Professional Capital and the Promise of Full-Service Community Schools: Exploring the Role of Teachers

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-7 - Instructional Factors in Equitable Education

Abstract

Full service community schools have become internationally recognized as a strategy to provide economically disadvantaged students with more equitable educational opportunities. Yet, the literature has given scant attention to the role of teachers in fulfilling the promise of these schools. Drawing on Hargreave’s and Fullan’s concept of professional capital, this paper fills this gap by examining the role of teachers in improving learning opportunities at three full service community schools in an urban district in the northeast United States. Using qualitative methods, this study found evidence that teachers’ professional capital played a key role in whether the case schools provided effective educational experiences for their culturally diverse students. Implications of the study’s findings for research and practice are discussed.

Authors

• Mavis G. Sanders, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Claudia Lucia Galindo, University of Maryland - Baltimore County