Joining School Communities of Practice: Career Changer Identity Transitions

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Joining School Communities of Practice Career
Changer Identity Transitions

• Sheila Allen, Ph.D.
• sallen_at_harford.edu
• Harford Community College

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Outline

• Identity and Culture
• Communities of Practice
• My research with communities of practice and
  career changers

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WHO ARE YOU?
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Identity

• Symbolic Interactionist Theory
• Identity situated in context
• Dependent on social and linguistic orientations

BELIEFS
FRIENDS
WORK
FAMILY
LANGUAGE
IDENTITY
INTERESTS
CHOICES
HABITS
EXPERIENCES
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Korthagens Onion Model

• Outer Layer behaviors and competencies
• Reactions to misbehavior
• Inner Layer beliefs, professional identity,
  mission
• Based on my beliefs of teaching, how I see myself
  as a teacher, what I believe about my mission as
  a teacher

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7 Conditions for Identity Change
Goodenough

• Desire
• Commitment
• Understanding
• Knowledge
• Abilities
• Recognition
• Self-recognition

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NaciremaAn Anthropological Viewpoint of Culture
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• Nacirema
• American

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Culture

• Knowledge, experience, beliefs, values,
  attitudes, meanings, social hierarchies, notions
  of time, religion, roles, spatial relationships,
  concepts of the universe and material objects and
  possessions acquired by a group of people in the
  course of generations through individual and
  group learning.

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• Culture is learned through interaction,
  observation, and imitation.
• Culture is based on symbols that are subject to
  change.
• Culture helps define and govern the conditions
  and circumstances under which various messages
  may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted.
• Culture supplies you with answers to questions
  about what the world looks like and how you live
  and communicate in that world.

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What does this have to do with career changer
teachers?
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Research with Teachers and Culture

• Humphrey et al. at SRI (2005)
• Schroeder (2002)
• Thomas et al. (2005)
• Legitimate Peripheral Participation
• Lave and Wenger
• Meyer and Carlsen (2001)
• Adler (1998)
• Au (2002)

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Theoretical Framework

• Communities of Practice Wenger
• Mutual engagement
• Joint enterprise
• Shared repertoire

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Research Questions

• 1. What contextual factors most affect the
  transition of career changers into a new
  community of practice?
• 2. Do opportunities for participation in a
  community of practice facilitate the career
  changer teachers identity?
• 3. Do opportunities for participation in a
  community of practice assist in the career
  changer remaining in the profession?

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Mutual Engagement

• Interaction of people in a community
• People engaged in actions with negotiated
  meanings
• People belong to multiple communities
• Meanings of words and understanding of practice
  is interpreted through community
• Diverse members creating relationships

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Survey Questions/Statements

• Did you volunteer or substitute in a school
  before or during the process of becoming a
  teacher?
• I have made personal friends with other teachers.
  
• When I have a good day in the classroom, I talk
  about it with other teachers or teaching staff.
• When I have a bad day in the classroom I talk
  about it with other teachers or teaching staff.
• During my first year of teaching, I feel my peers
  viewed me as a qualified teacher.

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Joint Enterprise

• Members negotiating shared meaning
• Past experiences/meanings being accepted to
  negotiate a new meaning
• Sharing experiences leading to negotiated
  meanings
• Mutual accountability to an enterprise

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Survey Statements

• My colleagues take my opinions about teaching
  seriously when I express them.
• I have been able to use the skills and strategies
  used in my previous career(s).
• I contribute to topics of discussion in meetings
  with other faculty.
• I defend my teaching methods to other teachers.
• I make suggestions about my curriculum.

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Shared Repertoire

• Routines, words, tools, ways of doing things,
  stories, gestures, symbols, actions, or concepts
  adopted by a community
• Shared meanings of all of the above reflecting a
  history of mutual engagement
• Artifacts and actions with histories that become
  a resource for new meanings

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Survey Questions/Statements

• Do you have a significant person in your life who
  is or was a public school teacher?
• I share stories of my teaching experiences with
  other teachers.
• I feel comfortable when I am with other teachers
  in the faculty room.
• I understand teacher routines (e.g., taking
  attendance, reporting grades) in my school.

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Online Survey Instrument

• Three Parts
• Part I - personal attributes and experiences
• Part II Likert statements in three categories
• Part III open-ended questions asking about
  identity and importance of experiences, including
  those with students
• Time Line
• Electronic survey January 07 (10 days with
  follow-up reminder on day 8)

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Methodology

• Mixed method using survey and focus group in
  Harford County, MD
• Participants self-selected career changers in
  Harford County, MD
• Statistical analyses of survey results using
  Pearson Correlation Coefficient open-ended
  answers and focus group discussion used to
  augment results

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Frequencies

• Personal Demographics
• Age 23-64 (x 42),
• White (81)
• Female (65)
• In business or management (35)
• Bachelors degree (73)
• Teaching Demographics
• Secondary certification (53)
• MAT (52),
• Student teaching (29) and/or course work (23)
  before teaching
• Teaching 8 years and intending to teach 15 more

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(No Transcript)
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Comparison to National Research
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Frequencies Continued

• School Experience
• Completed student teaching 16-20 weeks (41),
• Began teaching with a mentor (64) visiting twice
  each month,
• Significant other as a teacher (56),
• Experience in a similar school (62)
• Substituted prior to becoming the teacher of
  record (55)

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Research Findings
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Question 1 What contextual factors most affect
the transition of career changers into a new
community of practice?
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Question 1

• Mutual engagement experience
• Positive Correlations
• White race
• Years teaching with a standard certificate
• Completed a masters program to become certified
• Beginning to teach after completing all education
  courses and after student teaching
• Teaching in a school similar to one in which one
  student taught
• Number of weeks student teaching

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Question 1

• Mutual engagement experience
• Negative Correlations
• Number of years in a prior career
• African-American race
• Years teaching with a provisional certificate
• Use of no organized program to become certified
• Beginning to teach before coursework and after a
  few education courses
• Certification level
• Year one began teaching

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Question 1

• Joint enterprise experience
• Positive correlations
• Number of years teaching
• Years teaching with a standard certificate
• Negative correlation with year one began
  teaching
• Shared repertoire experience
• Positive correlation with years teaching with a
  standard certificate
• Negative correlation with the year one began
  teaching

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Question 1

• Importance
• Positive correlations
• Gender and mutual engagement
• Gender and shared repertoire
• Number of mentor visits and mutual engagement
• Teaching after all coursework and shared
  repertoire
• Negative correlation between certification level
  and mutual engagement

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Question 2 Do opportunities for participation in
a community of practice facilitate the career
changer teachers identity?
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Question 2

• Identity as a teacher - weak to moderate
  statistically significant positive correlation
  with all three areas of a community of practice
• Strongest with shared repertoire
• Weakest with mutual engagement

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Question 2 Item AnalysisStatistically
Significant Correlations

• Mutual engagement - positive correlations
• Making personal friends with teachers
• Discussing good days with teachers
• Joint enterprise positive correlations
• Opinions taken seriously by peers
• Use of prior skills
• Contributions to faculty meetings
• Shared repertoire positive correlations
• Sharing stories with other teachers
• Feeling comfortable in the faculty room
• Understanding routines

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Question 3 Do opportunities for participation in
a community of practice assist in the career
changer remaining in the profession?
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Question 3

• Statistically significant correlations at plt.05
  were found between the community of practice
  characteristics and total time in the profession
• Stronger statistically significant correlations
  at the plt.01 level were found between identity
  and total time in the profession.

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Open-Ended Questions and the Student Classroom
Factor
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Open-Ended Questions

• What made you feel like you were a genuine
  teacher?
• Student success (42), Getting into the
  classroom/school (16), feedback from
  professionals (15), experience (14), being asked
  for help (11)
• How has your interaction with students impacted
  your identity as a teacher?
• Students more important (63), students most
  important but other important too (23), both are
  important (23)
• If you could change something in your experience
  that would have made you fill like a genuine
  teacher sooner, what would it be?
• More support from mentor/colleague/dept. chair
  (23), more time (6)
• Share any other information you feel is important
  to future career changers.
• Get the education and experience (12), remember
  that students are the reason for teaching (11),
  enjoy and like the students (10), recognize the
  importance of your prior experiences (10)

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Implications
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Implications

• Background Demographics
• More years in prior career show a need for more
  assistance making friends and talking about
  teaching
• Race implies a possible need for others of the
  same race to discuss teaching
• Mutual engagement and shared repertoire more
  important to females and lower grade level
  teachers inter-relational experiences more
  important to females

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Implications

• Teaching Demographics
• Teaching longer and on a professional/ standard
  certificate means more experiences in all areas
  a given the longer one is in the profession,
  the more one is part of the community
• Number of years as a provisional teacher means
  less experiences as part of a community can
  anything be done to make them a part of the
  community?

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Implications

• Preparation Program
• Mutual engagement correlations showed more time
  in the schools prior to becoming the teacher of
  record and feeling comfortable in the faculty
  room were differences between graduate and no
  program
• When the Teacher Became the Teacher of Record
• No coursework and after a few courses didnt
  talk of bad days and didnt feel comfortable
  can mentors change this?
• After courses and student teaching shared
  stories and had experience in a similar school

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Implications

• Experience in the Schools
• Student teaching in a school similar to where one
  first teaches in item analysis, positive in all
  characteristics of the community of practice
• Number of weeks student teaching also positive in
  item analysis in all three characteristics
• Volunteering in schools prior to teaching is a
  positive experience, more than substituting
• Mentors - to assist career changers in becoming
  part of the community - talk about good and bad
  days and support contributing to discussions

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Implications with Identity

• Mutual Engagement
• Experiences during the beginning years of
  teaching statistically correlate with identity
  specifically making personal friends and talking
  of good days
• Suggestions for what to do from focus group
• Teacher clubs
• Professional learning communities
• Picnics, parties, happy hours
• Socialization time with mentors

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Implications with Identity

• Joint Enterprise
• Second strongest statistical correlation of a
  community of practice characteristics with
  identity three of five individual statements
  correlated having ones opinions taken
  seriously, using ones skills from a prior
  career, and contributing to discussions
• Suggestions for what to do from focus group
• Volunteer for committees
• Write curriculum
• Have others recognize prior experiences

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Implications with Identity

• Shared Repertoire
• Strongest statistical correlation between
  identity and community of practice
  characteristics all three individual statements
  correlated sharing stories, feeling comfortable
  in the faculty room, and understanding school
  routines
• Suggestions for what to do from focus group
• Time to process information
• Observing multiple teaching styles
• Dont judge too quickly

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Teacher Identity Model
Joint Enterprise 2nd
Teacher Identity
Mutual Engagement 3rd
Shared Repertoire 1st
Students and Classroom Communities
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Conclusions

• Career changers both create and join communities
  of practice
• Provide opportunities in the schools for
  communities to form and provide experiences for
  career changers become part of them
• Outcome may be better-prepared career changers
  who remain in the profession of teaching

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Thank you!
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