Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/805553
- Title
- An investigation of teachers' collective responsibility for student learning
- Author/Creator
-
Whalan, Frances
- Institution
- University of Newcastle. Faculty of Education and Arts, School of Education
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The subject of this thesis is an investigation of teachers’ collective responsibility for student learning. This research expands on prior knowledge of teachers’ collective responsibility for student learning in order to develop greater conceptual clarity of this phenomenon. In addition to exploring past research on this concept, I present my study of teachers’ collective responsibility for student learning and the conditions that support its development in four New South Wales government schools. The study thus advances both conceptual and methodological knowledge in understanding how teachers’ collective responsibility develops at the school level. Defining the field of literature related to teachers’ collective responsibility is both intriguing and elusive as it traverses both sociological and psychological aspects of teaching. The academic research that is theoretically related to teachers’ collective responsibility for student learning is reviewed. Five major but interconnected discourses: professional community; professional development; relational trust; accountability; and efficacy are derived from the literature as a framework against which to map the terrain of this seemingly complex phenomenon. My study uses a mixed methods approach to analyse data from a survey and teacher interviews to explore the development of teachers’ collective responsibility for student learning. A survey was used to measure professional community, satisfaction with professional development related to the school’s goals, efficacy, collective responsibility and teacher-to-teacher trust in each of the four case study sites. On-site individual and group interviews with teachers were also conducted in each school to explore in depth cultural, social, and educational perspectives for the development of collective responsibility. Results from the study provide clear evidence that collective responsibility is positively correlated to such organisational features in a school as the coherence between professional learning programs and the school’s learning goals, teachers’ commitment to enact those shared goals and teacher-to-teacher trust. In addition, I found that teachers’ collective struggle to address pressing issues for teaching and learning, and pedagogical leadership, when embedded in the organisational capacity of a school, form a complex and dynamic set of factors influencing the development of collective responsibility. Drawing together these important findings, I propose a five dimensional model to describe the development of teachers’ collective responsibility at the school level. The five dimensions - professional development, collective struggle, professional community, relational trust and pedagogical leadership - are presented as a continuum of micro-political conditions interacting at the school level. This model offers new insights into the complexity of collective responsibility as a multi-dimensional phenomenon. The proposed model has implications for organising and resourcing professional learning at both system and school levels when the focus of those resources is to improve the quality of teaching and student achievement. These findings are also relevant to further research on collective responsibility in providing guidance to teachers, school leaders and school communities in constructing positive environments for whole school, large scale improvements to enhance student achievement.
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Date
- 2010
- Keyword(s)
-
professional community;
professional development;
collective responsibility;
trust;
leadership;
quality teaching
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Rights
- Copyright 2010 Frances Whalan
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/805553
- Language
- eng
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