Date
12-2019
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education in Curriculum & Instruction (EdD)
Chair
Sandra Battige
Keywords
Social-emotional Learning, Middle School Teachers, Urban
Disciplines
Education | Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching
Recommended Citation
Gerics, Joseph George, "A Qualitative Study on Urban Middle School Teachers' Perspective of Social and Emotional Learning as Formed through Personal and Occupational Experience" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 2252.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/2252
Abstract
The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to describe the lived experience of social-emotional learning both personal and professional for twelve urban middle school teachers in northeast Ohio. Urban middle school teachers have typically been under-represented in the research around social-emotional learning and this study looks to give voice to this under-represented group. Through the research, this study gained information regarding urban middle school teachers’ personal and professional experiences with social and emotional learning and how this experience promotes or inhibits successful implementation of social-emotional learning within the classroom. The theories guiding this study are Emotional Intelligence which root the five core competencies of social emotional learning, Malsow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Social-cognitive Theory. Social-cognitive theory was used as a foundation to describe self-efficacy as it relates to urban middle school teachers’ experience with social-emotional learning both within themselves and within the classroom. Through semi-structured interviews, announced observations, and a focus group, data was gathered to ascertain the essence of teachers’ lived experience both personal and occupational with social-emotional learning. Data was analyzed through phenomenological reduction, memoing and coding, and rich-thick description.
