Teachers and Educational Change: The Lived Experience of Secondary School Restructuring

250 Pages·2000·0.47 MB·English

by  James F. Nolan, Denise G. Meister

Teachers and
Educational Change
SUNY series,
Restructuring and School Change
H. Dickson Corbett and Betty Lou Whitford, editors
Teachers and
Educational Change
The Lived Experience of Secondary
School Restructuring
James Nolan Jr. and Denise G. Meister
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2000 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nolan, James F., 1950–
Teachers and educational change : the lived experience of secondary school
restructuring / James Nolan, Jr., and Denise G. Meister.
p. cm. — (SUNY series, restructuring and school change)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-4699-9 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-4700-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. High school teachers—United States—Case studies. 2. Educational change—United
States—Case studies. 3. Teacher participation in administration—United States—Case
studies. 4. School improvement programs—United States—Case studies. I. Meister,
Denise G., 1951– . II. Title. III. Series.
LB1777.2 .N64 2000
373.11'06—dc21 00-026563
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
We dedicate this book to Gary, John, Lew, Martha, Tanya, and
the students of Team Apex. They permitted us to enter into their
lives, and we became friends. They allowed us to watch their
struggles and triumphs, and we tried to understand. They
entrusted us to see how much they cared, and we were in awe.
Contents
Preface ix
Part I
Introduction
1. The Context 3
2. Research Design 21
Part II
The Restructuring Experience
3. Uncertainty 59
4. Intensification and Limited Time 77
5. Lack of Administrative Leadership 99
6. Subject Loyalty versus Team Allegiance 129
7. Craft Pride, Caring, and Moral Purpose 169
vii
viii Contents
Part III
Conclusion
8. Deepening Our Understanding of
Educational Change 203
References 225
Index 233
Preface
The past decade has seen the publication of literally hundreds of
books focused on the topic of educational change. These books run
the gamut from step-by-step “how-to’s” and reports of individual
change efforts to complex analyses of educational policies and
practices aimed at school restructuring and reform. Many of these
texts portray change as simply a matter of finding the appropri-
ate structures, mind-sets, strategies, and policies. In so doing,
however, these texts neglect the human side of change. Others
(Fullan, 1991; Evans, 1996; Hargreaves, 1997) present cogent
theoretical analyses of the complexity of school restructuring and
point out that in its most fundamental form school restructuring
always comes down to a question of individual teacher change.
Still others (Wasley, 1992; 1994; Lieberman, 1995) offer portraits
or cases of selected individuals engaged in school restructuring
efforts. Too few texts have offered in-depth stories of school change
from the perspective of teachers who are simultaneously the sub-
jects and objects of change (Fullan, 1991). The purpose of this
book is to provide such a story.
The story focuses on the lived experience of five secondary teach-
ers who were engaged in a school restructuring effort intended to
reform secondary education at their high school by moving from
ix