Teacher Passion as a Teaching Tool

The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to understand how passion is used by participating teachers at Hugo High School and if its use is intentional in the classroom. A qualitative research design was used for this study. The case study was determined to be the most appropriate method for this research because it provided an opportunity to get a deeper understanding of the research topic. This study used Fried’s definition of passion as one who is “in love with a field of knowledge, deeply stirred by issues and ideas that challenge our world, drawn to the dilemmas and potentials of the young people who come into class each day – or captivated by all of these” (Fried, 2001, p. 1). The research data were collected from nine teachers about their use of passion in the classroom. The constant comparative method is an important tool to sort data in the coding process; it was used to take information from the data, compare it to previous data, and sort it into six themes. The findings indicate that teachers used passion as a teaching tool and that passionate teaching was used by all teachers in the study. Passion was experienced through the care that teachers felt for their students. Teachers who did not plan to use passion used passion when the opportunity was present and realized by the teacher. Using passion was a positive experience for teachers. Teachers who did not plan to use passion recognized changes in their behavior and felt good about themselves as teachers. Teachers who intended to use passion planned many of their own behaviors and felt good about themselves as teachers when experiencing passionate lessons. Teachers’ feelings were fueled by positive student feedback and perpetuated passionate teaching moments