This mixed-methods study is a teacher-initiated, collaborative inquiry involving a professional development school (PDS) and a university. The investigation focused on teachers' perceptions of teacher retention and mobility at their PDS. Participants were 134 teachers at a high-needs elementary school with data sources including surveys, interviews, and open-ended questionnaires. The findings clustered around two primary dimensions: (a) congruency of teachers' beliefs and practices with organizational norms and (b) teachers' relational needs and administrators' willingness and ability to meet such needs. Although this study affirmed many of the findings in the extant literature, it also challenged others-namely, the links between teacher turnover and workplace conditions, student body characteristics, and student achievement. The recursive research design enabled the researchers to make accommodations in methodology in response to teachers' and administrators' concerns. The researchers documented these modifications and make recommendations for conducting inquiry in a PDS.
As the minority population and achievement gap in the United States continue to grow, the rapidly increasing epidemic of leaving English‐language learners (ELLs) behind is one of grave concern for educators. Due to disparities between academic Discourses and ELLs' primary Discourse, a free and equal education, as claimed by the U.S. government, may, in actuality, be far from equal and costing ELLs dearly.
This article elicits thought‐provoking questions relating to the ways in which ELLs' primary Discourses serve as a barrier to school success because of academic Discourses embedded within school curriculums and assessments. This article also urges teachers to identify and acknowledge the significance of the role their own Discourses play in their approach to teaching ELLs and provides strategies to link the primary Discourse of ELLs and the academic Discourse of schools.
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