| The purpose of this study was to understand the importance teachers place on having a room of their own in which to teach, and to appreciate how that importance affects their lives as teachers. Though often criticized for fostering the isolation of teachers, a common practice in American secondary school culture is for teachers to have their own room. Why does that practice prevail? Do teachers agree that having their own room fosters their isolation from other teachers and their greater school community? Do they believe that having their own room hinders collegiality and the development of professional communities? What is it like for teachers who do not have a room of their own? This dissertation seeks answers to these and other questions in an effort to appreciate what matters most to teachers, and to further our understanding of how schools work and how they might be improved. Three major themes were explored: identity, relationships, and community.; Interviews were conducted with eight teachers chosen from a pool of those who responded to an initial survey distributed to over 3500 teachers in central upstate New York. The eight teachers chosen from the respondents were all secondary level teachers in remote rural schools who had experienced teaching without a room of their own. Three of those teachers did not have a room of their own during the school year when the interviews were being conducted. Observations of those teachers were also conducted by shadowing them in their schools. Subsequent on-line journaling throughout the year of the study served to expand upon the interviews.; Analysis and interpretation of the teachers' interviews, on-line journaling, and the field notes obtained from the observations further inform research on teacher collaboration, the role of administration in the cultivation of new models for decision making, and the relationship between higher education and America's schools. |
