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ERIC Number: ED658637
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 180
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-3832-2729-9
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Becoming a "Good" Teacher: Portraits of the Moral and Ethical Dimensions of Learning Teaching
Taylor Elsa Stafford
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington
Teaching has long since been understood as a moral and ethical endeavor (e.g., hooks, 1994; Hansen, 2021). It is also widely understood that to be a "good" teacher, teachers must "learn." Teaching requires exquisite responsiveness to students, relationships, content, and the social and political world (e.g., Ball & Cohen, 1999; Gutierrez, 2013; Lampert, 1985). And so, while teachers may accrue experience and expertise with each school year, they are never "done" learning. These aspects of teaching, the moral, the ethical, and the ongoing work of learning teaching, are rarely explicitly considered in relationship to one another. This dissertation explores how the moral and ethical dimensions of teaching shape teachers' experiences as learners. Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning, scholarship on learning teaching, and philosophical literature which investigates the moral and ethical dimensions of teaching, I crafted narrative portraits (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997) of three middle grades mathematics teachers as they engaged in learning through, from, and about teaching over a seven-month period. Data included interviews with focal teachers, observations of teachers participating in professional development sessions, and participant observations of teachers' work during instructional coaching sessions. The stories shared here offer a nuanced and humanizing view of how each teacher experienced learning teaching given their evolving moral understandings with respect to what good teaching entails and their ethical understandings of who they want to be and become. In particular, the findings indicated a relationship between the moral and ethical dimensions of learning teaching. For example, the teachers' experiences highlighted how the moral motivations and pressures inherent to teaching have implications for the extent to which the teachers were able to ethically flourish as learners of teaching. The findings of this study also suggested that the teachers experienced both teaching and learning teaching as an expression of their goodness. For example, each teacher navigated pressure to demonstrate their goodness both through the quality of their teaching and through their performance in spaces of teacher learning. These findings have critical implications given the importance of teachers engaging in ongoing learning across their careers and suggests the value of conceptualizing teacher learning not only as a professional moral demand in service of students, but also a meaningful ethical opportunity for teachers. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Tel: 800-521-0600; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml
Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A