Investigating Variability in Teaching Performance...Seeking Pathways to Excellence

Teacher learning is critical to student learning (Darling-Hammond, 2002, 2010). The work documented here is driven by an investigation of a long-standing and complex problem of educational practice: the inequitable learning opportunities for students that result from variability in the selection, learning and placement of practicing and aspiring teachers. A multidisciplinary perspective is used to situate the problem of practice theoretically, within a body of empirical research, and within a context of educational practice. Among the perspectives used to examine the problem of practice are theoretical frameworks that support the claim that the problem is a matter of social justice. The investigation also argues that inequitable learning opportunities for students are impacted by a fusion of two critical factors including the avenues by which people are recruited for and granted access to teacher preparation programs and the structure and quality of professional development provided to practicing teachers. The argument acknowledges the concept of variability within systems and practices, but contends that variability within excellence is the environment that will afford quality teachers for all students. Efforts to understand and address the problem are addressed to reveal what has been learned in the investigation to date and how what needs to be learned will form a leadership agenda that engages a diversity of stakeholders collaborating on an effort to improve an educational system in which the problem of practice exists. The implications of the effort are discussed for individuals, for the system, and with regard to leadership issues that bear on the problem of practice. The work concludes with a summary of what has been learned through the investigation and the implications of that learning for the professional leadership agenda that will be pursued in order to establish collaboratively engaged improvement efforts as a norm of practice at the level of schools and school districts.

Name thesis:degree_name

EdD

Level thesis:degree_level

Immediate Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Professional Doctorate in Educational Leadership (ProDEL)

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Endler, Francine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rick R McCown
• Jolene G Kopriva
• James B Schreiber
• Deborah Scigliano
• Janet L Grady

• equity
• multidisciplinary
• professional development
• teacher selection
• variability

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/523

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dsc.duq.edu:etd-1539