Portrait of an Urban Elementary School: Place-Based Education, School Culture, And Leadership
Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: This study explored the interaction between place-based education, school culture, and leadership at one elementary school in an inner city section of Boston, MA.The centerpiece is a stand alone research portrait that tells a story about how an external program, a willing and ready school community, and a skillful school leader reinforced each other to achieve a shared vision under challenging conditions.From an under-subscribed school in chaos and lacking focus, the subject school transformed into a vibrant, highly sought school with a pervasive, environmentally-oriented culture and curriculum.Portraiture methods were adapted to a utilization-focused evaluation purpose, drawing on archival and newly collected program evaluation data (interviews, surveys, documents, observations) spanning three years.The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible through the Ohiolink ETD Center at http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/.highest priority intended users, namely its funders, program directors, and the administrators and school board members of the subject school. Researcher preoccupations and anticipatory schemaThis dissertation used the qualitative research method of portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997), implemented within a utilization-focused evaluation (Patton, 1997) methodology.In chapter three of this proposal I describe portraiture in more depth and also present my utilization-focused rationale for applying it in this case.For this introduction, however, I describe and employ some aspects of the portraiture method that work well for foreshadowing the research context and situating myself as a researcher within it.As a research portraitist, my "conceptual preoccupations" become the "lens through which I see and record reality" (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997, p. 93).The intellectual, ideological, and autobiographical themes that I bring to the research question shape my view at all phases of the project.As I introduce key elements of the research context in the following paragraphs, I also strive to reveal my own "anticipatory schema" with respect to the research context by declaring many of my assumptions and pre-existing role relationships.The educational policy context The most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, more commonly known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
Author: Michael Duffin
Institution: Antioch University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W266156933