Participating Researchers and Countries

1. Let’s Qualify What is Quantified: The Language of Change – Teachers and Their Expressions of Change in Six Countries Presented at the 32nd Conference of the International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST): Data in a World of Networked Knowledge Ann Arbor, MI, May 22-26, 2006

2. Participating Researchers and Countries • Nora Arato, University of Michigan: USA and Hungary • Johan Booyse, University of South Africa, Pretoria • Tsila Evers, College of Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati, OH: USA • Lya Kramer-Hayon, University of Haifa, Israel • Zehava Rosenblatt, University of Haifa, Israel • John Williamson, University of Tasmania, Australia • Theo Wubbels, Utrecht University, the Netherlands

3. Objective To explore teachers’ language of change that impacted their work lives in six countries: Australia, Hungary, Israel, Netherlands, South Africa, USA-Michigan To utilize data drawn from a large scale research project in which teachers from ten countries responded to an open-ended (semi-structured) questionnaire regarding changes in their lives as educators (Poppleton & Williamson, 2004).

4. Characteristics and Antecedents of Change • Q1: Domain of change: Identifying change with strongest affect on subject (41) • Q2: Perceived origin of the change (24) • Q3: Perceived objective of change (25) • Q4: Role of teacher in the change (35) • Q5: Timetable for change (immediate or gradual) (23) • Q6: Factors facilitating implementation (21) • Q7: Forces impeding implementation (64)

5. Impact of Change on Work Life • Q8a: The extent of impact of change on teacher’s work life (26) • Q8b: Impact on the things you do (29) • Q8c: Impact on ways of doing things (9) • Q8d: Impact on relationships (27) • Q8e: Impact on use of time (7) • Q8f: Impact on professional development (23) • Q8g: Impact on other aspects of teaching work (17) • Q9b: Nature of impact on students (14) • Q11b: Willingness to participate in any future change (6) • Q11c: Thoughts and feelings behind responses (46) • Q12: Any further thoughts and feelings (27)

6. What did we compare? 1) How teachers describe educational change in six countries, 2) What teachers’ metaphors teach us about the meaning of educational change in different countries, 3) What similarities and differences are used for concrete concepts describing teachers’ work-lives, and 4) How the qualitative data complements and underscores the quantitative data.

7. Method The different country teams identified metaphors and classified them according to guidelines discussed and agreed upon based on the cognitive linguistic view of metaphor which is defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain (Kövecses, 2002).

8. Conceptual Metaphor A conceptual domain is any coherent organization of experience. Conceptual domain (A) is related to conceptual domain (B)  one domain is understood in terms of another. Example: the educational system is at a crossroads; this teacher is without direction in life  the conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY manifests. Domain A: Source Domain is the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions to understand another conceptual domain. Domain B: Target Domain is the conceptual domain that is understood this way.

9. Most Common Source Domains Human body, health and illness, machines and tools, buildings and constructions, games and sports, cooking and food, economic transactions, forces, light and darkness, heat and cold, movement and direction.

10. Common target domains Emotion, desire, morality, thought, society, religion, politics, human relationships, communications, time, life and death.

11. Guidelines of Method #1 To categorize metaphors used for concrete concepts that are important for our theoretical notions in the change process, e. g. innovations, teacher, school board, principal, impact of curriculum change, change with strongest affect, origin, objective, role of change, how the change was introduced, things that helped implementation, and things that impeded implementation.

12. Guidelines of Method #2 To categorize the metaphors according to the questions of the survey instrument: change with strongest affect on subject, origin of change, objective of change, role in change, way of implementation whether immediate or gradual, things that helped implement, things impeding effort, portion of work affected, the way change affected things done, the way change affected doing things, relationships with others, extent of professional development, other aspects of work as teacher, observed effects, willingness to participate in future, underlying thoughts and feelings, and further thoughts.

13. Findings 464 metaphors of 6 countries based on 18 survey questions; By source domains— human body, health/illness, machines/tools, buildings/constructions, games/sports, cooking/food, economic transactions, forces, light/darkness, heat/cold, movement/direction, animal [US, IS, NE, SA, AU], garment [NE], open/closed [HU], weather [NE], other profession [US, AU]); By target domains– psychological and mental states and events, social groups and processes, personal experience.

14. Themes Carried by Teachers’ Voices Reform – Hungary, South Africa Restructuring – Australia, USA (Michigan) School and Classroom Level Innovation – The Netherlands, Israel

15. Hungary In 1989/1990 the Marxist based curriculum collapsed; Lining up to Western Europe; They have opened up; They unfold their views more openly and decisively.

16. South Africa I am concerned that individuals may slip through my fingers; Changes were introduced very quickly, in fact, we were hurled into the deep end of the pool; Teachers had no other option than to ascend the mast themselves; The objective of educational change is to provide everyone with a better education and to give learners the instrument that they really require to uplift them; It was just to level the playing field so that every child can have equal opportunities and nobody will be disadvantaged; there was a big political influence – they came from behind and pushed it.

17. Australia (Tasmania) The educational change is a chessboard exercise; [They are not and I am] on the promotional trail; [Tasmanian education system] is a little bit behind the ballpark; I am a pawn on a chessboard – I never know what the next step is; [Teaching] is a place where some major dramas occur and where teachers and students are all babes; I am attacking the change as a terrier by getting my teeth into it; Change is dollar driven; We [teachers and students] are Indians and troops.

18. USA (Michigan) All the departments are under the gun; We ended up being a dumping ground; When you try to measure people and assess them, it seems like a pretty fruitless endeavor; So that we make our product, the student the best that he or she can be; We are getting roadblocks from government and from people who are not living day-to-day with us in our jobs, The trickle down effect [with budgetarycuts].

19. The Netherlands The curriculum is like shoes on a social last; Students do not accept something made to measure for them; He tried to help students over the hump.

20. Israel It led to schools taking great leaps forward; Recently we have been moving full steam ahead; We were all thirsty for change; Teachers were asked to harness themselves to change. The winds of change brought openness, new thinking; I saw it as a ladder for developing in my school work; Teacher development radiates positive energy on the students.