Teacher education at Jersey City State College: A case study of organizational change
Abstract
This study examined the organizational structure of teacher education at Jersey City State College (JCSC) as a case. All variables relevant to the academic governance of teacher education at JCSC were researched. The process employed by JCSC to respond to the New Jersey-National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NJ-NASDTEC) mandate for change in the teacher education program structure and curriculum was explored, described, and explained. In addition, the teacher education curriculum and organizational structure, before and after the NJ-NASDTEC mandate for change, were compared, contrasted, and evaluated. This research project was conducted based on the case study process. The process consisted of five steps: (a) identification of a problem out of practice that was of interest to the researcher, (b) selection of the unit of analysis--the case, (c) collection of data from the purposeful sample, (d) analysis of the data, and (e) writing of the case report (institutional portrait). The unit of analysis in this study was the teacher education program at JCSC--the schools, departments, centers, committees, and regulatory agencies involved in the evaluation, design, structure, and implementation of the teacher education program. The researcher functioned as a known participant observer. The techniques of ethnography: participant observation, archival research, and key informant interviewing were the mechanisms used for data collection to identify the formal and informal academic governance of the teacher education program. Sixteen key informants were interviewed by the researcher to complement the data obtained from the archives and institutional records. The responsibility for leading the change process was placed upon the shoulders of the Dean of Professional Studies and Education. The outcome of the change process was a revised professional education sequence for early childhood, general elementary, and secondary education majors. The curricula issues for the remainder of the certification programs were not resolved. Changes in the academic governance of teacher education unit were explored. However, the academic governance of the teacher education unit remained unchanged as of December 1989.
Subject Area
Teacher education|School administration|Higher education
Recommended Citation
Robinson, Carrie A, "Teacher education at Jersey City State College: A case study of organizational change" (1990). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9109268.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9109268
