The secondary education system in the United States provides the opportunity for students to earn a high school diploma in preparation for post-secondary college and career. These students are taught by certified high school teachers with similar pedagogy but deliver instruction in different content areas. This qualitative study was conducted to understand how rural CTE high school teachers describe their lived experience of being a member of the secondary education teaching corps. Guided by two research questions that ask (1) how rural CTE teachers describe their teacher professional identity and (2) how rural CTE teachers characterize the role of vocational training in secondary education, the study used transcendental phenomenology as a methodology to explicate data collected through semi-structured interviews of six certified rural CTE high school teachers. The explication process followed Moustakas’ (1994) modification of the van Kaam method of analysis of phenomenological data. From the development of individual textural-structural descriptions of the phenomenon, a composite synthesis of data resulted in a description of the essences and meanings of the experience of teacher professional identity by the participant group. These findings indicate rural CTE high school teachers exhibit attributes of Teacher Professional Identity and Teacher Agency in their lived experience as a secondary education teacher.
","abstract_html":"<p>The secondary education system in the United States provides the opportunity for students to earn a high school diploma in preparation for post-secondary college and career. These students are taught by certified high school teachers with similar pedagogy but deliver instruction in different content areas. This qualitative study was conducted to understand how rural CTE high school teachers describe their lived experience of being a member of the secondary education teaching corps. Guided by two research questions that ask (1) how rural CTE teachers describe their teacher professional identity and (2) how rural CTE teachers characterize the role of vocational training in secondary education, the study used transcendental phenomenology as a methodology to explicate data collected through semi-structured interviews of six certified rural CTE high school teachers. The explication process followed Moustakas’ (1994) modification of the van Kaam method of analysis of phenomenological data. From the development of individual textural-structural descriptions of the phenomenon, a composite synthesis of data resulted in a description of the essences and meanings of the experience of teacher professional identity by the participant group. These findings indicate rural CTE high school teachers exhibit attributes of Teacher Professional Identity and Teacher Agency in their lived experience as a secondary education teacher.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Speno, Matthew E."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Education (EdD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Education","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ella Benson","Staci Grasky","Donald Cannan"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-11-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2021-11-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:21:34Z","subjects":["Education","Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research","Secondary Education","Secondary Education and Teaching"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://dune.une.edu/theses/400","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ella Benson","Staci Grasky","Donald Cannan"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Speno, Matthew E."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2021-12-09T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Education"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Education (EdD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Education","Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research","Secondary Education","Secondary Education and Teaching"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://dune.une.edu/theses/400"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The secondary education system in the United States provides the opportunity for students to earn a high school diploma in preparation for post-secondary college and career. These students are taught by certified high school teachers with similar pedagogy but deliver instruction in different content areas. This qualitative study was conducted to understand how rural CTE high school teachers describe their lived experience of being a member of the secondary education teaching corps. Guided by two research questions that ask (1) how rural CTE teachers describe their teacher professional identity and (2) how rural CTE teachers characterize the role of vocational training in secondary education, the study used transcendental phenomenology as a methodology to explicate data collected through semi-structured interviews of six certified rural CTE high school teachers. The explication process followed Moustakas’ (1994) modification of the van Kaam method of analysis of phenomenological data. From the development of individual textural-structural descriptions of the phenomenon, a composite synthesis of data resulted in a description of the essences and meanings of the experience of teacher professional identity by the participant group. These findings indicate rural CTE high school teachers exhibit attributes of Teacher Professional Identity and Teacher Agency in their lived experience as a secondary education teacher.
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"],"dc:identifier":["https://dune.une.edu/theses/400"],"dc:subject":["Education","Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research","Secondary Education","Secondary Education and Teaching"],"dc:title":["The Lived Experience Of Rural CTE Teachers As Members Of The Secondary Education Teaching Corps"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Education"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Education (EdD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:21:34Z"}