An ethnographic study of high school teachers' knowledge and use of instructional development in instructional planning in the province of Newfoundland

Abstract

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to elicit information on the knowledge and competency levels of high school teachers in the instructional development process to determine whether the respondents had either explicit or tacit knowledge of instructional development. The study also attempted to determine the type of instructional planning used by the respondents in the absence of adherence to an instructional development model. The study was initiated as a result of three previous studies carried out in the province of Newfoundland by Gallant (1989), Tobin (1989) and Thomey (1991). These researchers, through surveys and interviews, determined that teacher-librarians, primary and elementary teachers, and high school teachers did not possess comprehensive knowledge of and competency in instructional development. In fact their knowledge and competency levels were minimal. -- This study was implemented in the winter of 1990 and the spring of 1991 using both semi-structured and open-ended interviews with five high school teachers who were randomly selected from two large urban school boards in the province of Newfoundland. All interviews permitted open responses, and were tape-recorded with the permission of respondents. -- The data were analyzed using Merriam's (1988) suggestion of organizing the data topically and Miles and Huberman's (1984) tactics of analyzing data by noting patterns and themes and by clustering. -- Results of the study indicated that high school teachers participating in this study have little knowledge of and competency in instructional development. Furthermore, they make no use of the instructional development process in planning instructional events. Teacher planning, for the most part, can be categorized as non-systems planning.