Autoethnographical Inquiry into Joyful Teaching: Explorations with National Teachers of the Year

Presently, schools in the United States are held within the tight grip of No Child Left Behind, signed into law in 2001. Since accountability is high, some teachers experience burnout and succumb to disenchantment with the profession (Palmer, 1998). Others find their commitments to education so diminished that they abuse their position and fail terribly in their charge to educate our youth. There are some, however, who find ways to continually affirm and sustain their commitments to education. Within the following autoethnographical inquiry, the lives of three National Teachers of the Year are examined with the hope of finding out why these teachers have been able to rise above the negative forces which can inhibit their work. As teaching is viewed through the eyes of the participants, images of the teaching profession encourage a heightened awareness of how good teachers persist. Delores Liston's book, Joy as a metaphor of convergence (2001), provides the theoretical framework for this study which recognizes joy as an internal source of strength, enabling teachers to keep going throughout humanly impossible days (Ayers, 2004).

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading

Year dc:date.available

2006

Author dc:creator

• Shirah, Camille Lowe

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ming Fang He
• Saundra Murray Nettles
• June E. Alberto

• ETD
• National Teachers of the Year
• Joy
• Sustainability
• No Child Left Behind
• Compassion
• Care
• Self-reflection
• Teachers
• Autoethnography
• Educational accountability

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/513

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-1513