Teachers living and learning change: A case study of one urban charter school.

This study explores the relationship between teachers, their lives and learning, and school development efforts. Through a yearlong participant-observer qualitative case study of an urban charter school, the intersection of education reform, school structures, and teacher lived experience is examined in tandem and in-depth. Methods of data collection included extensive interviews, naturalistic observation with field notes, and artifact collection. Also, a large segment of the data emerged from on-site professional development work with the staff---including teacher creative writings and action research. Analysis drew from phenomenology, exploring how lived time, body, space, and relationships impacted overall teacher lived experience. A social psychology frame was also used to better understand the relationship between individual teachers and educational change policies. This study finds that structures within the charter school impacted the quality of teacher lived experiences. These experiences, over time, formulated individual teacher dispositions and collective teacher morale. The momentum of teacher morale---rooted in individual teacher lived experience---ultimately hindered or enhanced the viability of school development and educational change. Creating professional development structures that are teacher-centered---though a complex endeavor---is one way to mediate and improve teacher lived experience. Six specific suggestions to support teachers in the midst of school development efforts are included.Ph.D.Curriculum developmentEducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/123648/2/3096149.pd