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Teach for America Teachers' Blogs on Teaching University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2012 Teach For America Teachers' Blogs on Teaching Samantha Nicole Holt [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Holt, Samantha Nicole, "Teach For America Teachers' Blogs on Teaching. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2012. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/1164 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Samantha Nicole Holt entitled "Teach For America Teachers' Blogs on Teaching." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English. Michael L. Keene, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Russel Hirst, Kirsten Benson Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Teach For America Teachers’ Blogs on Teaching A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Samantha Nicole Holt May 2012 Copyright © 2012 by Samantha Nicole Holt. All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION For the very first teacher to enter my life, who gave me the tools to grow my imagination—my mom. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks go out to all three of my committee members: Russ Hirst, Mike Keene, and Kirsten Benson. A special thanks to Kirsten, who was an invaluable resource as I navigated my way through a genre of writing that was new to me, and who fought an uphill battle just to be on my committee. In addition to my committee members, I must also thank all of the sweet people who have become my Knoxville family. Without your humor, kindness, and support I could not have made it through this process. Thank you to my Mom, Pa, sister, and Ommie—who believe in and support me in everything I choose to tackle. Last, but not least, thanks to Maggie for staying up with me during late night writing sessions, making me tea and calming my nerves. You’re the best dog a human could ask for. iv ABSTRACT In 1989, Princeton University senior Wendy Kopp conceived the idea of a national teacher corps that would place the brightest young people in the schools that were the most difficult to staff. This idea, which became Teach For America (TFA), took life in 1990, and has since become a powerful force in the public education reform movement. TFA consistently attracts college graduates from the nation’s top universities, and with the funding it receives from private donors as well as the federal government, the organization recruits and trains these individuals who commit to teach in the country’s highest-needs public schools. Critics of Teach For America, including the National Education Association (NEA) and scholar Linda Darling-Hammond—whose 1994 critique of TFA nearly destroyed the organization, argue that TFA poses a threat to the future of public education because it places the most inexperienced teachers in the country’s most struggling schools. While politicians, CEOs, prominent educators, teachers unions, and celebrities engage in debates on whether TFA teachers have a positive or negative impact on students, the voices of Teach For America teachers themselves have been largely left out of this conversation. This study identifies their attitudes, concerns, and anxieties about teaching by analyzing the blogs of fifteen different TFA teachers on the Teach For Us blogging network. It found that Teach For America teachers felt unprepared for the work of teaching, the culture of the schools where they were placed, and the academic level of their students, yet maintained an optimistic attitude in spite of these feelings. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 1 Education Reform and Teach For America .............................................................. 1 A Brief History of Teach For America ..................................................................... 3 Teach For America Teacher Training ...................................................................... 6 The Politicization of Teach For America ................................................................ 10 Purpose of This Study ............................................................................................. 15 Research Questions ................................................................................................. 17 Organization ............................................................................................................ 17 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ....................................................... 19 "Who Will Speak for the Children?" ...................................................................... 20 Studies on TFA Teacher Effectiveness .................................................................. 29 TFA Teachers in Their Own Words ....................................................................... 34 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS AND PROCEDURES .......................................... 44 Research Design ...................................................................................................... 45 Population ............................................................................................................... 46 Procedures ............................................................................................................... 50 Limitations .............................................................................................................. 51 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS .................................................................................. 53 Part One: TFA Teachers' Pre-Service Expectations and Concerns ..................... 54 Reasons for Joining TFA .............................................................................. 54 Passion for TFA’s Mission ................................................................. 54 Desire to Teach .................................................................................. 57 Passion for Subject Area ..................................................................... 58 Pre-Teaching Excitement .............................................................................. 60 Anxieties about Teaching ............................................................................. 62 Concerns about Classroom Management ...................................................... 65 Summary of TFA Teachers' Pre-Service Expectations and Concerns .......... 68 Part Two: Teaching Realities Faced by Corps Members..................................... 69 The Achievement Gap--Up Close and Personal ........................................... 69 Administrative Woes .................................................................................... 72 Classroom Management................................................................................ 75 Despair During the First Year ....................................................................... 78 Managing Stress ............................................................................................ 81 Optimistic Despite Challenges ...................................................................... 84 Summary of Teaching Realities Faced by Corps Members .......................... 86 CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, DISCUSSION, AND CONCLUSIONS ................ 88 Summary of Findings .............................................................................................. 88 Why Do Corps Members Join Teach For America? ............................................... 89 Feeling Unprepared for Teaching Realities ............................................................ 90 Conclusions and Implications ................................................................................. 93 Recommendations for Future Research .................................................................. 94 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................ 97 Vita ............................................................................................................................ 103 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Cohorts of Bloggers .................................................................................... 49 Figure 2: Placement Regions of Bloggers. ................................................................. 49 Figure 3: Teaching Assignments of Bloggers. ............................................................ 49 vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION “I’ve seen a rising generation of young people work and volunteer and turn out in record numbers…they have become a generation of activists possessed with that most American of ideas – that people who love their country can change it…they are why 35,000 young people applied for only 4,000 slots in Teach For America.”
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