A Narrative Inquiry On Public Middle School Teachers Experiences With Demoralization

<p>Teachers may become demoralized when they feel they are unable to access the moral rewards of teaching. Some moral rewards of teaching include building relationships with students, adjusting methods of instruction that impacts individual student growth, and completing a creative and engaging lesson plan. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to explore the experiences of public middle school teachers with demoralization in the context of their teaching environments. Six participants who self-identified as demoralized completed semi-structured interviews over Zoom. These interviews were then restoried into narratives, then manually coded into themes. The themes that were developed included time and resources as a valuable commodity, the consequences of the nomadic life of a modern middle school teacher, and balancing policy, administration, community, and student needs. The participants in this study were looking for relatedness from their administrators with communication and trust. They felt they needed more time to be competent in their craft, and they struggled to find autonomy in their teaching practice. Recommendations for further action include all teachers starting in a new school district regardless of experience being given a mentor, new teachers receiving access to district specific information, and that teachers’ contracts be negotiated for more than one year. Administration should also consider allowing teachers to have autonomy to teach in a style that works best to them.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year dc:date.available

2023

Author dc:creator

• Alfieri, Jessica E

Contributors dc:contributor

• Andrea Disque
• Lori Sanchez

• demoralization of teachers
• moral rewards of teaching
• school accountability policies
• teacher attrition
• Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dune.une.edu/edu_diss/1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dune.une.edu:edu_diss-1001