In teaching, you have a duty to
     share with parents what's going on, while at the same time
     guard the kids, the high school kids in particular.  That
     they are individuals.  This is their work, this is their
     business here on campus, and yet that pull of, by necessity
     keeping track of their problems and their development.  Of
     all the questions you just asked, I'd say that the parents
     are the most influential in my line of support, the most
     influential factors.
 
Q:   Can you think of any specific examples of parents'
     influence?
 
A:   Negative or positive?  Or are you thinking of negative?
 
Q:   Either.
 
A:   Not in teaching.  I think I've worked that through, usually,
     by being very clear in the beginning as to what the
     expectations are and how those expectations need to be met
     and keeping the lines of communication pretty open.  Always
     willing to talk, always welcome.  I think that that's really
     important.  There has been a recent incident.  There are two
     incidents going on in my professional life which might be of
     interest to you.  Qualified applicant, not a lot of space.
     We don't need, in terms of numbers, we don't need the
     applicant, but meets qualifications.  There are some holes
     in the quantitative testing, so I have requested additional
     testing. It is very expensive, $1200.  The family complies.
     We have the testing done, and the report really essentially
     confirmed that there are holes in the child's cognitive
     profile; and it is those holes that led us, as a committee,
     to have doubts about the appropriateness of his candidacy.
     Parents called.  Pressure.  They've done everything that we
     asked them to do, why can't we take their son?  They had
     their educational specialist call, who as she is speaking
     with me said clearly I did not understand how to read the
     material, because if I read the material correctly I would l
     see that the child has learned to compensate and is a very
     capable student.  Another specialist calls, dropping names
     of my head and all (unclear).  So all of this mystique and
     pressure, and someone knows someone who knows someone, and
     clearly I'm at fault for not admitting their child, even
     though repeatedly I assure them it was a committee decision,
     that we asked for more information so that we can, to the
     best of our capabilities, admit the child.  There are
     parents really getting in the way of my professional
     behavior.  That's the kind of situation.
 
Q:   Can you tell me about an incident in which your work life
     was influenced or shaped by a professional organization with
     which you identify.
 
A:   Oh, I love the national organizations to which I belong.
     The National Council of Teachers of English.  About once
     every two to three years I'll go to a week-long conference
     and pick up more ideas and swap things that I do.  It is
     certainly a professional contact.  The American Association
     of University Women is a very vital organization.
     Unfortunately, though I'd like to be more involved, maybe
     even in a leadership role or a committee kind of role, I
     don't have the time.  But they are incredible resources,
     information, what to do in situations.  Admission workshops
     are very helpful because you work with case studies, such as
     the one I just described to you.  We might spend a whole
     morning talking about the Joneses and every step, and how
     could I have done it better or what language would have been
     more effective in dealing with these people or...   You
     know, learning, sharing, wondering, that sort of thing.  So,
     national organizations are very, very potent helpful to me.
 
Q:   You have examples that you used, as that case.  Did you
     begin to feel pressure from the head of the school?
 
A:   No, no.  The head of the school was very supportive.
 
Q:   Because I'm wondering if you run to the association about
     different ways to use language to communicate with parents
     and get your perspective across to them, I was wondering if
     that would cause friction somewhere else.  The board or...?
 
A:   No, it's probably because I'm cautious and don't tend to be
     brash, at least on the professional side of things.  I take
     lots of notes.  I transcribe telephone conversations, and as
     some red flags are going up, and "I'll think I have my
     educational consultant from New York call you," or "I'll
     speak with Dr. 'Smoogamoo'," I will say to my head, "Look
     out, I think Dr. Smoogamoo from New York is going to be
     calling and is probably going to use my name."  Or in the
     notes in the folder, it will say, "Tough conversation with
     the conversations with the Joneses last night.  They are not
     happy with the way things are going for them."  You know,
     I'll try to do that.  It helps me, too, to make sure that to
     the best of my ability I'm sort of on the right track.  You
     know, I've made goofs.  I've made lots of goofs and am
     usually assertive with shaking voice and shaking hand will
     have to call up somebody and say, well, "Perhaps I didn't
     make myself clear."  Or, "Perhaps this is a situation we can
     reconsider and take to the Committee again."  Or, I'll call
     a college up and say, "I know you're going to like this guy.
     You really missed the boat on this.  Is there anything I can
     do further on his behalf."  You know, I try not to get too
     personally involved, as that case scenarios, that I can't
     back step a little bit or redo something in a better way.
     No, I've always been endorsed by my heads when the going
     gets rough.
 
Q:   Can you tell me about an incident that happened to you in
     which your work life was influenced or shaped by in-service
     training or your own continued education?
 
A:   Well, again, the workshops.  I think of one, in particular,
     two years ago in Atlanta.  I think it was a time when I
     needed refreshing.  I needed some new ideas, and I needed to
     feel a little bit better professionally connected.  It was a
     wonderful week, you know.  A lot of sharing of ideas,
     correspondences began and continued.  That networking for
     professional people, or for anyone, that can be really,
     really important.  You feel like you belong, that you're not
     out there alone doing your English teaching or your
     admissions or your college counseling.  I was at a two-day
     conference in Scottsdale recently, and it was about the
     technology, essentially, in the 21st century.  And that's
     something very foreign to me and something that I'm not
     particularly comfortable with.  But the speakers were so
     effective and so awe-inspiring that it really helped me gain
     some respect for technology and its advantages.  Not so much
     in the work place as in the classroom.  It's possible to use
     this in the conditions in the classroom.  So the in-service
     stuff I love.
 
Q:   Does the school finance that for you?
 
A:   You know, you have to be kind of aggressive about it.  You
     have to go and say, "XXX, I've found this project that would
     be really helpful."  You have to have...  This sounds a
     little bit manipulative, but a little bit of hidden agenda.
     You know, you serve on a committee, knowing that some people
     may be able to use faculty enrichment funds, and I've got a
     conference in my mind, you know.  You keep abreast of
     various associations, so when the that when the conferences
     come up you get a membership rate, instead of the more
     expensive one.  I pay about 50-50.  I've been in schools
     that have been very supportive.  One head sent me to New
     York, all expenses paid, for six days, which was a very
     expensive trip, and all he said was, "Come back ready to
     share with the rest of us."  You know, it was really a
     beautiful gesture and investment and gesture of trust.
 
Q:   Can you tell me about a incident that happened to you in
     which your work life was influenced or shaped by students?
 
A:   Always.  They always shape your life.  Any time you're an
     advisor for anything, for the literary magazine or the
     newspaper, and you're here 20 hours over the week, and your
     life is shaped by your students.  Sometimes you have to
     gamble a little bit and look in the students' eyes and say,
     "Guys, you didn't get the papers done."  In a way, my work
     life is shaped because it is their understanding and failure
     with me that suggests to me that I've been that way with
     them.  I think a faculty member or faculty sponsor has to
     make the giving gestures and the maintaining gestures toward
     mutual trust and respect, and so forth; and it pays off.
     No, I've never been involved in any relationships that would
     change my professional life.  You know, I get attached to my
     kids, shed a tear when they graduate, but I wouldn't say
     they shaped my...  They can shape my life when they come
     back from college.  I have two students, in particular, who
     come back or bring reading lists, and their lists!  God,
     there are books that I've never even heard of, you know,
     that some professor has passed along to them.
 
Q:   You incorporate that and you read them?
 
A:   Sure, I read them for myself, I'll recommend them to other
     people, or I incorporate them into my lessons.
 
Q:   Can you tell me about an incident in which your work life
     was influenced or shaped by colleagues.
 
A:   Well, yes.  I think maybe that mentor that I referred to
     earlier really had an effect.  One of my undergraduate
     professors was a colleague of mine later on.  Though I
     honestly could never completely leave the student-teacher
     role that I had known a number of years earlier and be
     colleague-colleague role, you know, we were teaching on the
     same faculty.  That's a case where that colleague had
     influenced me tremendously.  The way I was, the way I
     talked, the way I posed questions, the way I listened, some
     that I considered very valuable things, working in
     education.
 
Q:   A colleague.  Is there much of that here now in your current
     role?
 
A:   Oh, I think so.  I think so.  Especially doing both teaching
     and administration.  There are two male English faculty
     members on whom I really rely to try some ideas out.  What
     do you think?  Can we do this?  What do you think of this?
     Will this fly?  And there's mutuality.  They'll say,
     "Stephanie, you tried to do this month, you were thinking of
     this, how did it go?"  This is very valuable with me,
     because as an administrator on the other 50%, I can feel
     dissociated sometimes, very disconnected.  So, at the very
     quick, concentrated intensely connected.
 
Q:   You mentioned working weekends on newspapers.  Is that a
     newspaper here?
 
A:   Yes.
 
Q:   Is there an understanding that when you work at a private
     school that there are non-teaching times that you are
     obligated to?
 
A:   Well, I think I probably go above and beyond the call of
     obligation; and I've got this sort of rescue.  It was a need
     that needed to be attended to.  There was a real deficiency
     that needed to be helped along, and I wouldn't mind not
     doing it, frankly.  But, if you do it, you do it right and
     you do it wholeheartedly, and you come in on weekends.  And
     it's important to the kids, and that's real important to the
     kids.  So, yes, I guess I'm obliged to do it.  I could do
     less and still get by.  The newspaper could get out, and I
     could do a less efficient job, but I don't think that has
     anything to do with professionalism.  I think it has more to
     do with my personality and the way I do things.
 
Q:   Can you describe, out of your own experience or that of
     someone you know directly, a creative attempt made to
     improve the classroom teaching methods, the curriculum or
     student achievement that was thwarted or substantially
     altered by any of these sources of influence.
 
A:   Absolutely not.  No.  Uh-uh.  The closest that I could
     contribute that is, once I was being observed.  The person
     who observed, a person I had a lot of respect for,
     transcribed everything that went on in the classroom.  She
     wrote a whole dia...  You know, everything that went on, and
     then took the time to go over the log with me, and I was
     responding to the kids' comments by saying, "um-hmm, oh yes,
     thank you, next."  Not very emphatic praise.  You know, sort
     of dutifully I was getting to everyone, the same number of
     boys and the same number of girls were called on, the same
     in the front, the same in the back.  You know, I was meeting
     some of the "good teacherly" kinds of qualifications, but I
     was very bland in my response to the comments of the kids,
     "Uh-huh, thank you, yes," and she pointed this out.  No
     value statement, she just pointed this out, and maybe that's
     a case in which not thwarted but instructed, I guess,
     influenced.
 
Q:   Are there evaluations done of teachers here?
 
A:   Yep.
 
Q:   And how is that accomplished?
 
A:   Well, I can't quite tell you.  There are some things sort of
     mysterious about it and something that I feel is not the
     best way of doing things, frankly.  A person will arrive in
     your classroom unannounced and sit down and do something on
     paper.  Then somehow, under some circumstances, report back
     to, I don't really know who.  I have guesses as to who, and
     then how it's filtered through, but clearly it's not
     friendly, it's not hospitable.  It's not, "Thank you for
     having me in your class."  In fact, at one point this year,
     this person said, "Ha-ha, I get to come in your class."  I
     mean, it felt definitely threatening and almost malicious.
 
Q:   Are these other teachers or administrators?
 
A:   No, teachers.  It's someone working on an evaluation
     program.  This is something that I wouldn't ever like.  I
     have real problems with.  I think evaluation, and I think
     in-house evaluation, is absolutely critical to the growth
     and development of an institution.  I think there are better
     ways and better moods and tones to set than what I observe
     here.
 
Q:   And does the teacher get feedback?
 
A:   No.  Let me say on the times that I have been evaluated I
     have not received any feedback.
 
Q:   And how is that evaluation used?
 
A:   I cannot tell you.
 
Q:   Okay.
 
A:   I mean, I can't tell you because I don't know.  I have
     about...  I need to go.  Do you have more questions?
 
Q:   I have two more.
 
A:   Okay.
 
Q:   Can you describe for me a failed attempt by any of these
     sources to influence you that you resisted, and how were you
     able to work around these influences?
 
A:   No.  I've really had some pretty wonderful relationships in
     schools and administrators.
 
Q:   You've never had to work around the rules?
 
A:   Umn-umm. (Negative response)
 
Q:   And what does it mean to you when people talk about
     bureaucratic constraints on teachers?
 
A:   Well, generally what it means to me is that there is a
     hierarchy in the system, as opposed to some kind of
     cooperative and maybe horizontal formation of the system and
     that the tops of the hierarch dictate what the lower parts
     of the hierarchy do.  I've felt very little of that.  Let me
     just say, I think probably I've had the advantage, the
     professional advantage, of being one of the "hierarchy",
     because the systems that I do work in are very hierarchical,
     while at the same time being a teacher.  Fortunately, the
     conflicts that have arisen are more on my time and my energy
     and my allegiance to duty.  I mean, do I put students first,
     or do I deal with a committee report first, that sort of
     thing; as opposed to conflicts from the bureaucracy upon me
     or to me.  I really think that, and this is actually in
     independent education one of the strongest arguments for
     having the administrators teach, they are under their own
     jurisdiction, in a way, and their colleagues' jurisdiction.
     I am evaluated as a teacher, while at some point I would
     probably be involved in the assessment of those evaluations.
     I obviously work for a head, a head of an upper school as a
     teacher and a head of the head of the whole school.  At the
     same time, they'll call me and say, "Hey, I've been thinking
     about this curriculum change.  What about that method?"  So
     we'll be, if you will, switched colleagues.