Understanding teacher commitment

in times of change

Leanne Crosswell
Dip Teach, B Ed., M. Ed.

Submitted as a requirement for the degree of Doctor of Education

Faculty of Education
Queensland University of Technology

2006
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP

The work in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or
diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my
knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published
or written by another person except where due reference is made.

Signature: ________________________________________________

Date: ____________________________________________________
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study drew on the experiences and perceptions of Queensland teachers.

Firstly, I would like to thank the educational organisation and schools that
allowed me access and often spaces and time to speak to their teachers. I
would also like to acknowledge the teachers who generously gave of
themselves in the interviews. The richness of the data came from their
willingness to discuss their perceptions about their commitment to teaching
and at times discuss personal details and experiences. I also would like to
express my gratitude to the participants in the case study. The level of
access given to me by the school community, as well as the considerable
time the staff put into the interviews and the validation of the data was
exceptional.

Secondly, I would like to acknowledge the quality of the direction and

support provided by my principal supervisor A/Professor Bob Elliott. I
was also fortunate enough to be able to draw on the experience and
knowledge of Dr Ian Macpherson as my associate supervisor. The
encouragement and involvement of Professor Tania Aspland as a mentor
has been highly influential throughout my experience of the entire doctoral
process. The expertise and advice from Professor Brian Hansford and John
Clarke have also been invaluable.

I was very privileged to have some wonderful colleagues and friends to

share the highs and lows of the doctoral journey with. Specifically I
especially would like to thank Dr Mary Keeffe, Katie Weir, Trish Ward, Dr
Louise Hard and Denise Beutel for the support and friendship we have
shared over the past years. The direction and advice given to me by
Professor Wendy Patton has also played a significant role in me completing
the project.

The ongoing support from my family and friends throughout the doctoral
process was unwavering. Many of them have come to hear me speak about
my doctoral research and findings and some have even gone to the length
of learning how to pronounce and define phenomenography! That shows
great commitment! Thanks to my parents, Gordon and Judy, my siblings
Nikki, Elissa and Drew for their steadfast belief that I could and would
finish. Finally, I express my deep gratitude to the two most significant
people in my life, Craig and Angus who have made constant sacrifices so I
could get the work completed.
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KEY WORDS
Teacher commitment, passion, values and beliefs, mixed-method approach,
phenomenography, case study.
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ABSTRACT

Teacher commitment is one of the key elements in education and is

arguably becoming an increasingly important factor. The work teachers
engage in on a daily basis is complex and demanding and requires a level
of personal engagement and commitment. With the escalating demands and
new challenges inherent in the current educational climate, what it means
to be a committed teacher is also changing. It has become imperative to
gain further insight into teacher commitment due to its close association
with concepts such as quality of teaching, teacher adaptability, teacher
attendance, teacher burnout, teacher retention, organisational “health” of
the school, and student attitudes and learning outcomes.

This multi-method study examined the phenomenon of teacher

commitment as it is perceived by the teachers themselves. The research
used a multi-method enquiry approach that employed two rarely connected
qualitative methods of phenomenography and case study. It combined the
two methods in an effort to extrapolate and enhance the results from one
method (phenomenography) with the results from another method (case
study). The combined methodology was considered to be appropriate to
investigate the complex phenomenon of teacher commitment, specifically
the multi-dimensional nature of teacher commitment, which is an area that
had not previously been fully explored.

In the phenomenographic investigation of this study, 30 experienced

classroom teachers were interviewed. Participants worked in schools that
represent the diverse education settings and contexts of Queensland.
Geographically the range included teachers from suburban (Brisbane),
regional (Rockhampton) and remote (Longreach) settings. Schools that
participated in the research included special schools, primary schools, high
schools and schools of distance education. This interview data were
analysed to identify categories of description and develop a conceptual
“map” of teacher commitment.
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The school site of Willowbark State School, a small inner city school was
then investigated as a case study. The case study elaborated on the
phenomenographic categories of teacher commitment identified by this
study. Case study data were collected from a range of sources that
included the school website, school documents, anecdotal evidence
collected from observations and informal discussions and formal interviews
with five educators with extended teaching experience.

One of the significant outcomes of the study was an informed

conceptualised Model of Contemporary Teacher Commitment that
illustrates the relationship between the key categories of description and as
such demonstrates the “collective mind” of the teachers in the study. The
study identified six categories of description of teacher commitment. These
categories included teacher commitment as a passion, investment of “extra”
time, a focus on the students, maintaining professional knowledge,
engagement with the school community and transmitting knowledge and
values. These categories are integrated into the model by the use of two
summarising dimensions, a “personal dimension” and a professional
“enactment dimension.”

Another key finding that emerges from the study was the centrality of
passion within teacher commitment. This finding challenges the position
that teacher commitment can be discussed merely in terms of external
factors such as students and subject areas. What the findings of this study
do indicate is that a passionate connection to teaching is fundamental to
any discussion about teacher commitment and this has implications for
school and system leaders.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4
KEY WORDS 5
ABSTRACT 6
TABLE OF CONTENTS 8
APPENDICES 12
LIST OF TABLES 12
LIST OF FIGURES 12

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 13

1.1 Introduction 13
1.2 The Research Problem 13
1.3 The Social Context- Change at the Chalk Face 15
1.4 The Study 18
1.4.1 Methodology 19
1.4.2 Research questions 19
1.4.3 Outcome of the study 20
1.5 The Significance of the Study 21
1.5.1. Teachers as the critical element of education 22
1.5.2. The personal cost of the reform agenda 22
1.5.3. The dilemma of an ageing teacher population 24
1.6 Summary 26

CHAPTER TWO REVIEWING THE LITERATURE 29

2.1 Introduction 29
2.2 Conceptualising Organisational Commitment 30
2.2.1 Key points emerging from the literature on organisational
Commitment 33
2.3 Conceptualising Teacher Commitment 34
2.3.1 Commitment to school or organisation 35
2.3.2 Commitment to students 37
2.3.3 Commitment to career continuance 37
2.3.4 Commitment to a professional knowledge base 39
2.3.5 Commitment to the teaching profession 39
2.3.6 Commitment and teacher engagement 40
2.3.7 The personal elements of teacher commitment 41
2.3.7 Dimensions of Teacher Commitment 41
2.3.9 Key Points emerging from the Literature on Teacher 42
Commitment
2.4 Concepts that are Interrelated to Teacher Commitment 43
2.4.1 Identity 44
2.4.2 Self-efficacy 48
2.4.3 Teacher beliefs 49
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2.4.4 Motivation 49
2.4.5 Passion 50
2.4.6 Job satisfaction 51
2.4.7 Life-stage 52
2.5 Assumptions emerging from the Literature 53
2.5.1 The methods of investigation 54
2.5.2 The findings of the investigation 56
2.5.3 A summary of the key issues within current research 59
2.6 An Emerging Model of Teacher Commitment 60
2.7 The Research Questions 62
2.8 Summary 64

CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDINGS AND PROCEDURES 67
3.1 Introduction 67
3.2 Justification for a Multi-method approach 68
3.3 Methodology for this Study 70
3.4 Phenomenography 72
3.4.1 The assumptions of phenomenography 74
3.4.2 Defining phenomenographic key terms 76
3.5 The Study 80
3.5.1 Phase A – Preliminary fieldwork 80
3.5.2 Phase B- Phenomenographic Mapping of Teacher
Commitment 81
3.5.3 Phase C – Case study 82
3.6 Data Sources 84
3.6.1 Phase A – Data sources 84
3.6.2 Phase B – Data sources 84
3.6.3 Phase C – Data Sources 85
3.7 Data Collection Procedures 86
3.7.1 Phenomenographic interviews 86
3.7.2 Phase A – Testing the proposed questions 88
3.7.3 Phase B – Phenomenographic interviews for the “outcome
space” 89
3.7.4 Phase C – Case study 90
3.8 Data Analysis 92
3.8.1 Phenomenographic analysis 92
3.8.2 Phase A – Data analysis 96
3.8.3 Phase B – Data analysis 99
3.8.4 Phase C– Data analysis 100
3.9 Questions of Trustworthiness, Soundness and Consistency 102
3.10 Ethics Approval 103
3.11 Summary 104

CHAPTER FOUR PHENOMOGRAPHIC FINDINGS 107

4.1 Introduction 107
4.2 Presentation of Results 108
4.3 Categories of Description 110
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4.3.1 Category One: Teacher commitment as “a passion” 113

4.3.2 Category Two: Teacher Commitment as an “investment of
‘extra’ time” 119
4.3.3 Category Three: Teacher Commitment as a “focus on the 126
student”
4.3.4 Category Four: Teacher Commitment as “maintaining 134
professional knowledge”
4.3.5 Category Five: Teacher Commitment as “transmitting 137
knowledge/or values”
4.3.6 Category Six: Teacher Commitment as “engagement with 140
school community”
4.3.7 Summary of the categories of description 143
4.4 The Outcome Space and the relationship between the Identified 146
Categories
4.5 Summary 152

CHAPTER FIVE
THE CASE STUDY OF WILLOWBARK STATE SCHOOL 155
5.1 Introduction 155
5.2 The Case Study 156
5.3 The Case Study of Willowbark State School – Setting the Scene 157
5.4 The Teachers in the Case Study 163
5.4.1 The interviewed staff 165
5.5 Conceptualisations of teacher commitment in context 166
5.5.1 Category One: Teacher commitment as a passion 167
5.5.2 Category Two: Teacher commitment as “an investment of
‘extra’ time” 171
5.5.3 Category Three: Teacher commitment as a focus on the
student 175
5.5.4 Category Four: Teacher commitment as a responsibility to
maintain professional knowledge 177
5.5.5 Category Five: Teacher commitment as “transmitting
knowledge/or values” 179
5.5.6 Category Six: Teacher commitment as engagement with the
school community 181
5.6 Fluctuations of Commitment Levels 183
5.7 Factors that Influence Levels of Commitment 187
5.7.1 Identified factors in the personal dimension 188
5.7.2 Identified factors in the enactment dimension 191
5.8 Emerging Key Issues 194
5.8.1 Characterising teacher commitment 194
5.8.2 Variations in teacher commitment levels 197
5.8.3 Specific factors that sustained and diminished commitment 198
5.9 Summary 199

CHAPTER SIX DISCUSSION 201

6.1 Introduction 201
6.2 The Methodology and Method 201
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6.2.1 The Limitations of the study 203

6.3 Overview of the Findings 205
6.4 Characterising Teacher Commitment 208
6.4.1 The Outcome Space 209
6.4.2 Personal dimension 211
6.4.3 Enactment dimension 212
6.4.4 The interface between the personal and enactment dimensions 213
6.4.5 Teacher commitment as a passion 216
6.4.6 Teacher commitment as an “investment of “extra” time” 219
6.4.7 Teacher commitment as a “focus on the student” 221
6.4.8 Teacher commitment as “maintaining professional
knowledge” 222
6.4.9 Teacher commitment as engagement with the school
Community 222
6.4.10 Teacher commitment as “transmitting knowledge or values” 224
6.5 How Teacher Commitment is Characterised within a school 225
6.5.1 School philosophy and culture 226
6.5.2 Intensification of the work 227
6.5.3 The personal cost of the reform agenda 228
6.6 Fluctuation to Commitment Levels throughout a Teachers’
Career 229
6.6.1 Personal dimension and personal factors 231
6.6.2 Enactment dimension and enactment factors 235
6.7 Model of Contemporary Teacher Commitment 240
6.8 Summary 243

CHAPTER SEVEN
IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 245
7.1 Introduction 245
7.2 Implications for Schools and Systems 245
7.2.1 Harnessing the potential of teachers’ passion 246
7.2.2 Creating connections between reform and teachers’ personal
Beliefs 246
7.2.3 Creating cultures with desired values, attitudes and practices 247
7.2.3 Supporting teachers as they adapt to the intensification of the
Role 247
7.3 Implications for Theorizing Teacher Commitment 249
7.4 Implications for Teachers’ Understanding Teacher
Commitment 250
7.5 Building on the Current Study 251
7.6 Concluding Remarks 254

REFERENCES 255
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APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: PHASE A & B - Questions for Semi-structured

Interview with Teachers 274
APPENDIX B: PHASE C - Questions for Semi-structured Interview
with Teachers 275
APPENDIX C: PHASE C - Questions for Semi-structured Interview
with Principal 276
APPENDIX D: PHASE A & B - Research in to Teacher Commitment -
Information for potential participants 277
APPENDIX E: PHASE C - Research in to Teacher Commitment -
Information for potential participants 280

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Category One: Teacher commitment as a passion 118

Table 2 Category Two: Teacher commitment as an “investment

of ‘extra’ time” 125

Table 3 Category Three: Teacher commitment as a “focus on the

student” 133

Table 4 Category Four: Teacher commitment as “maintaining

professional knowledge” 137

Table 5 Category Five: Teacher commitment as “transmitting

knowledge and /or values” 139

Table 6 Category Six: Teacher commitment as “engagement

with school community” 143

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Outcome Space of teachers’ conceptions of Teacher

Commitment 148

Figure 1 (Repeated) Outcome Space of teachers’ conceptions of Teacher

Commitment 210

Figure 2 A proposed Model of Contemporary Teacher Commitment

242