Teachers as Change Mediators in Educational Reform
Williamson, Jo Ellen
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/79710
Description
Title
Teachers as Change Mediators in Educational Reform
Author(s)
Williamson, Jo Ellen
Issue Date
2002
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Bertram Bruce
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Administration
Language
eng
Abstract
In theory, sustaining and scaling instructional reform hinges on teachers' ability to introduce new ideas, tools, and practices into their local environment and to provide concrete models of change for their peers. Yet, in spite of the critical role teachers play in propagating reform, no investigations of how teachers influence other teachers or what factors enable or impede their change-mediation efforts existed. In order to address this gap, this qualitative study describes the experiences of five teachers as they continue to promote new instructional models nearly two years after they participated in Chickscope, a state-funded educational reform initiative at the University of Illinois. Findings suggest that, while teachers do play an integral role in reform, their tasks are more complex and extended than previously described, and that they need continued, local and/or external support to be successful. For example, school cultures marked by egalitarianism and autonomy complicated change mediation among status-equal peers in this study. To overcome these barriers, the five teacher-participants either adapted their messages to local culture or influenced others in beyond-school arenas where potential conflict was less prevalent. In all cases, like-minded others provided the teachers with the emotional support they needed to pursue leadership activities, and educational leaders from universities or government agencies helped teachers establish a sense of credibility with their peers. These findings (a) challenge several prevalent theoretical notions of how innovations diffuse through systems; (b) offer practical guidance to those who hope to mediate change; and (c) suggest that highly-contextualized, descriptive studies are most appropriate for understanding and documenting the effects of change mediation in schools.
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