Time for Elementary Educators' Professional Developement

Abstract This paper describes how educators in one school conceptualize time with respect to their work and with particular regard for accomplishing professional development activities. Data are drawn from interviews with classroom teachers, specialists, and the principal involved in a larger two-year qualitative study of teachers' self-initiated peer support projects. Eight dimensions (categories) of time were extracted from interview transcripts and three underlying themes were identified: connections between educators' life-worlds and their teaching practice, school as a time-based economy, and strategies for using time according to individual needs. Multitasking, linking strategies, and the ability to balance personal and organizational time factors were important influences on educators' engagement in meaningful professional development projects.

[1]  P. Woods,et al.  Teacher careers : crises and continuities , 1985 .

[2]  Barbara Adam,et al.  Time and Social Theory , 1990 .

[3]  Thomas Gordon,et al.  Teacher Effectiveness Training , 1975 .

[4]  M. Arlin.  Time Variability in Mastery Learning , 1984 .

[5]  J. Brophy.  Classroom Organization and Management , 1983, The Elementary School Journal.

[6]  S. Silverman,et al.  Relationships of organization, time, and student achievement in physical education , 1988 .

[7]  J. Thayer,et al.  Time urgency: the construct and its measurement. , 1991, The Journal of applied psychology.

[8]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[9]  Jeffrey H. Greenhaus,et al.  Sources of Conflict Between Work and Family Roles , 1985 .

[10]  R. J. Campbell,et al.  Primary Teachers at Work , 1994 .

[11]  J. Kounin.  Discipline and group management in classrooms , 1970 .

[12]  A. Hargreaves.  Teachers’ work and the politics of time and space , 1990 .

[13]  D. Berliner,et al.  Differences Among Teachers in a Task Characterized by Simultaneity, Multidimensional, and Immediacy , 1991 .

[14]  Richard A. Block,et al.  Cognitive models of psychological time , 1992 .

[15]  I. Goodson,et al.  Teachers' Lives And Careers , 1985 .

[16]  R. L. Dipboye,et al.  College students' time management : correlations with academic performance and stress , 1990 .

[17]  Maribeth Gettinger,et al.  Effects of Maximizing Time Spent and Minimizing Time Needed for Learning on Pupil Achievement , 1989 .

[18]  Linda Evans.  The Meaning of Infant Teachers' Work , 1994 .

[19]  C. Northcote Parkinson,et al.  Parkinson's Law and Other Studies in Administration , 1957 .

[20]  M. Wittrock.  Handbook of research on teaching , 1986 .

[21]  An exploration of teachers' mental processes , 1988 .

[22]  A. Schutz.  The Structures of the Life World , 1973 .

[23]  J. Carroll.  A Model of School Learning , 1963, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[24]  R. Riding,et al.  Stress in Teaching: a study of occupational stress and its determinants, job satisfaction and career commitment among primary schoolteachers , 1991 .

[25]  Louis M. Smith,et al.  The complexities of an urban classroom : an analysis toward a general theory of teaching , 1968 .

[26]  I. Goodson.  Studying teachers' lives , 1992 .

[27]  K. A. Burley,et al.  Family-Work Spillover in Dual-Career Couples: A Comparison of Two Time Perspectives , 1991 .

[28]  Robert E. Slavin,et al.  Measurement and Modeling Choices in Studies of Time and Learning , 1981 .

[29]  Kenneth Tobin.  Forces which Shape the Implemented Curriculum in High School Science and Mathematics. , 1987 .

[30]  G. Lakoff,et al.  Metaphors We Live By , 1980 .

[31]  H. Ellis.  The dance of life , 1923 .

[32]  David C. Berliner,et al.  The Development of Expertise in Pedagogy. , 1988 .

[33]  E. Jaques,et al.  In praise of hierarchy. , 1990, Harvard business review.

[34]  Herbert J. Walberg,et al.  Research on teaching : concepts, findings and implications , 1981 .