Date of Award
1996
Publication Type
Master Thesis
Degree Name
M.Ed.
Department
Education
Keywords
Education, Adult and Continuing.
Supervisor
Ball, C.
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
The educational literature of the past 35 years was dominated by studies examining innovations, school improvements, and educational restructuring. Few of these efforts to change schools were considered successful. Researchers have more recently focused on systemic reform and the pivotal role teachers play in ensuring its success. The purpose of this study was to determine how a sample of southwestern Ontario secondary adult day-school teachers perceived change, how the educational changes altered their work lives, and how these alterations affected their dispositions toward future educational change. This was accomplished through a questionnaire completed by 41 teachers from 5 secondary adult day-schools in June, 1995 to January, 1996. In order to recognize the context of these teachers' contributions, a follow-up researcher-completed interview was also conducted with 21 teachers and 5 school leaders. Findings indicated that participants were positive about the changes in the past 5 years which they considered to have had the strongest effect on their work lives. Those changes tended to be changes in policy or practice regarding both subject matter and teaching methodologies or school structure and were initiated or planned by the teachers. Despite the resource and time constraints resulting from the changes, participants believed such changes made it easier for them to meet students' needs, improved their relationships with students, were beneficial for students, made teaching more satisfying, and enhanced teacher collaboration and professionalism. Teachers, however, perceived that they were generally unprepared for and not in control of change. Even with these concerns, most teachers and school leaders were very willing to be active participants in similar future changes or future change in general. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1996 .S56. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 37-01, page: 0023. Adviser: Colin Ball. Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1996.
Recommended Citation
Simonton, Shanno J., "Southwestern Ontario secondary adult day-school teachers' perceptions of the effects of changes in education on their work lives and on their dispositions toward future educational change." (1996). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3544.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/3544