Educating Amid Uncertainty: The Organizational Supports Teachers Need to Serve Students in High-Poverty, Urban Schools

Autor/inn/en	Kraft, Matthew A.; Papay, John P.; Johnson, Susan Moore; Charner-Laird, Megin; Ng, Monica; Reinhorn, Stefanie
Titel	Educating Amid Uncertainty: The Organizational Supports Teachers Need to Serve Students in High-Poverty, Urban Schools
Quelle	In: Educational Administration Quarterly, 51 (2015) 5, S.753-790 (38 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0013-161X
DOI	10.1177/0013161X15607617
Schlagwörter	Urban Teaching; Urban Schools; Low Income Students; School Administration; Elementary School Teachers; Middle School Teachers; Secondary School Teachers; High Schools; Principals; Semi Structured Interviews; Pupil Personnel Services; Parent Participation; Coordination; Discipline; Massachusetts + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Urban education; Stadtteilbezogenes Lernen; Urban area; Urban areas; School; Schools; Stadtregion; Stadt; Schule; Elementary school; Teacher; Teachers; Grundschule; Volksschule; Lehrer; Lehrerin; Lehrende; Middle school; Middle schools; Mittelschule; Mittelstufenschule; High school; Oberschule; Principal; Schulleiter; Elternmitwirkung; Koordination; Disziplin; Master-Studiengang
Abstract	Purpose: We examine how uncertainty, both about students and the context in which they are taught, remains a persistent condition of teachers' work in high-poverty, urban schools. We describe six schools' organizational responses to these uncertainties, analyze how these responses reflect open- versus closed-system approaches, and examine how this orientation affects teachers' work. Research Methods: We draw on interviews with a diverse set of 95 teachers and administrators across a purposive sample of six high-poverty, urban schools in one district. We analyzed these interviews by drafting thematic summaries, coding interview transcripts, creating data-analytic matrices, and writing analytic memos. Findings: We find that students introduced considerable uncertainty into teachers' work. Although most teachers we spoke with embraced the challenges of their work and the expanded responsibilities that it entailed, they recognized that their individual efforts were not sufficient to succeed. Teachers consistently spoke about the need for organizational responses that addressed the environmental uncertainty of working with students from low-income families whose experience in school often has been unsuccessful. We describe four types of organizational responses--coordinated instructional supports, systems to promote order and discipline, socioemotional supports for students, and efforts to engage parents--and illustrate how these responses affected teachers' ability to manage the uncertainty introduced by their environment. Conclusions: Traditional public schools are open systems and require systematic organizational responses to address the uncertainty introduced by their environments. Uncoordinated individual efforts alone are not sufficient to meet the needs of students in high-poverty urban communities. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01