Theses and Dissertations
Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice
Advisor
John Kellmayer
Committee Member
Roslyn Doctorow
Keywords
home visits, teacher attitudes, teacher beliefs, teacher behaviors, student achievement, school-to-home connections
Abstract
The purpose of the qualitative descriptive study was to explore teacher perceptions of attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs as it pertained to home visits. The body of research available prior to the study focused on parent appreciation and takeaways from home visit experiences and/or students’ achievement as it pertained to having experienced a teacher coming into their home environments. Specifically, the researcher wanted to understand how K-5 teachers perceived their attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs prior to conducting home visits, during home visits and after the home visits were completed.
Through semi-structured interviews, participants were asked a series of questions that were planned prior to the interview, aligned with the three foundational research questions. Based on the interview process, additional probing questions were also asked in order to gain a deeper insight into teacher perceptions. Interviews were conducted via Zoom and recorded for the process of transcription, analysis, review and member checking. Because the study is descriptive in nature, the researcher focused questions so that the participants were able to not only identify their experiences but describe them in detail.
The results of the study showed in great detail the variety of takeaways experienced by teachers who conducted home visits. It was evident that the home visits revealed useful and relevant data to be used for teacher improvement, lessening cognitive dissonance and effective changes to teacher attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, with the intent to help students and improve their practice. Participants in the study also revealed that they were able to grow as teachers as a result of the home visits, as well as pursue additional training, based on needs assessment, or seeing what conditions surrounded the students.
This information not only revealed the need for teachers, schools and school districts to look at home visits as a potential practice but shows that teacher improvement is influenced by such practices. The study also shows that home visits, though traditionally viewed as entering the dwelling places of students and families, are not limited to that behavior, but can also be conducted virtually or in a public meeting space, holding fast to the intent and purpose of home visits to not be approached as punitive or reactive, but proactively in order to learn about students, including strengths and weaknesses and how a teacher might support students better.
NSUWorks Citation
Dene E. Gainey. 2024. A Study of K-5 Teacher Perceptions of Home Visits on Attitude, Belief, and Behavior. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice. (670)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/fse_etd/670.
