Comply, Embrace, Cope, Countercrusade, Subvert: Teach For America Corps Members Respond to (Internal) and External Mandates

Abstract

In this empirical, qualitative study, Teach For America (TFA) corps member teachers’ lives are examined through the lens of George Posner’s seven “frame factors,” namely, (a) temporal, (b) physical, (c) cultural, (d) economic, (e) organizational, (f) political-legal, and (g) personal, which offer insight into the contextualized TFA experience from induction at Corps Training Institute (CTI) through the 2-year TFA teaching commitment. Hundreds of corps member responses to these frame factors and external mandates were coded and analyzed, using unpublished categories developed by Barone, with particular attention to the developmental time line of one’s educational platform on TFAers’ professional practice.