EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Curriculum and Instruction

The professional identity of an educator frames one's decision making as they navigate within K-12 systems. A teacher's ability to contribute to the profession of teaching and learning creates teacher leaders who experience a renewal of skill development, increased engagement, and the transfer of knowledge in building a culture of collaboration, commitment, and shared leadership. When opportunities for teacher leadership are lacking, teachers become isolated within K-12 systems, disenchanted with teaching, and disengaged from the teaching profession. The problem will persist if conditions for educator development are incremental and isolated (Fullan, Galluzzo, Morris, & Watson, 1998). Using professional identity as a conceptual framework for teacher leadership, the purpose of this qualitative case study is to investigate how the development of professional identity of 17 STEM teacher leaders form within embedded organizational structures of leadership activities. A case study was conducted to accomplish the purpose of understanding how experienced STEM teacher leaders perceived teacher leadership and how their professional identity was influenced as a teacher leader by their interactions within organizational structures of teacher leadership support. Qualitative research methods including semistructured interviews, online surveys, and program and district documents, were used to obtain narratives of the professional identity of seventeen participants. Data were analyzed using the analytical framework of York-Barr and Duke's (2004) dimensions of practice to understand the influences organizational factors of beliefs, contexts, and activities have on the development of STEM teacher professional identity. The study yielded evidence that (a) perceptions of teacher leadership are dependent upon self-efficacy, agency, skills, dispositions, and content knowledge within K-12 systems; (b) interactions within K-12 systems develop skills and dispositions for op (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Helen Meyer Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Marshella (Shelly) Harkness Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kathleen Koenig Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education