Teachers as Culture Carriers: Teacher Culture as a Tool for Teacher Professional Learning and Development

Abstract

Different studies have identified persistent problems in teaching effectiveness. Scholars agree that teacher challenges are oftentimes manifestations of structural problems related to effective teacher professional development (Beteille & Evans, 2019; Bruns and Luque, 2014). This dissertation explores teacher professional learning through the lens of the organizational teacher research. From the organizational literature, we know that socialization is a key tool for the intergenerational transmission of culture. Yet, we know less about the mechanisms through which culture can shape professional learning through socialization. To improve professional growth, the overarching question that guides my research is: How does socialization influence teacher organizational culture? In this dissertation, I focus on exploring the proposition of teachers as what I term “culture carriers.” The idea of teachers as carriers of culture is not new, yet the strategy of transferring teachers as a way to carry culture from one school to another, for example, has not yet been studied. To explore this proposition, I conducted a single case study in a Charter Management Organization in Bogotá, Colombia. Despite the intentionality in transplanting culture, questions remained as to whether this goal could be achieved. I asked: 1) Can transferred teachers carry the culture they picked up in one school and transplant it into a new school? If so, what are the mechanisms through which culture carrying happens? 2) What are the conditions that enable or hinder carrying the culture? This dissertation builds on 52 semi-structured interviews and observations in four schools. The findings show that Culture Carrying indeed took place in varying degrees. Through a Grounded Theory approach, I suggest a model of Culture Carrying that proposes modeling as a key mechanism. I suggest that privacy acts as a barrier, interrupting Culture Carrying. I propose that privacy is enabled by three types of school structures: boundaries of space, time, and social boundaries. Furthermore, I find that there is a set of Boundary-Crossing Mechanisms that allow teachers to overcome privacy for the sake of learning. I argue that there is a trade-off between teacher privacy and peer learning, which I label The Peer Learning Dilemma. To respond to this dilemma, I propose a Model for Peer Learning through Observation.