In between worlds: The life of a lab school teacher

Abstract

Because of its campus location and historical origin, the university-based laboratory preschool (lab school) serves as a site for conducting research studies, for teaching student teachers and young children, and for modeling "best" practice within the early childhood community. These three components from the three-part mission of lab schools. This three-part mission creates unique demands for lab school teachers.

This study looks at lab school teaching from two teachers' perspectives. The teachers' point-of-view is the focus of this study because teachers are major participants of teaching at lab schools and because their views are largely ignored in both the general and the laboratory-school-specific literature on teaching.

The two perspectives analyzed in this study are those of Mary and Nancy, two of five head teachers at Children's Laboratory, a lab school. The purpose of this study is to describe teaching at a lab school from these two teachers' perspectives and to analyze the "making sense" process of their work lives by observing and interviewing them. Questions addressed in this dissertation are the following: (a) how do lab school teachers perceive teaching at a lab school? (b) how do lab school teachers make sense of the range of responsibilities entailed within being a lab school teacher? (c) how do lab school teachers negotiate the multiple and often overlapping demands inherent in their occupation? and (d) what do lab school teachers do to gain control of their complex lives at lab school? Implications for lab school administrators are also addressed.