| Nettie Legters
Johns Hopkins University
Teachers and contexts: Interdisciplinary teaming and teachers' work experiences
FINAL REPORT:
Though current calls for school restructuring support changes in the nature of teachers' work, little research has examined the impact of reform strategies on teachers' work experiences. Drawing on theory and research in industrial relations and education organization, this dissertation examines how three restructuring practices--breaking large schools into several smaller, schools-within-a-school, interdisciplinary teacher teaming, and flexible scheduling--affect teacher-teacher and teacher-administrator relations in metropolitan high schools.
National survey data from the High School Effectiveness Study are used to describe how the three restructuring practices are distributed across school sector, size, and urban/suburban location. Patterns indicate a disproportionate number of large, urban schools using tlhe practices and a contingent relationship between flexible scheduling and the other two practices in large schools. Hierarchical linear modeling techniques then are applied to examine the relationship between the reforms and two outcomes--teacher collaboration and administrative leadership and support. Findings indicate that levels of collaboration and teachers' perceptions of administrative leadership and support are significantly higher in schools using flexible scheduling. Relationships between the outcomes and interdisciplinary teaming and school-within-a-school programs are non-significant net of other school characteristics.
These results are supplemented by a case study of longitudinal survey data and focused interviews and participant observation of teachers and administrators in a large, urban high school undergoing restructuring. Case study survey data show greater improvements in types of teacher collaboration that require lower levels of interdependence. These data also reveal a net improvement in teacher-administrator relations over the spring 1995 to spring 1996 study period, but a decline in these relations during the school year (from fall 1995 to spring 1996), suggesting a shift away from an empowerment model toward a more administered model of reform. Interview and observation data indicate barriers to teacher collaboration and professional interaction with administrators resulting from the new school organization, including: divisions that pit the ninth grade against the upper grades; role ambiguities that undermine the authority of teacher placed in leadership positions; and tensions between the ideal of teachers and administrators working together as a "team" and the reality of power differences that impede communication and cooperation.
Back to Funded Dissertation Grants Page |