Term of Award
Fall 2006
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Committee Chair
Delores D. Liston
Committee Member 1
Ming Fang He
Committee Member 2
Saundra Murray Nettles
Committee Member 3
June E. Alberto
Abstract
Presently, schools in the United States are held within the tight grip of No Child Left Behind, signed into law in 2001. Since accountability is high, some teachers experience burnout and succumb to disenchantment with the profession (Palmer, 1998). Others find their commitments to education so diminished that they abuse their position and fail terribly in their charge to educate our youth. There are some, however, who find ways to continually affirm and sustain their commitments to education. Within the following autoethnographical inquiry, the lives of three National Teachers of the Year are examined with the hope of finding out why these teachers have been able to rise above the negative forces which can inhibit their work. As teaching is viewed through the eyes of the participants, images of the teaching profession encourage a heightened awareness of how good teachers persist. Delores Liston's book, Joy as a metaphor of convergence (2001), provides the theoretical framework for this study which recognizes joy as an internal source of strength, enabling teachers to keep going throughout humanly impossible days (Ayers, 2004).
Recommended Citation
Shirah, Camille Lowe, "Autoethnographical Inquiry into Joyful Teaching: Explorations with National Teachers of the Year" (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 513.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/513
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
