The influence of a powerful principal and clear mission on the moral dimensions of teaching in two public schools.

Public schools are generally expected to be neutral on matters of morality, yet they are also charged with developing character and citizenship in students. This apparent paradox is usually resolved by a tacit understanding that classroom teachers will act to foster moral virtue while the school itself maintains a neutral position. This dissertation examines two public schools that take a strong, school-wide stance on the moral development of their students. The dissertation describes this stance in detail, and shows how it comes into play. The analysis shows how, in these two schools, a powerful principal and a clear mission can create a school with a moral agenda, one that influences the moral dimensions of teaching and the moral understandings of the students. This dissertation draws on previous work from the principal leadership, school mission, teacher conduct, and moral development literatures. Data consisted of principal, teacher, and student interview transcripts, and video tapes of teachers' classrooms. These data were collected from eleven classrooms in two Midwestern schools; one an African-centered, public school of choice, the other a neighborhood public school. Using qualitative case study methods, portraits of both schools are developed in three parts. The first step was to establish congruence between the principals' and teachers' conceptions of the school mission and its implementation. The second step examined whether teacher manner and method stood in coherent relationship to principal leadership and school mission. The final step consisted of data triangulation to ascertain congruence between what principals and teachers say and do and what students communicate about what occurs in their schools and classrooms. One of the most important findings of this dissertation is that particular features of a school's organization may account for much of what teachers do in their work as moral agents in the classroom. In cases where there is a powerful principal leading a school with a highly focused mission, the school's organizational dynamics may powerfully impact how teachers foster the moral development of their students.Ph.D.EducationEducational administrationEducational philosophyEducational sociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/132547/2/9977135.pd