Adjusting the focus: Teachers' roles and responsibilities in a school/university collaborative

Abstract

This study investigated whether professional development school (PDS) teachers changed their perceptions of roles and responsibilities and adjusted their performance to meet this redefinition, as a result of their participation in a school/university collaborative. Biographical interviews and participant observations of 12 teachers were recorded over the first 18 months of a PDS project; documents related to the project were examined as well. Teachers described their changing roles in relation to the additional responsibilities they felt for three audiences: themselves, their peers, and their students. A conceptual framework based on symbolic interactionism was employed to identify and interpret events that participants deemed significant in redefining the roles of a PDS teacher. Three assertions emerged from the data: (a) for themselves, participants created and maintained a role of teacher‐as‐learner; (b) for their peers, participants created and maintained a role of teacher‐as‐collaborator; and (c) for their students, participants created and maintained a role of teacher‐as‐social‐activist.