Understanding teacher change, four teachers' experiences with the Ontario Green Schools project

grantor: University of TorontoTeachers' voices have, until quite recently, been notably absent from the discourse on educational change. However, as educational researchers are beginning to acknowledge, we can learn a great deal about educational change and the sustaining of innovations by listening to the voices of teachers. The purpose of the present study was to gain a deeper understanding of issues surrounding teacher and educational change from the perspective of the teacher. I have attempted to do so through an analysis of four teachers' experiences with the Ontario Green Schools Project, and the contextual variables which influenced those experiences. The experiences of the four participants revealed a number of issues that are important to teachers, including: the amount and duration of support, the amount of ownership that teachers have over the initiative, the meaning that the innovation holds for teachers, opportunities for collaboration and sharing, and the context in which teachers work.M.A