ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF PROFESSIONAL CAPITAL WITHIN THEIR COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE by ALLISON EDWARDS WALKER A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty in the Curriculum and Instruction Program of Tift College of Education at Mercer University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Macon, GA 2017 © 2017 Allison Edwards Walker All Rights Reserved ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF PROFESSIONAL CAPITAL WITHIN THEIR COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE by ALLISON EDWARDS WALKER Approved: ________________________________________________________________________ Vincent W. Date Dissertation Committee Chair _________________________________________________________________________ Lucy Bush, Ed. Date Dissertation Committee Member _________________________________________________________________________ Clemmie B. Date Dissertation Committee Member ___________________________________________________________________________ Sharon Murphy Augustine, Ph.
Date Chair, Tift College of Education, Macon _________________________________________________________________________ Jane West, Ed. Date Director of Doctoral Studies, Tift College of Education ___________________________________________________________________________ Keith E. Date Interim Dean of Graduate Studies DEDICATION You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
Desmond Tutu To Cynthia Mariah Walker-Smith and Casey O’Neal Walker, Jr. the wind beneath my wings and my reason for being. Thank you for willingly sharing me with the world. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To the God that I love and adore.
Thank You for making this decision for me. With You I could. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” – Philippians 4:13. To my children, Cynthia and Casey, who made me laugh on the days when I felt was blue.
We have been on this journey a long time together and may we continue in love, laughter, and everlasting happiness. To my shadow, Kaytris Joy Smith, your middle name exclaims within my heart what you are to me. Now we get to go to the movies every weekend, if your heart so desires. To Mom, Evelyn Jackson Keaton (deceased March 21, 1987) who lit the fire within me to reach for the golden ring.
To my Daddy, Jessie Keaton, Jr., for the weekend calls to make sure I was always on-task and whose wise upbringing is stamped all over the woman that I grew to be. To my brother, Chauncey D. Keaton, who once proclaimed that I was the smartest woman he knew. I wonder if that statement still rings true for you.
To my Golden Girls, Ollie M. Jackson and Barbara Jackson Edwards, the driving force of my determination to be the change for our family. To Siedra Pitts, whose words of encouragement and perseverance were always timely. v To Nephew Sam – Your prayers, laughter, and hanging out at The Rookery helped to keep me focused and the food was fantastic.
To Pastor Anthony Q., who fed me spiritually so that I could do in the natural what seemed to be impossible. To my Lundy Chapel Baptist Church family, thank you for your prayers and for always checking on me throughout this process. Your kindness will never be forgotten. Shandra Yarbrough who said to go for it.
I am glad I took your advice. To my coworkers, especially Angel Woodard, thanks for keeping me in check and making sure that I took care of myself. Philip Hurd, not only do you work to make sure my health is optimum, you care enough to call to check on me and send me birthday greetings every year. Vincent Youngbauer, you were not only my committee chair but you are the ‘realest’ bass guitarist I know.
I appreciate your straight, no-chaser advice. With every comment, I dug deeper. Lucy Bush and Dr. Clemmie Whatley, you both committed, sight unseen, to be a part of this process.
I will forever be grateful to all those unnamed strangers, angels, who appeared on my path to tell me exactly what I needed to hear. I know you were sent by God. To each of my research participants, without your input this study would not have come to fruition. To all my naysayers – Thank you! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .v LIST OF TABLES .x LIST OF FIGURES.
xiii LIST OF APPENDICES .xv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .1 Statement of the Problem .6 Personal Connection to the Problem .8 Professional Connection to the Problem .9 Purpose of the Study .12 Definition of Key Terms .17 Community of Practice .36 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Setting .37 District and School .47 Validity and Reliability .54 Survey Data Results .56 Human Capital Statement Analysis .58 Social Capital Statement Analysis .65 Decisional Capital Statement Analysis .73 Summary of Survey Statements Analysis .80 Interview Data Results .82 A Priori Code Analysis .82 A Priori Code 1: Sharing .84 A Priori Code 2: Joint Work .84 Emergent Code Analysis.86 Human Capital Themes.87 Emergent Code 1: Relevant Professional Development .88 Emergent Code 2: Self-Directed Learning .89 Social Capital Themes .90 Emergent Code 3: Trust .91 Emergent Code 4: Freedom of Expression .92 Emergent Code 5: Professional to Personal Relationships .92 Decisional Capital Themes .93 Emergent Code 6: Dictated Autonomy .95 Emergent Code 7: Commitment .95 Emergent Code 8: Triadic Connections .99 5 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS.103 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Conclusions .116 ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1: Student Population by Race/Ethnicity/and Grade Level .39 2: Survey Participants Demographic Data .43 3: Interview Participant’s Profile .46 4: Social Capital Relationship Coding .49 5: Human Capital Statement 1 Results .58 6: Human Capital Statement 2 Results .59 7: Human Capital Statement 3 Results .59 8: Human Capital Statement 4 Results .60 9: Human Capital Statement 5 Results .60 10: Human Capital Statement 6 Results .61 11: Human Capital Statement 7 Results .61 12: Human Capital Statement 8 Results .62 13: Human Capital Statement 9 Results .62 14: Human Capital Statement 10 Results .63 15: Human Capital Statement 11 Results .63 16: Human Capital Statement 12 Results .64 17: Summative Human Capital Statements Results.65 18: Social Capital Statement 13 Results .66 19: Social Capital Statement 14 Results .66 x 20: Social Capital Statement 15 Results .67 21: Social Capital Statement 16 Results .67 22: Social Capital Statement 17 Results .68 23: Social Capital Statement 18 Results .68 24: Social Capital Statement 19 Results .69 25: Social Capital Statement 20 Results .69 26: Social Capital Statement 21 Results .70 27: Social Capital Statement 22 Results .70 28: Social Capital Statement 23 Results .71 29: Social Capital Statement 24 Results .71 30: Summative Social Capital Statements Results .72 31: Decisional Capital Statement 25 Results .73 32: Decisional Capital Statement 26 Results .74 33: Decisional Capital Statement 27 Results .74 34: Decisional Capital Statement 28 Results .75 35: Decisional Capital Statement 29 Results .75 36: Decisional Capital Statement 30 Results .75 37: Decisional Capital Statement 31 Results .76 38: Decisional Capital Statement 32 Results .76 39: Decisional Capital Statement 33 Results .77 40: Decisional Capital Statement 34 Results .77 41: Decisional Capital Statement 35 Results .78 42: Decisional Capital Statement 36 Results .78 xi 43: Summative Decisional Capital Statements Results .80 44: Interrelated Professional Capital Survey Items.81 45: Continuum of Collaboration .83 46: Emergent Coding Categories .87 xii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1: Human/Social Capital and Self/Collective Efficacy Mutuality .28 xiii LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix Page A: Author Permission .125 B: Teacher Professional Capital Survey (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012) .139 D: Informed Consent Form .141 E: Interview Questions and Alignment .146 G: Teacher Interview Protocol .148 H: Valid and Reliable Measures of Professional Capital .156 xiv ABSTRACT ALLISON EDWARDS WALKER ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF PROFESSIONAL CAPITAWITHIN THEIR COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE Under the direction of VINCENT YOUNGBAUER, Ph. Many teachers, after having worked in isolation for so long and a business capital model of education reform, do not understand the concept of professional capital and its impact for transforming education. The purpose of this study was to examine elementary teachers’ perception of professional capital within their community of practice. The data were collected two ways: completion of the self-assessed Teacher Professional Capital Survey (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012) and semi-structured interviews.
The Teacher Professional Capital Survey (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012) was administered to glean teachers’ understanding of the concept of professional capital within their community of practice. The survey item data analysis revealed that on thirty-one of the thirty-six self- assessed items the teacher participants had an understanding of the precepts of professional capital within their community of practice. The semi-structured interview data analysis revealed two a priori codes and eight emergent codes. In the process of a priori coding two codes were presented: 1) sharing, and 2) joint work.
In the process of emergent coding the interview data eight codes presented: 1) relevant professional development; 2) self-directed learning; 3) trust; 4) freedom of expression; 5) professional to personal relationships; 6) dictated/scripted autonomy; 7) commitment and 8) triadic xv capital connections. Overall, the results of the study revealed that most elementary teachers, within this community of practice, are aware of the precepts of professional capital as represented by the survey analysis results and the ten coded themes presented from the semi-structured interview data. xvi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION So individualism is, on balance, a bad thing. As we said earlier, individual teacher autonomy “behind the classroom door” is a license to be brilliant, but also to be abominable and just plain bland.
110) Around the world, disaster is providing the means for business to accumulate profit (Saltman, 2007, p. 1) In the ongoing criticism of the failing American public school system education reformers have always been in the forefront to tout their reformation ideologies as the best method to address the needs of the failing system. Historically, education reform beliefs have been embedded in public education practices and policy since the onset of the American public education system. Education reform is about the dominant voice of the activist or organization being heard amongst the masses.
Horace Mann, considered the father of the American public education system, when elected as Secretary of the newly-created Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, used his position, voice, to enact major educational reform. Leader of the Common School Movement, Mann fought to ensure that every child receive a basic education funded by local taxes. His influence and ideology soon spread beyond Massachusetts to other states, which grasped this idea of universal schooling. 1 2 John Dewey, looking through the lense of pragmatism, advocated for the Progressive Movement in education.
In his seminal work The School and Society (1900) he wrote, an embryonic community life, active with types of occupations that reflect the life of the larger society and permeated throughout with the spirit of art, history and science. When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely and harmonious (pp. Dewey’s idea of public education reform focused on a need to learn by doing, being engaged in the processes of learning. Rooted in the ideas of democracy all participants, teachers and students, in the learning experience had an equal voice in the learning opportunities.
In the changing economic times of America moving from an agrarian society to an industrialized nation, a subtle shift took place on the education reform timeline which begin to reflect the ideologies of business corporate reformers. Beginning in the late 1890s and continuing into the early 1900s, the restructuring of the local governance for the school, the local school board, was revamped to align to the modern viewpoint of the American public school system. School boards in many of this country’s largest cities were downsized, meaning local citizens lost control of their local schools, in favor of big businessmen and members of the richest classes determining what was best for the schools. This centralization of school governance meant that “…schools were run 3 according to the same principles as any large corporation.
The school board functioned like a corporate board of directors, its members setting overall policy and monitoring its implementation while refraining from interfering in day-to-day operations” (Urban & Wagoner, 2014, pp.