Middle school teachers

The purpose of this explanatory mixed methods study was to understand the impact of a large school district’s professional development, Transgender Student Guidelines and Procedures, on middle and high school teachers’ perceptions of their role as a teacher, on classroom practices, and on the school policies relating to Transgender students. In this study, teacher perceptions of Transgender students were defined as the attitudes, opinions, impressions, and awareness of Transgender students, or individuals who were born as one sex and identify and express themselves as a gender different from the sex assigned at birth. This study was significant as it addressed teacher perceptions and practices as well as the heteronormative and cisnormative structures that are perpetuated and valued within schools. The data were collected via two phases: the quantitative, web-based survey responses, followed by the qualitative, individual interviews. The sample population consisted of 117 middle and high school teachers. Out of the 117 teachers, 90 participants participated in the pre-survey, 71 participants participated in the post-survey, 89 participated in the professional development, and 8 participated in the individual interviews. Five major findings emerged from the data analysis of the interviews as factors influencing and impacting middle and high school teachers’ perceptions of their role and experiences, actions and classroom practices, and perceptions of school policies relating to Transgender students. These findings include (a) teacher experiences, (b) teacher support, (c) lack of understanding, (d) school policy, and (e) school support.

This mixed-methods study was situated within one Florida county and investigated the impact of a newly initiated end-of-course Civics examination upon middle school teachers’ instruction and student learning. High-stakes testing is often a polarizing issue regarding the perceived benefits and challenges for both students and teachers. Participating teachers completed surveys comprised of Likert-type items and short-answer questions inquiring about their instructional choices and resulting student learning with and without the presence of the Civics EOC examination. A subset of department instructional leaders were interviewed providing additional qualitative data with a wider scope due to their dual positioning as teachers and as links between the social studies teachers at their school and the School District of Sunshine County. The analysis of the data reveals that while civics teachers value the increased prestige brought to the subject area with the introduction of the end-of-course examination, the heightened importance of standards has a resulted in a focus on breadth of content coverage rather than depth of learning, leading to content-centered rather than student-centered classroom environments and subsequent loss of voice and choice in curricular decisions for teachers and students. Teachers feel intense pressure to cover the curriculum, raise test scores and engage in test preparation; they question the soundness of the examination to adequately assess the learning of all students and to capture the essence of civics education: active engagement. Teachers’ perspectives on the effect of the examination on teacher practice and student learning were framed within contextual factors that emerged in the analysis: the abandonment of the policy to introduce foundational content at the elementary level; a lack of communication among stakeholders, but particularly between state-level decision makers and local educators; and an absence of the ongoing scaffolding required to create a strong foundation of knowledge and skills to foster continued growth. Consequently, the recommendations of this study of educators’ voices on the policies that impact their profession are directed primarily at state level policy makers and future researchers regarding the flow of communication, inclusion of teacher feedback, continued teacher development, addition of a participatory component, and curricular alignment.