ERIC Number: ED552705
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 346
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 978-1-2679-8385-5
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Meaning of Race-Based Professional Development: A Critical Feminist Ethnography
Adams, Susan R.
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana University
This study seeks to understand the meaning of the experiences of a group of nine diverse educators who participated in a five-day, residential, intensive seminar known as the Teaching for Educational Equity (TFEE) seminar in 2010. Particular attention is devoted to a small subset of four educators who have continued to meet and work together voluntarily since the conclusion of the TFEE seminar. Louie F. Rodriguez' (2012) Framework of Recognition for Latina/o Youth provides a theoretical foundation for interpreting the three rounds of individual interviews over the six months following the TFEE seminar. In light of a Latherian approach and epistemological commitments to critical feminist ethnographic methodology, a collaborative affinity mapping analytic was developed for use with the four local TFEE participants to collaboratively analyze the transcripts of their third round of interviews. Analysis of Rounds One and Two identifies "inside work" in which facilitators paid attention to comfort; careful selection of seminar content; and particular seminar processes; and participants engaged in repeated cycles of reflection, commitments, new knowledge and reflexivity as critical inside work components. Individual TFEE participants reported that they later engaged in "outside work", or actions and outcomes they traced back to their TFEE seminar experiences. Round One outcomes include new hope, new tools and resources, implementation of action plans developed during the seminar, and new relationships developed with fellow TFEE participants. In Round Two, participants report changes in pedagogy, new advocacy roles, and increased opportunities to collaborate with their site colleagues. Round 3 interviews reveal paradoxical tensions that combine to create the conditions in which racially diverse educators continue to work toward professional transformation in the months following the TFEE seminar's conclusion. TFEE interview analysis viewed through the Rodriguez Framework indicates that all of the five elements of the Rodriguez Framework of Recognition (relational, curricular, contextual, transformative, and pedagogical recognition) were present and evident in the TFEE seminar. This study suggests that in order for educators to enact the teaching practices identified in the Rodriguez Framework, educators must first experience the Framework as learners before they can recreate these learning conditions in their classrooms. For these practices to be transformative and sustainable, educators must also experience "collegial recognition" as learners and within their professional settings. The result of these outcomes is the Professional Framework of Recognition for Educational Equity (PFREE) which provides a new model for creating and delivering race-based professional development for educators. [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://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Race, Equal Education, Feminism, Ethnography, Interviews, Seminars, Guidelines, Hispanic Americans, Faculty Development, Critical Theory, Epistemology, Reflection, Knowledge Base for Teaching, Advocacy, Role, Teaching Methods, Diversity (Faculty), Teacher Attitudes, Educational Change
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A