Dissertation Information for Katherine Marie Brown NAME: - Katherine Marie Brown
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Education
SCHOOL:
- Temple University (USA) (1999)
ADVISORS: - None COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - None
MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected
Title: Creating community in middle schools: Interdisciplinary teaming and advisory programs
Abstract: "Reflecting the admonitions of John Dewey that ""the school must itself be a community life"" (Dewey, 1966, p.358), middle school reformers advocate advisor-advisee programs and interdisciplinary teaming to create a ""small community of learning"" (Carnegie Task Force, 1989). This study reviews the literature regarding the rationale, structure, advantages and disadvantages of these two essential middle school components. The current status, strengths as well as shortcomings, of advisory programs and the interdisciplinary organization of team teaching is investigated. In addition, the reader is presented with an outline of the theoretical/conceptual framework which served as the lens through which the data were analyzed--care and community. A multi-site qualitative case study design was employed to insure that an emic perspective would result. A total of 42 in-depth, semi-structured student, teacher, and principal interviews were conducted in six diverse middle schools.
The purpose of this study was to understand and describe the nature and organization of interdisciplinary teaming and advisory programs as they either contribute to or hinder the creation of a sense of community and care for students and teachers in the context of middle school reform. This study relays its findings in a thick descriptive manner, utilizing rich data described by Bogdan and Biklen (1982) as ""well endowed with good description and dialogue relevant to what occurs at the setting and its meaning for the participants"" (p. 121). The data analysis for teaming led to some intriguing themes, including: (1) Role Modeling a Unified Front: Mothering or Smothering? (2) Get the Big Picture: Eliminate Isolation and Competition Through Focus, Leadership and Professional Development, and (3) Balancing the ""A & E"" of Teaming: Autonomy & Efficacy. The data analysis for advisories revealed some of the following emerging themes: (1) Caring is Woman's Work, (2) Battle Lines: Administrative Support Versus Teacher Resistance, and (3) Student Mingling or Teacher Meddling? The study's overall findings resulted in the following three themes: (1) Middle School Reform Structures: Rhetoric versus Reality? (2) The Concept of Community: A Problem of Paradigms? and (3) Creating Community in a State of Bureaucracy: The Paradox of Producing and the Process of Praxis."
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MPACT Scores for Katherine Marie Brown A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:20:42
Advisors and Advisees Graph
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