Educational Philosophy Interactions in a Middle School Interdisciplinary Team: A Case Study

The purpose of this case study was to examine the interactions of middle school teachers each of whom had a unique and personal educational philosophy. The formation and development of the personal educational philosophy and the interactions within the middle school team brought on by the personal educational philosophy of each teacher were also examined. The educational philosophy of the individual participants was identified using Zinn's Philosophy of Education Inventory. The sample selection for the case study included one team of three middle school teachers during the 2010-2011 academic year with a range of teaching experience from three years to ten years in the classroom and represented the core disciplines of humanities (combined language arts and social studies), science, and mathematics teaching. The teachers were employed at a suburban middle school with an enrollment of approximately 750 students. A triangulation of teacher interviews, classroom and team meeting observations, inventories, surveys, and documents helped to provide accuracy and validity.;Participants were interviewed on the topics of personal educational philosophy, their understandings of middle school philosophy as defined by the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE), and their understandings of generational characteristics of themselves and their colleagues. The data were analyzed using N-Vivo 9 for common themes. The analysis of the individual teachers' manifestations of the personal educational philosophies during interactions within the middle school team was further broken down to examine 1) the personal educational philosophy development and manifestations within the classroom and within the team, 2) relationships within the team and within the academic departments of the school, 3) the understanding of the AMLE middle school philosophy tenets and its relevance to the teacher and his or her educational philosophy, 4) the interaction of personal educational philosophy on the selection and delivery of curriculum-based assignments, and 5) the interaction of personal educational philosophy in the preference of teaching team members.;Findings of the study concluded that: 1) Educational philosophy is a determining factor for how teachers on a middle school teaching team interact within the team setting; 2) understanding the tenets of the broad educational philosophies allows team teachers to be more tolerant of differences between teachers and to provide a more harmonious work setting; 3) placement of teachers on a team who have complementary philosophies enables more positive interactions among the team members than if team members had competing philosophies; 4) knowledge of generational characteristics and grounding in middle school philosophy are factors in the establishment of educational philosophies.