Donovan, Bridget; (2004) Critical incidents in teachers' lives. Doctoral thesis (M.Phil), Institute of Education, University of London.

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Abstract

Critical incidents in teachers' lives This thesis derives from an experience that led to the author's leaving the secondary school teaching profession. My experience resonated with the concept of critical incidents that is found in the literature on teachers' lives. The thesis seeks to demonstrate the ongoing usefulness of this concept. It draws on sociological analysis and literature, in particular a Foucaultian perspective, to interpret data derived from three empirical sources: sensitizing interviews with teachers, fieldwork in a secondary school and a television documentary previously based on that school. The school was within a UK inner-city and it began a Freshstart programme in 1999. It was filmed for a BBC television documentary in its first months and this was screened in 2000. Fieldwork within it took place in 2001. Teachers in the study were required to have either watched the documentary or been involved in its construction. The narrative structure of the documentary is itself driven by representations of critical incidents in the school and in individual teachers' lives. Many teachers were thereby able to construct significant critical incident stories. Four of the fifteen teachers in the sample left the profession because of a critical incident. One remained undecided about his future and appeared not to have experienced a critical incident. Ten teachers identified critical incidents, but had continued with their careers. Their coping strategies are explored. The thesis argues that problems underlying critical incidents arise because of a disjuncture between teachers' humanitarian idealism and the conditions of their employment, leading to requirements for emotional labour which impact upon teachers' lives. By engaging with discursive reconstructions of past events, which can be conceived as critical incidents, teachers become aware of issues in education and consequently make changes. The majority of them are able to continue in their professional lives and careers, despite quite important problems, but a substantial minority withdraws.

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