations of an upper middle class public high school

by Carolyn Fortuna

The role of teacher and faculty trust in forming teachers’ job satisfaction: Do years of teaching experience make a difference?

by Dimitri Van Maele

Van Maele, D. & Van Houtte, M. (2012). Teaching and Teacher Education. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2012.04.001

Please contact the first author for a copy of the paper.

This study relates trust at the level of both the teacher and the faculty to teachers’ job satisfaction. Teaching... more This study relates trust at the level of both the teacher and the faculty to teachers’ job satisfaction. Teaching experience is explored as a moderator of the trust-satisfaction relationship. Multilevel analyses on data of 2091 teachers across 80 secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium) revealed positive associations between teacher trust in students, parents, colleagues, and the principal and satisfaction. Although faculty trust did not affect job satisfaction and teaching experience did not moderate the trust-satisfaction relationship, our findings highlight the social dimension of teaching. Improving the quality of teachers’ social relationships in the workplace should enhance their job satisfaction.

Intentional Group Action Research

by Annie Adamian

Co-authors: Ann K. Schulte, Kile Taylor, & Kris Calderon

Understanding teacher agency: The importance of relationships

by Mark Priestley

Priestley, M., Biesta, G.J.J. & Robinson, S. (2012). Understanding teacher agency: The importance of relationships. A paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada, 13-17 April 2012.

In this paper we provide an overview of a theory of teacher agency, and we draw upon empirical data from two schools –... more In this paper we provide an overview of a theory of teacher agency, and we draw upon empirical data from two schools – both secondary – participating in our Teacher Agency and Curriculum Change project (ESRC reference: RES-000-22-4208). Our aim is to understand why agency is achieved differently in different settings by teachers who have broadly similar values, beliefs and levels of experience in common. In the paper, we first set out how we define and theorise agency, and what this means for understanding and researching the factors that contribute to teacher agency. We present our view of agency as an emergent phenomenon rather than as a capacity residing in individuals. We then relate this concept to the work of teachers, thereby setting out a framework for understanding teacher agency. Against this background, we present findings from our research that highlight the impact of relational dimensions on the achievement of agency by teachers as they enact Scotland's new Curriculum for Excellence within different contexts of the Scottish school system.

Normalising Precarious Work: Gendered Nurses and Primary Teachers Professional Identities in Europe

by Jörg Müller

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Lisboa, Portugal, 2009.

The following paper explores the gendered impact of welfare restructuring on primary teaching and nursing, drawing... more The following paper explores the gendered impact of welfare restructuring on primary teaching and nursing, drawing upon empirical material across seven European countries. Parallel trends between largely professionalised nursing and teaching and an increasingly deteriorating economic reality puts care workers in situations where they feel highly competent to care yet have to cope with its denial. The resulting teachers and nurses’ responses provides key insights into the gendered nature of these highly feminised albeit different occupations, in that it tends to normalise precarious work. A personal approach to care dominates which furthermore gets exacerbated by the late modern quest for authenticity, thus reinscribing care as an innate, personal virtue that is dissociated from its structural and economic conditions.

Examining the aesthetic dimensions of teaching: Relationships between knowledge, identity and passion

by Linda Hobbs

Hobbs, L. (2012). Examining the aesthetic dimensions of teaching: Relationships between teacher knowledge, identity and passion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(5), 718–727.

Having an appreciation for the subject, their students and what the subject can offer their students has both... more Having an appreciation for the subject, their students and what the subject can offer their students has both cognitive and emotional dimensions for teachers. This paper uses empirical data to explore the efficacy of a Deweyan inspired framework called “Aesthetic Understanding” to scrutinise relationships between teacher knowledge, identity and passion. The paper uses case study data of three teachers of maths and/or science generated from a video study to illustrate the relationships between the three elements of Aesthetic Understanding. The need to value the aesthetic dimensions of teaching when examining the subject-specific nature of secondary teaching is discussed.

Th e Quality of School Life and Burnout as Predictors of Subjective Well-Being among Teachers

by Halil Eksi

Fulya CENKSEVEN ÖNDER, Mediha SARI
Educational Sciences: Th eory & Practice
9 (3) • Summer 2009 • 1223-1236

The main purpose of this study is to determine the rate of how teachers’ subjective wellbeing is predicted by their... more The main purpose of this study is to determine the rate of how teachers’ subjective wellbeing is predicted by their perceptions about the quality of school life and burnout levels.
The participants of the study consisted of 161 teachers (93 females, 68 males) who were working in elementary schools in Adana central districts. Th e Positive-Negative Aff ect
Scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), Life Satisfaction Inventory (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griff in, 1985), Quality of School Life Scale (Sarı, 2007), and Teacher Burnout
Scale (Seidman, & Zager, 1986) were used as data collection tools. To analyze the gathered data, stepwise regression analysis was performed.
Results of stepwise regression analysis showed that teachers’ subjective well-being levels were predicted significantly by the Quality of School Life Scale sub-factors, namely “status”
and “curriculum” and burnout scale sub-factor, namely “coping work-related stress.” Teachers’ life satisfaction levels were predicted significantly by the variables of “status”, “coping
work-related stress” and “school administrator” which is a sub factor of the Quality of School Life Scale. Also, teachers’ positive aff ect was predicted by the variables of “status”, “positive
aff ects towards school” and “teachers,” and teachers’ negative aff ect was predicted by the variables of “coping work-related stress”, “status,” and “curriculum.” Other subscales of the
Quality of School Life and Teacher Burnout Scales have no significant contribution in the estimation. Results also indicated that the contribution of predictors could be accounted as
39% for subjective well-being; 23% for life satisfaction; 23% for positive aff ect, and 37% for negative aff ect. In the direction of these general findings, it was suggested that, in-service
education programs about interpersonal relations and coping strategies with stress should be applied for teachers and administrators. Besides that, the quality of life in schools should
be increased. On the basis of limited similar studies in the literature, it was suggested that the number of both descriptive and predictive studies should be increased on the topic.

Revelando sentidos na prática docente: A abordagem de corpus na análise do discurso

by Vander Viana

Full reference:
Viana, V., Menezes, D., & Mendes, M. (2011). Revelando sentidos na prática docente: A abordagem de corpus na análise do discurso. DELTA, 27(2), 175-217. Retrieved from http://www.scielo.br/pdf/delta/v27n2/a01v27n2.pdf

This paper discusses the feasibility of using Corpus Linguistics tools in the analysis of pedagogic discourse. For... more This paper discusses the feasibility of using Corpus Linguistics tools in the analysis of pedagogic discourse. For doing this, two case studies are presented. The first one focuses on the discourse of English language teachers of a well-known languages course in Rio de Janeiro about the implementation of technological resources in the classroom. The second study, in its turn, seeks to realize the position held by university professors of literatures in English language with regard to literature and its teaching. The results point out to the richness of contextual data which can be inferred from a linguistic analysis with an empirical basis. All in all, the paper uncovers the importance and flexibility of the corpus approach in discourse analysis, which may be applied to several contexts.

The social and cultural dimensions of successful teaching and learning of science in an urban high school

by Sonya N. Martin

Martin, S. (May, 2005). The social and cultural dimensions of successful teaching and learning in an urban science classroom. Doctoral dissertation, Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.

Teacher Trust in Students in Technical/Vocational Schools versus Academic Schools and the Role of Teacher Perception of Students’ Teachability

by Dimitri Van Maele

Van Maele, D. & Van Houtte, M. (2011). Teacher trust in students in technical/vocational schools versus academic schools and the role of teacher perception of students’ teachability. In: B. R. Curtis (Ed.), Psychology of Trust. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

A copy of the publication can be requested by email: dimitri.vanmaele@ugent.be

For students it is important to experience a caring and trusting school environment which fosters their willingness to... more For students it is important to experience a caring and trusting school environment which fosters their willingness to engage in the learning processes. Obviously, teachers fulfill a crucial role in shaping such a supportive learning environment. Yet, teachers’ role in creating this kind of school environment may differ according to the tracks offered in a school given that teacher-student relationships are often less positive in lower tracks than in higher tracks. Therefore, this study first investigates whether a teacher’s level of trust in his or her students at school differs for teachers instructing in technical/vocational versus academic secondary schools. We also contribute to the knowledge on the development of teacher trust by exploring if teachers’ perceptions of students’ teachability – perceptions of students’ cognitive-motivational, personal-social, and school-appropriate behaviors – determine teachers’ trust in students. Finally, we explore if these teachability perceptions explain different levels of trust in students for teachers instructing in technical/vocational versus academic schools. Multilevel analyses on data of 760 teachers in 30 technical/vocational schools and 461 teachers in 22 academic schools in Flanders (Belgium) reveal that teachers in technical/vocational schools expose a significant lower level of trust in students than teachers in academic schools. This association disappears when taking into account teachers’ perception of students’ teachability. Our results indicate that teachers’ assumptions about students’ ability to meet the educational expectations predict teachers’ level of trust in students, and explains why teachers in academic school have higher levels of trust in the students at school as compared to teachers instructing in technical/vocational schools.

State-Mandated Student Assessment Systems: Describing the Impacts of Change on High School Teachers

by Texas State PA Applied Research Projects

Aguirre, Valeria, "State-Mandated Student Assessment Systems: Describing the Impacts of Change on High School Teachers" (2011). Applied Research Projects, Texas State University-San Marcos. Paper 375.
http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/375

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to describe the impacts of switching state-mandated student assessment... more Purpose: The purpose of this research is to describe the impacts of switching state-mandated student assessment systems on high school teachers. In the spring of 2012, high school teachers in the core subjects of English, math, science and history will administer a new assessment system. It is essential to understand how this transition period will impact high school teachers. This research uses existing literature to develop a conceptual framework based on three categories: morale, turnover, and commitment to assessment.

Methods: This study utilizes a survey composed of open-ended and close-ended questions distributed to 52 teachers at a single high school in Leander, Texas. The responses of 11 teachers were attained. The results were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics.

Findings: A majority of respondents, eight, agree that teacher morale will be impacted as a result of the new assessment system. Likewise, seven respondents agree that their workload will be significantly increased, and they will not receive adequate support in anticipation of the transition. Overall, respondents describe more positive rather than negative consequences. A total of eight out of respondents also think that the STAAR test will be more aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) than the TAKS test. The most articulated finding is that nine out of eleven respondents believe that the switch to the new STAAR test will significantly impact the amount of pressure they experience as teachers.

Finding and redefining the meaning of teaching: Exploring the experiences of mid-career teachers

by Jessica Nina Lester

Örgütsel Bağlılığın Tükenmişlik İle İlişkisi: Öğretmenler Üzerine Bir Araştırma

by fatih çetin

Motivation to become a teacher and engagement to the profession: evidence from different contexts

by Esther Canrinus

Co-authored with Marjon Fokkens-Bruinsma
Accepted for publication in International Journal of Educational Research

In this study, the assumption that motivation is relevant for preservice teachers’ engagement to the profession is... more In this study, the assumption that motivation is relevant for preservice teachers’ engagement to the profession is investigated using the Factors Influencing Teaching theory. Additionally, this assumption is tested in two Dutch teacher training contexts. Survey data from preservice teachers training for primary education level (N = 53) and training for secondary education level (N = 168), were used in stepwise regression analyses. In both contexts, working with children and adolescents was the most important motive to become a teacher. As well, this motive predicted many factors relevant for the engagement to the profession (e.g., planned effort, planned persistence, and leadership aspirations). Differences between the contexts were found regarding which motives contribute to the teachers’ engagement to the profession. Perceiving teaching as a fallback career was, nevertheless, a negative predictor of many factors relevant for the engagement to the profession in both context. 

Teachers' instructional conceptions: Assessment's relationship to learning, teaching, curriculum, and teacher efficacy

by Gavin Brown

Paper Presented to the Joint Conference of the Australian and New
Zealand Associations for Research in Education (AARE/NZARE),
Auckland, NZ, November 28—December 3, 2003.

The important role of teachers’ conceptions in their instructional practices has been identified. This paper reviews... more The important role of teachers’ conceptions in their instructional practices has been identified. This paper reviews the literature on teacher’s conceptions of assessment, teaching, learning, and curriculum, including the author’s own PhD research on this
topic. This paper draws on the author’s PhD dissertation, an article presently being revised for Assessment in Education, and an Auckland UniServices technical report presented to the Queensland Department of Education New Basics and Assessment Branch. The paper eschews for this presentation methodological details and considerations which can be found fully described in the author’s PhD dissertation.
The structure of the interrelationships of these conceptions among a survey population of 525 New Zealand primary school teachers was analysed using a structural equation measurement model with good fit to the data. Four main instructional
conceptions were found (i.e., assessment improves education, assessment is an external imposed tool that measures surface learning, child-centred deep learning can not be
assessed, teaching for society and life). Implications for professional development and assessment policy are derived from the research and discussed.

Join the REx Collective

by Jenn Fishman

REx editors include Jenn Fishman, Joan Mullin, and Mike Palmquist.

The Research Exchange Index or REx  is designed to recognize local, national, and international writing... more The Research Exchange Index or REx  is designed to recognize local, national, and international writing researchers by periodically collecting and publishing information about the research studies they've conducted. All writing researchers are invited to contribute by uploading information about their work. In addition, writing researchers, teachers, and students are invited to help build and shape REx by joining the editorial collective as an acquisitions editor or an editorial reviewer. To learn more, download the attached paper or contact the REx editors: RExchangeContact@gmail.com.

The impact on teachers of designing and implementing a Health at Every Size curriculum unit

by Lily O'Hara

Published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education

With growing concern over the ‘obesity epidemic’ in children, schools have become the front line of defence in the... more With growing concern over the ‘obesity epidemic’ in children, schools have become the front line of defence in the ‘war
against obesity’. However there is a growing body of evidence of unintended harm associated with school-based health
education programs framed as ‘obesity prevention’, including body dissatisfaction, eating and physical activity disorders
and size-based bullying, harassment, violence and discrimination. An alternative paradigm known as Health at Every Size (HAES) aims to avoid such unintended negative consequences and to promote holistic health and well being.

A HAES focused curriculum unit was designed and implemented at a school in Queensland, Australia. The impact of the project
on students and teachers was evaluated. This paper reports on the results of classroom observations and individual semi-
structured interviews, which were used to collect qualitative data about the impact on teachers.

There was a substantial and positive impact on teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and teaching skills. The HAES paradigm enabled teachers to design and implement a curriculum unit consistent with the holistic, ecological (social) model of health and syllabus requirements, and have a positive impact on student learning and teaching practice.