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Description
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore teachers’ lived experiences with student engagement in classrooms with a predominantly Hispanic population. According to the data collected in this study, academic engagement is often characterized in terms of observable behavior. However, research has proven that student engagement is a multi-faceted concept. Along with observable behavior, the emotional and cognitive dimensions of engagement play a very important role in student learning. As part of this exploration, the researcher also attempted to understand how each of the twenty teacher participants understood and applied this concept through different factors such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, student voice and choice, student and teacher roles, the curriculum and its relationship to students’ lives, as well as how teachers view race and ethnicity in terms of engagement. Through the semi-structured interviews, the researcher was able to capture the tendency that some teachers have of describing engagement in terms of behavior. In addition, it was also learned that there are limited opportunities for students to express their voice and choice in the classroom, that extrinsic motivators are effective in helping to engage some students even in their adolescent years, that some teachers believe that their curriculum is not culturally responsive, and that some teachers believe that it is up to the students to engage in the classroom. The data in this study also seems to suggest that educators need more preparation and continued training on how to engage their students, especially those from diverse backgrounds.
