Summary of Findings

This paper examined two dimensions of teacher professionalization—teachers' own personal orientation towards work (professional leadership and collaboration versus strictly private classroom practice) and the extent to which their school culture supports a collaborative, professionally oriented work environment rather than being typically bureaucratic and hierarchical in nature. The role orientation of teachers was determined by responses to questions which described:

  • The frequency of teachers' informal substantive and pedagogical discussions with other teachers at their school including the frequency of informal observations of each others' teaching.
  • The breadth of professional contact for educators beyond the school.
  • The breadth of involvement in peer professional leadership activities.

All of these, individually and collectively, were found to be correlated with constructivist pedagogy, even when controlling on a teacher's own pedagogical philosophy and school level, two other important determinants of pedagogy.

School culture was determined by examining both teacher reports on their own school environment as well as a collective measurement by a group of at least 4 teachers from the same school.  The following dimensions were used to characterize school culture:

  • Goal consensus among the professional staff.
  • Staff development that respects teachers, is integrated over time, provides for teachers' input, and is concerned about implementation.
  • Public recognition of teacher accomplishment.
  • Constructive criticism among teacher peers.
  • A sense of teachers being in a collaborative community of professionals who are continually learning themselves. 

Although the measured correlations between teacher pedagogy and various aspects of school culture were fairly low—at least partly due to measurement unreliability—we did find large effects in those relatively few instances where a strong professional culture emerged. Some movement toward a professional culture is not, in itself, a very strong predictor of constructivist practice.  It is only when there is a strong commitment to and support for professional participation that we see an independent effort on pedagogy.    In these lighthouse schools, teachers had a much more constructivist pedagogy than teachers with equivalent personal role orientations operating in school settings where a modal bureaucratic culture was the norm.17

 

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