Experiencing the crux of agency and structure in urban education: On becoming a teacher educator

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Salyers, B. (2011). Experiencing the crux of agency and structure in urban education: On becoming a teacher educator. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

This research seeks to understand the experience of agency among those being prepared to be teacher educators and education scholars. It investigates how doctoral students negotiate their agency when they discover a difference between the promise and reality of their doctoral training. This critical, hermeneutic phenomenological case study was designed to answer these questions: 1) What fosters and/or inhibits agency among students in the urban education doctoral program at UNC Charlotte? And, 2) how do students negotiate issues of power within this program as it pertains to their agency?Participant selection was purposeful and based on convenience. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with 17 advanced or recently graduated UNC Charlotte urban education doctoral students. Findings suggest that a doctoral student's disposition and prior experiences foster agency. This relationship appears strongest when the student's disposition was critical and prior experiences included operating within a variety of organizational structures within the field of education. Current relationships with people in positions of power and the traditional bureaucracy that pervade the UNC Charlotte urban education program inhibited doctoral student agency. However, this negative effect was weakened if the student's identity negotiations entered the agency-negotiating process. Finally, doctoral students who were able to find space and/or create space within the structure of the doctoral program experienced greater satisfaction with their graduate experiences. Parallels are drawn between the experience of agency within the urban education doctoral program and the experience of students in urban K-12 classrooms. The importance of the mediating role of the teacher/professor in facilitating student agency is discussed. Recommendations are proposed for the future development of urban education doctoral programs and for the preparation of urban classroom teachers.

Details
Author

Salyers, Bethany

Title

Experiencing the crux of agency and structure in urban education: On becoming a teacher educator

Physical Description

1 online resource (167 pages) : PDF

Date

2011

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

This research seeks to understand the experience of agency among those being prepared to be teacher educators and education scholars. It investigates how doctoral students negotiate their agency when they discover a difference between the promise and reality of their doctoral training. This critical, hermeneutic phenomenological case study was designed to answer these questions: 1) What fosters and/or inhibits agency among students in the urban education doctoral program at UNC Charlotte? And, 2) how do students negotiate issues of power within this program as it pertains to their agency?Participant selection was purposeful and based on convenience. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with 17 advanced or recently graduated UNC Charlotte urban education doctoral students. Findings suggest that a doctoral student's disposition and prior experiences foster agency. This relationship appears strongest when the student's disposition was critical and prior experiences included operating within a variety of organizational structures within the field of education. Current relationships with people in positions of power and the traditional bureaucracy that pervade the UNC Charlotte urban education program inhibited doctoral student agency. However, this negative effect was weakened if the student's identity negotiations entered the agency-negotiating process. Finally, doctoral students who were able to find space and/or create space within the structure of the doctoral program experienced greater satisfaction with their graduate experiences. Parallels are drawn between the experience of agency within the urban education doctoral program and the experience of students in urban K-12 classrooms. The importance of the mediating role of the teacher/professor in facilitating student agency is discussed. Recommendations are proposed for the future development of urban education doctoral programs and for the preparation of urban classroom teachers.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Education
Education, Higher
Teachers--Training of

Degree

Ph.D.

Keywords

Agency
Dissonance
Doctoral Students
Schooling Structures
Teacher Education
Urban Education

Subject Area

Curriculum & Instruction

Advisor(s)

Mickelson, Roslyn

Committee Members

Lambert, Richard
Jones, Jeanneine
Zhao, Wei

Degree Note

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2011.

Rights Statement

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). For additional information, see http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/.

Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Salyers_uncc_0694D_10266

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:32