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Presence in context: Teachers’ negotiations with the relational environment of school

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Abstract

This inquiry research builds on the theory of presence in teaching (Rodgers and Raider-Roth 2006) adding nuanced understandings of how school contexts play into teachers’ abilities to support students’ learning. Findings are drawn from multiple interviews with five veteran middle school teachers, teachers’ written work, and field observations. Illustrating these findings is the compelling story of an exemplary teacher’s negotiations of her practice in response to the school’s relational environment. Our findings point to the teacher’s sense of isolation and vulnerability–indicators of the relational context in the school as a threat to undermining her presence. They also create a compelling argument for the importance of a healthy relational context to support teachers’ most powerful teaching, hence students’ learning.

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Notes

  1. All identifiers in this paper have been replaced by pseudonyms.

  2. The larger study, Understanding the Place of Collaborative Text Study in Teachers Learning and Practice has included three teacher cohorts to date (2007, 2009, 2010). The 2007 cohort data informs this study.

  3. The collaborative text study model adopted at the Summer Teachers Institute was developed by the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, which curricularized particular practices including attentive listening, attentive questioning, voicing, and challenging (Raider-Roth and Holzer 2009).

  4. The larger study has IRB approval under the project name, Understanding the Place of Collaborative Text Study in Teachers Learning and Practice.

  5. Full descriptions of the Summer Teachers Institute and the Reflective Seminar can be found in Stieha (2010) and Raider-Roth and Holzer (2009).

  6. In Meir School, the principal is responsible for curriculum and instruction at the school. She reports to the Head of School.

  7. See Raider-Roth et al. (2012), for a more detailed discussion of Sally’s connection to her faculty in 2007.

  8. Yiddish for rear end.

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We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers whose careful critique was instrumental in shaping this article.

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Correspondence to Vicki Stieha.

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Stieha, V., Raider-Roth, M. Presence in context: Teachers’ negotiations with the relational environment of school. J Educ Change 13, 511–534 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-012-9188-z

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