The Teaching Experience: Portraits of Enthusiastic, Successful English Teachers.

This study of six experienced, successful teachers is an attempt to determine how they have preserved their enthusiasm when so many are dissatisfied. The literature on teacher "burnout" fails to offer meaningful solutions. The emphasis is generally on organizational structure and individual coping strategies rather than on the teaching process itself. I chose a phenomenological approach because no questionnaire could begin to capture the complexity of a teacher's experience. Four female and two male secondary English teachers, each having taught ten or more years, were observed in the classroom and interviewed several times. This dialogical process was aimed at mutual underst and ing and creation of meaning, not some generalizable "truth." Portraits of each person are presented: comprehensive descriptions of the teacher--his or her attitudes, feelings and behavior--within an immediate social context. Pervasive themes emerging from the study are rooted in these teachers' overall emphasis on intrinsic rewards. All have a personal metaphor for teaching: a guiding purpose which provides validation for their jobs. There was clearly a strong link between the teachers' contentment and their effectiveness in the classroom--success in "reaching" students. Each maintains high st and ards, creates an atmosphere of mutual respect, attends to values, and enjoys excellent rapport with young people. These teachers are dissatisfied with conventional inservice education as an attempt to enhance competence. Instead, they value most highly the opportunity to learn from fellow teachers--through dialogue or observation. They display an attitude of critical consciousness with regard to their teaching, and stress the importance of learning from experience. Although they have a strong sense of personal accountability, all accept the inevitability of some failure in the classroom and thus avoid undue frustration. Additionally, they desire autonomy, control, and administrative support. The essence of these six teachers' contentment seems to lie in the quality of student-teacher interaction. They are able to employ methods and create a climate conducive to achieving their goals for learning. Their wisdom illuminates the need to improve teacher competence through an appeal to intrinsic motivations in order to alleviate burnout.PhDEducationUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158972/1/8224929.pd