Structure and Agency Within a School Reform Effort: Coteaching, Inclusion, and School Change

• In Event: Empowering Teachers and Pedagogies in Local Contexts

Abstract

This qualitative case study focuses on a pair of co-teachers in a middle school inclusion program and their conceptualization of the problematic and the possible in their every day practice. These teachers are viewed as deliberative intellectuals whose daily work involves theorizing their practice as part of their school reform effort. This study uses three sociocultural theories (structuralism, structuration theory, and post-structuralism) to examine the dynamic of structure/agency in the practice and discourses of these teachers. Methodologically, the proposal embeds a collaborative action research project with the participants within a qualitative case study approach.

Author

• Tina Y. Gourd, University of Washington