dc.contributor.author	Hooker, Julia Winter
dc.coverage.spatial	United States.	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2018-06-10T19:00:36Z
dc.date.available	2018-06-10T19:00:36Z
dc.date.available	2088
dc.date.issued	2018-05
dc.identifier.citation	Hooker, Julia Winter. "An Ethnographic Case Study of Cultural Meaning: Novice Mathematics Teachers’ Shared Schema of Student-Centered Learning Methods," Ed.D. diss., Valdosta State University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10428/3094.
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10428/3094
dc.description.abstract	This research was an ethnographic case study that investigated the schema shared by novice mathematics teachers regarding student-centered teaching. My research drew from Strauss and Quinn’s (2001) interpretation of schema as the framework for my investigation. The purpose of my research was to identify the participants’ shared, tacit understandings about student-centered and teacher-centered methods and to determine how each individual applied those schema to their own teaching practices. During a 4-month period, I interviewed five novice teachers who graduated from the same student-centered university program. My style of interviewing and data analysis was a modified method of discourse analysis, as described by Quinn (2005). Participants shared their stories, about their upbringing, their early childhood learning experiences, their university teacher training, and their current teaching practices. From those conversations, I compiled more than 24 hours of transcriptions. I then coded and analyzed the transcripts, categorizing metaphors and reasoning in order to identify the group’s tacit understandings about teaching. I initially identified the participants’ shared schemas for the role of a teacher. I used that schema as a reference point for comparing and contrasting the participants’ student-centered and teacher-centered schemas. The schema for the role of a teacher valued five distinct traits: authoritarian, motivator, caretaker, competence, and differentness. Those traits were important in the valuation by participants of teaching methods schemas, which they classified as either “good” or “bad.” In the process of identifying the teacher-centered schema, I discovered that the student-centered schema inherently held a component of opposition to traditional, teacher-centered methods. Generally, the student-centered schema identified “good” teaching with student-centered methods and the traits I identified for the role of a teacher schema. Teacher-centered methods were considered “bad,” and participants linked those methods with the antithesis of preferred teacher traits. I found that the student-centered schema of the participants paralleled, rather than replaced, a pre-existing teacher-centered schema. The oppositional nature of the two schemas caused a mental condition of dissonance that I termed cognitive friction. In order to reduce that friction, each participant integrated the shared schemas to create an individual teaching schema. The participants’ individual teaching schemas did not completely accept or reject either teacher-centered or student-centered methods, but fell on a continuum of the two. The exact location on that continuum was determined by the degree that each individual identified with either the teacher-centered schema or the student-centered schema. The participants’ unique teaching schemas allowed for the coexistence of both methods schemas and accounted for the wide variation in their teaching practices.	en_US
dc.description.tableofcontents	Chapter I: INTRODUCTION 1 \| Background 7 \| Problem Statement 11 \| Goals and Purpose 24 \| Purpose of the Study 25 \| Significance of Study 26 \| Research Questions 27 \| Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW 28 \| Mathematics Education and a Call for Change 28 \| Defining Student-Centered Learning 31 \| Factors Influencing Teachers’ Reform-Based Practices 34 \| Perspectives on Culture 36 \| Schema Theory and Culture 37 \| Intrapersonal and Extrapersonal Realms of Culture 42 \| Extrapersonal Influences on Teaching Practices 43 \| School Culture 45 \| Intrapersonal Factors and Schema 47 \| Chapter III: METHODS 49 \| An Aside on Ethnography 50 \| Case Definition 52 \| Participants 54 \| Participant Selection Criteria 54 \| Novice Teachers 55 \| Pedagogical and Content Preparation 55 \| Geographic Proximity 57 \| Identification of the Participant Pool 57 \| Number of Participants 58 \| Data Collection 60 \| The Interview Process 60 \| Outline of the Interview 61 \| Everyday Talk 62 \| Transcription 64 \| Discourse Analysis 66 \| Discourse Features and Mediating Structures 67 \| Metaphors 69 \| Reasoning 72 \| Conflict and Reasoning 75 \| The Coding Process 78 \| Validity and Reliability 83 \| Subjectivity 87 \| Ethical Considerations 89 \| Chapter IV: RESULTS 92 \| Brief Life Histories 93 \| Christine 94 \| Jonathan 97 \| Wendy 100 \| Anthony 101 \| Brooke 104 \| South University Teach Experiences 108 \| Christine 109 \| Jonathan 114 \| Wendy 116 \| Anthony 119 \| Brooke 123 \| Schema of the Role of a Teacher 126 \| The Five Factor Model 128 \| Extraversion 131 \| Teacher as Authority Schema 131 \| Teacher as Motivator Schema 139 \| Agreeableness: Teacher as Caretaker Schema 150 \| Conscientiousness: Teacher as Competent Schema 159 \| Competence through work 162 \| Competence through expertise 164 \| Openness: Teacher as Different Schema 168 \| Student-Centered Teaching Schema 176 \| Participant Definition of Student-Centered Teaching 177 \| Student Engagement, Thinking, and Understanding 178 \| The Student-Centered Schema in the Context of Teacher Traits 180 \| Teacher as Different in the Student-Centered Schema 183 \| Solidarity: Drinking the Kool-Aid/Being in the boat 185 \| Maintaining the difference 189 \| Teacher as Authority in the Student-Centered Schema 190 \| Teacher as Motivator and the Student-Centered Schema 199 \| Teacher as Caretaker and Student-Centered Schema 203 \| Teacher as Competent and the Student-Centered Schema 209 \| Teacher as Worker 211 \| Teacher as Expert 216 \| Individualization of the Student-Centered Schema 220 \| Cognitive Friction 222 \| Integration into Individual Teaching Schemas 232 \| Christine 234 \| Jonathan 237 \| Wendy 240 \| Anthony 244 \| Brooke 248 \| Chapter V: CONCLUSIONS 255 \| Summary of the Study 256 \| Discussion of Findings 257 \| Literature Revisited 266 \| Limitations of the Study 271 \| Delimitations of the Study 272 \| Topics for Future Research 273 \| Key Words 274 \| Cognitive Friction and Dissonance 277 \| Perceived Audience for Student-Centered Learning 278 \| Sustainability and Evolution of Schema 280 \| Student Schema on Schooling 281 \| Similar Studies for Educational Research 283 \| Conclusion 283 \| REFERENCES 287 \| Appendix A: Institutional Review Board Approval 311 \| Appendix B: Five Factor Model 314 \|	en_US
dc.format	Acrobat PDF/A - Portable Document Format v.1b [PUID: fmt/354]
dc.format.extent	1 electronic record, 327 pages.
dc.format.medium	Dissertations; Electronic records (digital records); PDF;
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.rights	This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgment. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.
dc.subject	Dissertations, Academic--United States	en_US
dc.subject	Education	en_US
dc.subject	Schemas (Psychology)	en_US
dc.subject	Mathematics	en_US
dc.subject	Mathematics--Study and teaching	en_US
dc.subject	Teachers	en_US
dc.subject	Student-centered learning	en_US
dc.title	An Ethnographic Case Study of Cultural Meaning: Novice Mathematics Teachers’ Shared Schema of Student-Centered Learning Methods	en_US
dc.type	Dissertation	en_US
dc.contributor.department	Department of Curriculum, Leadership, and Technology of the Dewar College of Education and Human Services	en_US
dc.description.advisor	Schmertzing, Lorraine
dc.description.committee	Schmertzing, Richard
dc.description.committee	Christine A., James
dc.description.committee	LaPlant, James T.
dc.description.degree	Ed.D.	en_US
dc.description.major	Education in Leadership	en_US
dc.description.note	Under Permanent Embargo