Roxanne Hughes

Fear and Trembling in the American High School Educational Reform and Teacher Alienation

This article reports findings from a two-year case study of teachers in a single public high school. Data were gathered and analyzed using a conceptual framework that conceived of alienation as a set of five sub-constructs: powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation, and estrangement. Findings suggested that teachers experienced each of these forms of alienation, but that each individual teacher interpreted them in a unique manner. Moreover, data suggested that for individual teachers, experiences of alienation varied from situation to situation and evolved over time. The authors concluded that teacher alienation was a fluid phenomenon, a seemingly basic assertion that has profound implications for teachers, administrators, and policymakers as they consider adopting or implementing reform initiatives.