Berson, Jillian

This mixed-methods phenomenological bounded case study sought to uncover how who teachers are as people impacts what they do in their classrooms. The study examined how teachers’ personal lives (e.g., backgrounds and prior knowledge), their experiences with intersectionality (e.g., race, class, gender, and sexual orientation), and professional lives (e.g., pedagogical beliefs and curricular choices) influence one another. The sample for this student consisted of seven high school female English Language Arts teachers who were teaching the required text, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Lee (1960). Through the use of survey questionnaires, interviews, document analysis of unit lesson
plans, and a focus group, a portrait of the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and curriculum design choices emerged. Four key themes emerged in relation to the research questions for this study: (a) whether teachers are teaching with the students in mind, (b) uncovering the power structure of the teaching experience, (c) the role of teaching versus facilitating, and (d) curriculum design focusing on the process of learning versus end products.