Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Dissertation

Keywords

Underachievement; Teachers--Attitudes; Sixth grade (Education);

Abstract

The following ethnographic study was conducted with 6th grade teachers in a middle school that has been stigmatized by the public as a failing school and cited by the government as a School in Need of Assistance according to the No Child Left Behind Act. The purpose of the study was to examine what teachers believe about persistent underachievement in order to shed light on whether teacher beliefs inform teachers' efforts to ameliorate underachievement. As my study progressed, my research data suggested that teachers use a faulty testing curriculum that guarantees poor student performance and only serves to confirm mistaken assumptions about student ability. In an act of self-preservation, teachers in my study blamed students for poor performance in order to deflect professional blame away from themselves. This blaming game supports a culture of failure that locates both students and teachers in a losing or no-win situation.

Year of Submission

2006

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Department of Special Education

First Advisor

Deborah Gallagher, Chair

Date Original

12-2006

Object Description

1 PDF file (v, 149 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Download

Comments?

Share

COinS