Teachers as Change Mediators in Educational Reform

In theory, sustaining and scaling instructional reform hinges on teachers' ability to introduce new ideas, tools, and practices into their local environment and to provide concrete models of change for their peers. Yet, in spite of the critical role teachers play in propagating reform, no investigations of how teachers influence other teachers or what factors enable or impede their change-mediation efforts existed. In order to address this gap, this qualitative study describes the experiences of five teachers as they continue to promote new instructional models nearly two years after they participated in Chickscope, a state-funded educational reform initiative at the University of Illinois. Findings suggest that, while teachers do play an integral role in reform, their tasks are more complex and extended than previously described, and that they need continued, local and/or external support to be successful. For example, school cultures marked by egalitarianism and autonomy complicated change mediation among status-equal peers in this study. To overcome these barriers, the five teacher-participants either adapted their messages to local culture or influenced others in beyond-school arenas where potential conflict was less prevalent. In all cases, like-minded others provided the teachers with the emotional support they needed to pursue leadership activities, and educational leaders from universities or government agencies helped teachers establish a sense of credibility with their peers. These findings (a) challenge several prevalent theoretical notions of how innovations diffuse through systems; (b) offer practical guidance to those who hope to mediate change; and (c) suggest that highly-contextualized, descriptive studies are most appropriate for understanding and documenting the effects of change mediation in schools.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Williamson, Jo Ellen

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bertram Bruce

• Education, Administration

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3070477

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/79710