Teacher Churn and the Culture of School Choice: Power and Control in Urban Charter Schools

• In Event: 69.056 - Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 69.056-7 - The Interplay of Structure, Culture, and Agency in School Choice Policies and Practices

Abstract

Objective
On average, charter schools report higher rates of teacher turnover (24%) compared to district schools (15%; NCES, 2011). Large-scale studies of teacher turnover often limit descriptions of schools by teachers themselves and are rarely contextualized in school settings with distinct organizational and sociocultural conditions. As such, teacher turnover research tends to aggregate survey findings across a large number of schools, with few studies centered on organizational characteristics of charter schools specifically (Newton et al., 2011; Ni, 2012), or distinctions among charter schools, such as standalone charter schools and charter schools operated by a charter management organization (CMO; Torres, 2014; Sawchuck, 2015; Stuit & Smith, 2015).

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of urban charter schools in New York City, and focuses on organizational and sociocultural conditions in two charter schools with extreme differences in teacher turnover rates. Based on interviews with teachers and school leaders, fieldnotes of school visits and observations, and state data on teacher turnover over multiple years, I explore teacher turnover (a phenomenon of chronic “teacher churn” in some schools) as an aspect of school culture involving teacher status, views of teacher professional knowledge, and ultimately teachers’ negotiations for power and control of teaching and learning. Teacher self-reports and explanations of moves and departures from schools were recorded, including the pattern and frequency of movements between various schools.

Theoretical Framework
The paper uses a conceptual framework of culture advanced by sociologist Basil Bernstein, which blends sociocultural theories of teaching and learning with sociological theories of schools as organizations tied to broader relations of power and control in a stratified society (1990, 2000). Hence, a sociological approach to school culture is one that engages culture as a symbolic system of shared meanings within an organization or group, and as an arena of negotiation (and struggle) between status groups with different resources and degrees of power and control (Ingersoll, 1996). In this paper, school culture includes the manner by which leaders and teachers negotiate teaching and learning (e.g. how decisions are made, how autonomy is experienced by various actors), as well as the permissible forms of teaching and learning enacted and rewarded by leaders, based largely on what “counts” as legitimate knowledge across schools.

Findings and Significance
Preliminary findings suggest that the presence or absence of “teacher churn” was due to different degrees of control experienced by teachers in each school, which mitigated teachers’ capacity to negotiate both the manner of teaching and learning in their classroom (i.e. pedagogical qualities such as presentation, pacing, and sequencing of material) and the politics of official knowledge altogether (i.e. curricular choices and decisions). Teachers reported fewer moves from standalone charter schools compared to CMO charters, due in part to relations of power and control between teachers, leaders, and managers. The paper includes a discussion about market-based education policies and its impact on power and control of teachers’ work, particularly teachers who work in high poverty schools undergoing significant changes in school structure, management, and organization. Policy implications are considered.

Author

• Terrenda Corisa White, University of Colorado-Boulder