ARTICLE IN PRESS

Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

www.elsevier.com/locate/tate

Resilience under re: Perspectives on the work of experienced,

inner city high school teachers in the United States
Gerald J. Brunetti
School of Education, Saint Marys College of California, Moraga, USA

Abstract
Teachers working in inner city high schools in the United States face enormous challenges. Their students, most of
whom come from economically disadvantaged minority families and often do not speak English as a rst language, present
a daunting array of educational needs for teachers and schools. Resources and school structures are seldom sufcient for
the task. Despite such conditions, some urban high school teachers persist for many years in the classroom and experience
success and satisfaction in their work. Through a survey and extended interviews, this study identies three broad factors
that motivated a group of these teachers to remain in inner city classrooms for more than 12 years: (1) the students,
(2) professional and personal satisfaction, and (3) support from administrators, colleagues and the organisation of the
school. The study discusses how the teachers resilience enabled them to overcome difcult challenges and recurring
setbacks and to persist vigorously in their work. Further study of resilience in inner city teachers is recommended.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Teacher resilience; Teacher persistence; Teacher motivation; Inner city teacher; Inner city high schools

1. Introduction
In this article, the term inner city refers to a
particular kind of urban high school: one that serves
largely poor, minority students (African-American,
Hispanic, Native American, immigrant Asian) (see
also Coombes & Danaher, this volume; Gordon,
Umar, Gobbo, & Rodriguez, this volume) and that
is situated in or draws its students from economically depressed neighbourhoods. Many urban high
schools, because they serve higher socioeconomic
status neighbourhoods and include white students
as well as minorities, do not t this denition of
inner city.

E-mail address: jbrunett@stmarys-ca.edu.

Teachers who work in such inner city high

schools in the United States face enormous challenges (Ternes, 2001). Many of their students are
considered academically at risk (see also Coombes
& Danaher, this volume) They come from lowincome or impoverished families and from neighbourhoods characterised by high crime, high
unemployment, serious gang activity, drug dealing
and recurring outbreaks of violence (Zhou, 2003).
The students often have unsettled family lives, living
with single parents in crowded apartments or single
roomsor even on the streets or in cars. Many of
the students do not speak English as a rst language
and most have low academic skills that leave them
ill-prepared to perform satisfactorily in a curriculum
(see also Gordon, Umar, Rodriguez, & Grace, this
volume) that is increasingly tied to externally

0742-051X/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tate.2006.04.027

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G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

813

imposed, high stakes testing. Despite the daily

challenges that they face in providing meaningful
education for these students, some inner city
teachers persist for years in the classroom and
experience success and satisfaction in their work.
The present study examines a group of such
teachers. Drawing from the life history tradition
with its emphasis on emic research (i.e., studying
teachers lives from their own perspective and in the
context of their own experiences and beliefs), the
study is designed to address the following research
question: What motivates experienced inner city
high school teachers to remain in the classroom?.

2001; Marston, Brunetti, & Courtney, 2005; Marston, Courtney, & Brunetti, 2006). In these studies,
we asked teachers to complete the Experienced
Teacher Survey (ETS), in which they rated their
satisfaction with teaching and the extent to which
various factors contributed to their decision to
remain in the classroom. We then interviewed
teachers with 15 or more years in the classroom
selected from those who had returned the survey. In
the interviews, we further explored the teachers
motivations for remaining in the classroom, as well
as their perspectives on various aspects of their
practice.

2. Theoretical framework and related literature

2.3. Life history

2.1. Resilience

The experienced teacher studies are based on life

history approaches, such as those described by
Goodson and Sikes (2001) and used by many
researchers in studying teachers lives (e.g., Ball &
Goodson, 1985; Goodson & Hargreaves, 1996;
Knowles & Holt-Reynolds, 1994; Muchmore,
2001, 2004). Based primarily on the open-ended
interview, life history is particularly effective in
helping not only the interviewer (the researcher) but
also the interviewee (i.e., the teacher) come to a
fuller understanding of the context (i.e., the school)
in which the teacher is operating and of her or his
unique relationship to it. As Goodson and Sikes
point out, life history captures the crucial interactive relationship between individuals lives, their
perceptions and experiences, and historical and
social contexts and events (p. 2). The experienced
teacher studies also draw from the seminal work of
Huberman, Grounauer, and Marti (1993), who used
qualitative (including life history) and quantitative
approaches in studying the lives of FrenchSwiss
secondary teachers.

Resilience as a personal characteristic that

enables individuals to stay the course despite the
difculties that they encounter has been studied
extensively as it relates to the education of at-risk
students (see, for example Aronson, 2001; Johnson,
1997; McMillan & Reed, 1994). Fewer studies have
focused on resilience in teachers. Bobek (2002) and
Henderson and Milstein (2003) emphasised the
importance of developing resilience in teachers if
they are in turn to foster this trait in students. The
urban elementary teachers whom Stanford (2001)
interviewed attributed their resilience to their
devotion to children and to the support that they
received from colleagues, family and churches and
from their own spiritual values. Patterson, Collins,
and Abbott (2004), in a qualitative study, identied
strategies that teachers from four urban school
districts used to build resilience. The nine strategies
included acting from a set of values in decisionmaking, seeking professional development, mentoring other teachers and focusing on students and
their learning. These researchers dened resilience
as using energy productively to achieve school
goals in the face of adverse conditions (p. 4). In the
present study, resilience is dened as a quality that
enables teachers to maintain their commitment to
teaching and their teaching practices despite challenging conditions and recurring setbacks.
2.2. The experienced teacher studies
The present research is one of a series of studies
of experienced teachers that my colleagues and I
have conducted over the past 8 years (Brunetti,

3. Methodology
3.1. Context of the study
Presidio High School is situated in the heart of a
large Californian city about two miles from the
downtown area. The school serves approximately
950 students, most of whom come from the
predominantly Latino area nearby or from largely
impoverished African-American or new immigrant
Asian neighbourhoods. The neighbourhoods match
those described earlier: While culturally rich with a
variety of restaurants and shops, they also show

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G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

undeniable signs of poverty, alcohol and drug

abuse, crime and violence. The ethnic composition
of Presidio Highs student body in the year in which
the study was conducted was 44.2% Hispanic
(Latino) (see also Rodriguez, this volume), 23.2%
African-American, 23.2% Asian (mostly Filipino,
Chinese and Vietnamese), and 9.3% Other (including white) (gures taken from the school district
website). Thirty-three percent of the students were
classied as English Language Learners (see also
Rodriguez, this volume), while 17.6% were special
education students. While many of the English
learners could read and write at a basic level
(5th grade and above), others were recent immigrants whose English skills were minimal. (Proposition 227 of California 1998 voters initiative
(California Secretary of State, 1998) prohibits the
placement of limited English speaking students in
special classes after their rst year in school).
California ranks its public schools on the Academic Performance Index (API), which is based
primarily on the states Standardised Testing and
Reporting Program (STAR) (California Department of Education, 2004). Given the large number
of limited English speaking students and students
from low-income backgrounds, it is perhaps not
surprising that Presidio High ranked in the bottom
decile (10%) of all high schools in its API (school
district website). In fact, it ranked in the lowest 10%
of this bottom decile. Unlike some inner city
schools, however, Presidio High School is housed
in an attractive, capacious old building, which is
equipped with reasonably up-to-date computer and
science laboratories and a well-designed media
centre (library). Beneath this pleasant exterior and
the calm school atmosphere that greeted me each
time that I visited this school, however, lay all the
markers of the inner city school described above.
This was the site where I carried out data collection
for this study from February to early May 2004.
3.2. The instruments
I developed the ETS (Brunetti, 2001) to assess
teachers satisfaction with their jobs, to explore
factors that motivated them to persist in the
classroom and to identify teachers who were willing
to be interviewed. The survey includes four items on
teacher satisfaction and 18 items on factors that
contribute to persistence, the latter subdivided into
professional, practical and social factors. Teachers
taking the survey are asked to rate each item on a

four-point Likert scale, from low (1) to high (4) (see

the Appendix A). In this study, I used the ETS
primarily to support ndings that emerged from the
interviews.
In conducting the interviews, I used a protocol
with set prompts for each teacher, including the
following: Please tell me a little about your career
as a teacher; Can you tell me what has inuenced
your decision to continue as a classroom teacher for
__ years?; Have there been times y when you
considered leaving the classroom? What were your
thoughts at the time?; How would you describe
your relationship to students [also asked with regard
to teachers and administrators], and how important
is this relationship to you?; What have been your
most rewarding experiences as a teacher?; and
What experiences have been the most depressing
or discouraging?.
3.3. Procedures
3.3.1. Administration of the ETS
I distributed to each Presidio High teacher a
packet with a letter explaining the study, a letter of
support from the school principal, the ETS and a
precancelled return envelope. Teachers were asked
to return the survey by a specied date. Of the 61
surveys distributed, 32 teachers returned completed
surveys, a 52.5% return rate (a high rate given that
the letter had emphasised a focus on experienced
teachers). Owing to a reconstitution (i.e., wholesale removal) of the schools administration and
teaching staff some 6 year earlier, Presidio High
School had very few teachers who had been at the
schools siteor indeed in teachingfor more than
12 years. This then became the revised marker for
determining experienced teachers. To the question of whether they were willing to be interviewed
22 teachers responded Yes or Possibly. Of
these teachers 13 had the necessary years of
experience in the classroom; nine of them were
interviewed, selected primarily on the basis of their
availability. None of the teachers were from ethnic
minorities. Although almost a third of the teachers
were Asian, Hispanic, African-American or Other
Non-White, none of them had taught for more than
10 years. Some subject areas (e.g., mathematics)
were not represented in the sample.
3.3.2. Interviews
Table 1 shows the name (pseudonym), sex,
subject area and years of teaching (overall and at

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G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

Presidio High) for the nine teachers who were

interviewed. I conducted the interviews in the
teachers classrooms when classes were not in
session. Although the interview protocol provided
set questions for each teacher, the questions invited
open-ended responses, which were often extensive. I
used follow-up questions to clarify a response or to
probe a topic or opinion more deeply. The interviews lasted from 50 to 90 minutes sometimes
spread out over two or three sessions. The interviews were taperecorded and transcribed. Transcriptions were returned to the teachers for review and
corrections.
3.4. Biases, assumptions, limitations
3.4.1. Biases
I study teachers because I believe strongly in the
importance of their work and in their potential to
have a powerful and positive effect on the students
whom they teach. My positive attitude towards
teachers and my belief in their efcacy do affect my
research, inuencing the groups whom I study, the
questions that I examine and perhaps the conclusions that I draw. As a life history researcher, I
assume that the teachers portrayal of their professional lives is a proper subject of research inquiry
and that it provides a valid and important
perspective on reality.
3.4.2. Assumptions
I assume that the responses that teachers give in
their interviews genuinely and accurately reect
their attitudes, beliefs and insights.

815

3.4.3. Limitations
Because of the emic nature of this study and the
way that I conducted itbased as it is heavily on
the insights provided by the teachers in their
interviewssome of the ndings are not independently veriable nor can they be easily generalised
to other high schools or even to other teachers in the
same school.
3.5. Data analysis
3.5.1. Satisfaction with teaching
Before moving to an analysis of the interviews, it
is useful to gain a sense of the interviewed teachers
overall satisfaction with their work. Table 2 shows
the responses of the teachers to four ETS measures
on job satisfaction. The most positive rating on this
scale would be a 4 (strongly agree with the
statement). With mean scores from 2.94 to 3.38,
we can see that the respondents expressed a
moderately high degree of satisfaction with their
jobs, especially on Item 3, I would choose teaching
again. The teachers ratings on I would like to
still be teaching in ve years were affected by the
near retirement age of some of the teachers.

Table 2
Mean scores and standard deviations of interviewed Teachers on
Job Satisfaction Items (ETS)
1.
2.
3.
4.

I look forward to coming to work each day.

I would like to still be teaching in ve years.
If I had it to do over I would choose the
teaching profession again.
I am satised with my job.

2.94 (0.73)
3.00 (0.93)
3.38 (0.52)
3.06 (0.81)

Table 1
The interviewed teachers
Namea

Sex

Subject eld

Total years teaching

Total years at
PHS

Margaret
Ken
Earl
Bridget
Marie
David
Jenny
Victoria
Ted

F
M
M
F
F
M
F
F
M

Social Studies
Spanish
Social Studies, English
English
Media, Social Studies
English
Science
Reading, English as a second language
Special education

36
17
26
13
18
16
14
25
23

33
5
4
5
5
3
2
7
15

Note: All teachers are Caucasian.

a
All names have been changed.

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G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

3.5.2. The interviews

One of the interview questions specically asked
the teachers what motivated them to remain in the
classroom, but responses to this question, direct or
indirect, can be found throughout the interviews. In
analysing the transcriptions, I read and reread each
interview several times, using the technique of
constant comparative analysis (Glaser & Strauss,
1967) to identify themes and subthemes. Ultimately
I identied three overarching themes that seemed to
incorporate the teachers various motivations for
remaining in the classroom: the students; professional and personal fulfilment; and support for
teachers work.

3.5.3. Theme 1: the students

Based on ndings from earlier experienced
teacher studies (Brunetti, 2001, pp. 5761), it is
not surprising that teachers from Presidio High
School would state that they loved working with
students and cite students as an important reason
for staying in the classroom. The ETS includes two
factors that focus specically on students: 3.
Satisfaction in working with young people (including involvement in extracurricular activities) and
5. Satisfaction at seeing young people learn and
grow. Presidio High teachers scored remarkably
highly on these two measures: 3.67 (SD 0.50) on
item 3 and 3.89 (SD 0.33) on item 5 (on a four-point
scale).
As I reviewed and re-reviewed the transcription
with regard to the student theme, it became clear to
me that the teachers whom I interviewed were
expressing a deeply seated respect for their students.
Margaret, a veteran of 33 years at the school,
described it thus:
All I can tell you is thatyI feel so blessed to have
spent all of my years, not only in the inner city,
but I think specically with the students of
Presidio High School, because I think theres
something very unique about our kidsy.Despite
the students attempts to be outwardly threatening, the vast majority of our students have great
lessons to teach all of usin terms of what it
means to be a human being and the capacity of
compassion. The only word that Ive ever been
able to nd that explains thisespecially over the
last several yearsis heart. They have more
heart than most adults that I know and most
privileged young people.

Bridget, who had been at the school for 5 years,

also used the word heart in characterising the
students:
When I had the chance to bring the newspaper
back, yI immediately called the woman over at
Emerson High School [the top academic high
school in the district] because shes the one who
did the newspaper here. Shes the one who got all
the awards. And you know what she says? She
goes, Youre so lucky to work with those
Presidio kids. They have so much heart. Here I
am at Emerson High School. And my kids are
good; they do their work. But they dont have the
heartythat the Presidio kids have. Right? And
its true; its true and its why teachers stay here.
Bridget revealed another reason why she and
other teachers respected these students: the difficult
lives that they were forced to live. Earlier in the
interview, she had commented on one of her prior
students:
I can still remember the kid I had my rst year at
Presidio, in my senior class. This kid, I just loved
him. Hes the kid you could hand a poem and he
would go straight to the heart of it, right? One
day he just vanished from my classy.I had to get
the policeman downstairs to help me track him
down. He was homeless; he had gotten into a
ght with his father. I mean the kid ended up in
prison. And Im sitting here, you know, trying to
put that with the face of this kid that I knew.
Other interviewed teachers (Margaret, Earl,
David, Ken) made similar, empathic reference to
the hardships that students endured on a daily basis.
Several Presidio High teachers talked about the
importance of being accepted by the students and of
earning their trust in order to be effective in their
work. Margaret described the testing that the
students put her through in her rst year of teaching
at a nearby junior high:
[During] my entire rst year of teaching, I was
tested by the students, primarily because they
didnt know that they could trust me. And I think
for a lot of inner city teachers, the rst couple of
years are nothing more than a time of being
tested by the students.yIt was a real good lesson
[regarding] the lack of trust that needs to be
overcome before you have any inuence in the
classroom at all.

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G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

Margaret also commented at another point in the

interview:
I come to work because of what happens in this
classroom; because of not only what I would like
to think is my ability to relate to these kids in a
manner that allows them to trust me, but
hopefullyyallows me to help them get to some
point in their life where their life will be better
because of our being together. Thats why I come
in herey
Earla former social studies and English teacher,
now a resource teacherrecounted a scene that
occurred as he was driving home during his rst
year at the high school. He came upon a young
female student who was bleeding profusely from a
self-administered abortion. The teacher helped her
into his car and rushed her off to a local clinic,
where her life was saved (though not her ability to
have children). The word of this incident spread
throughout the school. Once the students realised
how the teacher had helped the young woman,
Earl stated, his credibility with the students just
shot up.
Marie, the librarian and former social studies
teacher, provided some insight into why being
accepted by students was important:
At the end of my rst year [here], my students
were saying to me, Are you staying? you know,
which is just so informative to me. Its just kind
of like, What do you mean? Of course Im
staying. But dont you think were awful
enough that youre going to leave? You know,
thats what they think! AndyI want to change
that culture.
Given the turnover among teachers, it is not
surprising that inner city students would be
reluctant to accept and trust teachers to any great
extent since they were likely to leave after a year or
two.
Several Presidio teachers expressed respect for
their students need to nd their own learning goals,
independent of what the school wanted for them.
Ken was particularly clear in articulating this point.
He noted that although academic issues were
important, they were not the most important goals
for his Presidio High students. Many were not
planning to go to college and were more interested
in getting out of school and earning money, by legal
or illegal means, often because their families needed
them to do so. He went on to say:

817

But what I also try to do isyget them to nd out

what they would really like to learny.[The]
things [that] truly touch a nerve with them may
have nothing at all to do with education and may
not t in any discipline, in any subject areay.
And in the end those experiences may be the
most valuable of allybecause you gain an
appreciation of life.
David also endorsed student-centred goals: I
guess the rst thing Im trying to accomplish is Im
trying to help the kids to know that what Im
offering them is the tools to move forward in their
lives, whatever that means [emphasis added].
The interviewed teachers emphasised in a variety
of ways the powerful responsibility that they felt
that teachers should have for their students. Again
Ken was articulate and heartfelt in his remarks:
I feel beholden toy[the kids]. I think that every
day I come to school I have to be prepared
because I owe it to them to be prepared; that I
shouldnt have gotten into this profession unless
I come every day with the idea that I have
thought things through; [that] I have an idea
about what the kids need to learn; and Ive also
thought about how to make it as interesting as
possibley
Perhaps the most powerful and poignant example
of responsibility for students was revealed in a story
told by Davidinterestingly, as a lesson to a
current student whom he and another teacher were
taking out to lunch to talk about his worrisome
slide in academic performance.
David: I told him this story that I had a student
when I was teaching in the homeless school who
had been a junkie. And she had dropped out of
school [in the] sixth grade. And then when she
was 17, she came to me and she said, You know,
what I really want [is] to go to school. I want to
do something with my life. So she stayed with us
for 2 years, 1718. We prepped her, got her ready
for the GED [a high school equivalent test]y.Its
like a 3-day testy.So she went the rst day
passed the rst two tests, passed the second two
tests. She had one last test; it was her easiest
oney.She never went to it, never took it. She
justydidnt show up. I dont know what
happened to her. A few months later I saw her;
she just said she just couldnt do ity.It
frightened her to think that she would be
successfulscared her to think that she could

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G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

have actually accomplished something. Right? ....

But thats still a story that sticks in my craw. It
bothers me that I couldnt get her to do that last
test and I never was able to do that.
Interviewer: You take some responsibility for
that?
David: I dont know. I dont know what more I
could have done, but I always think, Was there
something else I could have said or convinced her
to nish it?
This story had stuck so strongly with the teacher
that he brought it up again during the second phase
of our interview, forgetting that he had already
told it.
To summarise, it is clear from the interviews,
reinforced by survey data that the Presidio High
teachers were devoted to and deeply affected by
their work with inner city youth. The students were
without a doubt the prime motivation for the
teachers decision to remain in the classroom.
Consistent with this nding was the decision of
one of the teachers (Jennifer) to leave Presidio High
School at the end of the year. Her decision was
based not on her distaste for inner city education
she had spent her whole career in inner city
schoolsbut on her realisation that she did not
work effectively with high school students and
wanted to return to a middle school.
3.5.4. Theme 2: professional and personal fulfilment
Besides their love for students and their desire to
work with them, the interviewed teachers were also
inuenced by the sense of professional and personal
fullment that they experienced from their work at
Presidio High School. Before returning to the
interviews, let us examine what the ETS yielded
on the subject of professional motivation. Like
respondents in earlier studies (Brunetti, 2001;
Marston et al., 2005), the Presidio teachers indicated that they were motivated to remain in the
classroom primarily by professional factors. When
we look at the teachers scores on these items, we
nd them distinctly on the high side: from 3.33 (SD
0.50) on joy in teaching your subject to 3.89 (SD
0.33) on satisfaction at seeing young people learn
and grow. Six of the nine factors yielded mean
scores over 3.50 on the 4.00 scale.
The interviewed teachers expressed a strong
preference for practising their profession in a
context in which they were most needed and in
which they could have the most serious impact.

Presidio High clearly met these conditions. Earl

talked about leaving a teaching and coaching
position at the Air Force Academy because he
missed working with at-risk students. He took a
position, some years before coming to Presidio
High, teaching in a high school that served
primarily disadvantaged African-American students. Ken explained the reasons for staying at
Presidio High School:
And I like working in this school because they
[the students] dont haveyas many opportunities, for many reasons. They dont have people
to imitate; they often have to work and they cant
study; they have to take care of brothers and
sisters; theres the plague of violence and drugs
and alcohol and all the social ills that they feel to
a larger extent than most segments of the
populacey
Later Ken drove home his point unequivocally:
Its the only kind of school where I would really
like to teach. Victoria made a similar point: I
cant imagine teaching in a white suburban
schooly. I dont feel like I would be making as
much of a difference. I really feel its important to
help give these guys the toolsyto be successful in
the mainstream culture.
Davids entire professional life demonstrated his
preference for working in the inner city and with atrisk students. With one brief exception, he expressed
satisfaction for each assignment he hadfrom a
junior high in the barrio, to running a school for
homeless youngsters, to teaching at Presidio High,
where he was particularly excited by the small
school design and the opportunity to collaborate
with other teachers. His decision to work in the
inner city was fuelled by his sense of professional
responsibility:
I do believe that when you choose a profession
its very important to choose something that
makes things better in the world, not worse in the
world. And that for me y [means] working and
helping and giving tools to students that are
parentally disadvantaged.
We can clearly see the emphasis on practising
ones profession where the need is great in the
comments of Margaret, who devoted most of her
professional life to serving students at Presidio
High:

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G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

819

I think in working with kids from Presidio High

School that part of my responsibility is to do my
best to be sure that the kids stay in school and
actually stay alive. We lose a lot of kids here, and
theres a lot of risky behavioury. And so one of
my rst responsibilities, I think, is to act in a way
that engages them in a professional way to come
back in the classroom.

Grace, this volume). The teachers appeared to have

a sophisticated understanding of the political and
social context in which Presidio High operatedof
the forces, for instance, that prevented students
from achieving the full benets of free public
educationand it both angered and motivated
them to continue working for change from within
their classroom. As David expressed it:

It is difcult to imagine a suburban teacher

considering it her primary responsibility to keep
students in school and alive. Margaret went on to
describe her satisfaction with the mock trial
program that she mentoreda program that took
Presidio High students with all their inadequacies
and deciencies and moulded them into a highly
competitive team that regularly challenged the
academically prestigious high school for top honours in the city:

My anger and frustration over what weve done as

a country toyour students and to a large segment
of our populationy. Im outraged half the time.
So this is what I can do [i.e., teach at Presidio
High]y. I really dont mean to sound like Im
some sort of like saviour, likeyou know, white
knighty. It [just] bothers me that our students
dont have the resources and the funding.

When you have a school like Presidio High School

that scores with an API of 1, and weve come up
within literally 10 points of beating out Emerson
High School, which has an API of 10, whatever it
is, that says a lot! That says you give our kids the
support they need and well compete with anybody. You take away support services from our
kids, and well stay at the bottom; its that simple.
Clearly the idea of practising her profession as a
teacher in a situation where she could see dramatic
achievements by disadvantaged students gave this
teacher great personal and professional satisfaction.
In citing reasons for their strong preference for
teaching in the inner city, Marie, Jennifer and other
interviewed teachers emphasised the opportunity
that it afforded them to work with racially and
culturally diverse students. Several of the teachers
spoke of the challenge that their work brought (and
the others certainly recognised it), but the challenge
was seen as something positiveeven energising
and excitingrather than something that deterred
or discouraged them:
Well, I think these challenges keep me in the
classroom. They keep me at school. I mean, they
keep me wanting to be teaching, working with
students because I think that these challenges
areyinteresting to me; theyre exciting. II like
challenges (David).
We also nd in the interviewed teachers quest for
personal and professional fullment a social justice
strand (see also Gordon, Gobbo, Rodriguez, &

Margaret expressed similar anger:

What makes me angry is that its so easy for
someone at the national level or the state level to
say, Its those teachers fault at Presidio High
School that the kids dont learn. And those
people dont have a clue as to what goes on in
these schools. I dont think they have a clue as to
what kids needyas to the chaos in their
livesyas to the tremendous integrity these kids
have to even set foot in this building, to try to get
an education despite the circumstances in their
life. I get so angryy. Its not going to solve the
problem until you really address what kids need.
Margarets answer was to teach her social studies
students that they have a responsibility to carry on
the struggle for social justice. Jenny, noting the
districts failure to support its disadvantaged
students adequately, mused: You know, if I was
of that mind, I would say, Gee, it seems like a
conspiracy in a way, you know, to keep certain
people downtrodden. She went on to say how
important it was to keep hope alive that there was
some help.
One other factor that seemed to motivate some,
though not all, of the interviewed teachers to remain
in the inner city classrooms was the concept of
giving back to society in response to the privileges
that they had enjoyed. As Ken expressed it: I do
feel obliged in a way to give something back, as trite
as that sounds. Jenny put the matter in terms of
choices: I feel that because of the benets Ive had
in life, Ive been able to have all those choicesy. I
think that everyone has the capability to do that; so
thats my motivation to be in the classroom.

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820

G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

Victoria expressed a similar goal. And Earl stated,

with strong emotion in his voice, that he
ywanted to give back because, when I was in the
military [some 25 years previously], I was a sniper
and so I took lives. This is my way to kind of pay
backy. Its a way for me to help humanity.
In summary, it appeared clear that the teachers
decision to remain in inner city teaching was based
in part on their desire for professional and personal
fullment. They believed in social justice and were
angry about the unfair conditions that existed in
society for some people. Some teachers expressed a
desire to do their part for a society that had been
good to them.
3.5.5. Theme 3: support for teachers work
This theme focuses on the extent to which
teachers felt supported in their work by site
administrators, fellow teachers and the general
organisation and operation of the school (e.g.,
assignment of students to classes). It is clear from
the interviews that support from these sourcesor
lack thereofwas a powerful factor in teachers
decision to remain in the classroom. On the ETS,
the teachers rated having a good principal (able,
open, supportive, good manager) and good teacher
colleagues (interesting, supportive, committed to
teaching) high among the factors that kept them in
the classroom (3.11 [SD 0.93] and 3.11 [SD 0.78],
respectively, on the four-point scale). The interviewed teachers seemed to feel positive about their
principal, particularly about the way that he sought
input in making decisions, distributed resources
fairly and supported their curriculum initiatives.
They were divided, however, in their attitudes
towards another on-site administrator. Those teaching freshmen and sophomore students and involved
with highly collaborative teamspart of the small
school initiativeespecially appreciated the support
of that administrator; but two of the teachers who
taught older students and were not impressed with
the small schools approach were appalled by the
administrators apparent disregard for their concerns. This administrator had purportedly suggested
to Margaret that she might consider leaving the
school (after 33 years there) if she did not like the
new structure that was being implemented.
In the interviews, several of the teachers who had
come to Presidio High from other schools reported
having left those schools because of dissatisfaction
with the on-site administrationusually the princi-

pal. The librarian (Marie), for instance, stated that

she had left two previous schools because of the
principal, and David, who loved three of his earlier
assignments, resigned from one teaching job after
three months because he thought the principal was
unprofessional. On the other hand, many of the
most positive experiences on which the teachers
reportedat Presidio High and at other schools
were associated with support and good leadership
from the principal. Jenny summed it up this way: I
think the administration is the second most
important thing to a school. I think when an
administration is poor, it breaks the spirit of the
teachers and breaking the spirit of the teachers
affects their teaching.
Support from other teachers also played an
important role in the teachers satisfaction with
their work and their decision to remain at the
school. Commenting on this topic, David stated:
I think at Presidioy[collegiality is] particularly
important. And one of the things I loved about
Presidio when I rst got here was just working
with other teachers that were creative and
interested in developing new things and thoughtful, and really also had great relationships with
students and cared about them quite a bit.
Earlier in the interview he had described how his
team would work together to solve problems, such
as difculties with a particular student. Less
laudatory about the level of collegiality at the
school, Marie had become a librarian in part
because she wanted to work collaboratively with
other teachers and had not been able to as social
studies chair.
Although there was considerable overlap between
support that came from the administration or fellow
teachers and support that came from the organisational structure and functioning of the school, the
unique role that the latter played in the motivation of
the interviewed teachers to remain in their classrooms
at Presidio High School must not be overlooked.
This inuence can perhaps be best understood by
examining the effects of the small school initiative
being implemented in the school. Backed by a sizable
infusion of external funding and supported by school
district and site administration, the initiative had
apparently generated a sense of excitement, dedication and collaboration among some of the teams,
especially, it appears, with those responsible for
freshmen and sophomores. So one of the things
thats really kept me here and kept me excited,

ARTICLE IN PRESS
G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

reported David, is the idea that were teamed. Were

trying to do new thingsadvisory and all these
interesting things. And I nd them very stimulating.
For Margaret and Bridget, who taught older
students, however, the effects were far less positive.
The focus on the younger students had left Bridget
dealing with classes that had such a diverse range of
students, including many non-English speaking
students, that it was almost impossible to teach
them as a group, and Margaret faced the prospect
of losing her prized (and prize-winning) mock trial
class because of the demands of collaborative
teaming. The organisation of the school, in other
words, did not support these two teachers and
precipitated the retirement of one of them.
4. Discussion
An analysis of the interview responses of Presidio
High teachers shows that their decision to remain in
the classroom and at that high school was inuenced by their devotion to students, their pursuit of
personal and professional fullment and the support that they received from administrators, fellow
teachers and the organisation and management of
the school. Scores on the ETS supported two of
these ndings: i.e., devotion to students; and
professional fullment.
A critical underlying factor herea necessary
condition, it appears, for continued productive
work in the inner city classroomwas the teachers
resilience (see also Grace, this volume): their ability
to recover and stay on course, despite the serious
problems and setbacks that they encountered on a
daily basis and despite their feelings of heartache,
discouragement and frustration (Stanford, 2001).
The interviews provided many examples of frustrating situations that the teachers had to cope with and
move on from. Many of these frustrations stemmed
from the teachers inability to prevent bad things
from happening to their students: e.g., a promising
student quitting school 3 weeks before graduation
because his family was being deported; a sophomore
student in the mock trial program whose mother
was suddenly withdrawing her from school to move
to Central America with a cult leader; a popular
student who was shot and killed in an apparently
gang related murder.
Other frustrations came from trying to meet the
needs of students who were ill-prepared to succeed
in their classes because they were English Language
Learners or could not read or did not have the

821

discipline or the skills to focus on academic issues.

Bridget, for instance, offered a scathing account of
the problems that she faced trying to teach students
who knew practically no English placed in classes
with students who had their own problems. Still
other frustrations arose from the demoralising
effects of external testing. David, Bridget and others
provided moving examples of the pain and humiliation their students experienced in taking such tests.
Eventually, it appears, the difculties and frustrations do take their toll. Margaret reported that she
was no longer physically able to handle the stressful
environment and constant crises of the school.
Though sad to leave the students after 33 years at
the school, she decided to retire at the end of the
year. Bridget, who had been extremely frustrated
with the classes and advisory group that she had
been given (This is the worst year of teaching Ive
ever had.), was reassigned to a freshman team the
following year, and she reported feeling more
successful. Whatever the source of the frustration,
pain or discouragement, the ability of Presidio High
teachers to maintain their hope and resolve in the
face of difcult circumstancestheir resilience
under re, as it wereenabled them to persist in
the classroom, continuing to full their professional
responsibilities as they saw them. This nding
would appear to add new insights to the literature
on resilience, particularly as it applies to the
importance of this quality in long-term teachers
working in challenging situations.
5. Conclusion
Although ndings from a small study of teachers
from one inner city high school cannot be applied to
inner city high schools in general, it would seem
shortsighted to disregard the message that seems to
emanate from this study: i.e., if school administrators and teacher educators are serious about
providing a quality education for students in inner
city high schools, they can go a long way towards
achieving this goal by recruiting good teachers and
supporting them in their work. And what do I mean
by good teachers? I mean teachers who, like the
participants in this study, have been well educated
and professionally trained, who have experience
working with inner city youth and who are
committed to teaching in this context. The study
shows that there are indeed teachers willing to
embrace this challenge. If they are supported in
their work, as this study suggests, and if they are

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G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

provided with sufcient resources to get the job

done, they are likely to persist in the classroom. The
more that a school is able to retain such dedicated,
experienced teachers, the greater likelihood that it
has of providing a quality education for its students,
who certainly deserve the best.
Much of the research on resilience focuses on
ways to develop or enhance this trait in students and
teachers (Henderson & Milstein, 2003; Konrad &
Bronson, 1997; McMillan & Reed, 1994). Clearly
resilience can be strengthened and honed through
experience in the eld. Less clear is the extent to
which it is an inherent personality characteristic or
predisposition. Further research on this question
could prove valuable new information for urban
principals and teacher educators, leaving them
better equipped to identify teacher candidates who

are notably resilient or who demonstrate a strong

potential for developing that trait.
Extending the present research to experienced
teachers in other inner city high schools would
reveal if they had similar motivations for remaining
in the classroom, as earlier experienced teacher
research suggests that they would (Brunetti, 2001).
Perhaps the research could focus on those teachers
who had been identied as particularly effective:
creative, innovative and known for their ability to
get through to students. Further studies could also
explore the kind of working conditions and support
that these teachers need if they are to perform their
best work (Patterson et al., 2004). Clearly, inner city
high schoolsand United States high schools in
generalwould reap considerable benets if they
were able to recruit and retain such teachers.

Appendix A. Experienced teacher survey (includes results)

Gender: __ (M or F)
Age: __under 40 __4049 __5059 __over 60
Ethnic group (optional) ______________________________
School __________________
What subject(s) do you teach?________________________________________________________
How many years have you been at your present school? ______ How many years total have you been teaching?
__________________ Have you taught in other schools in the Metropolis USD? ______
If Yes, which schools and what years? _________________________________________

Overall, how important is it to

you to be satised in your career?
(Circle one)

Not important

Of little
importance

Somewhat
important

Very important

To what extent has your decision to continue working as a classroom teacher been inuenced by the
following factors, some intrinsic to your work, others extrinsic?
For each factor, circle the number indicating how important it is for you:

1. Satisfaction in fullling a
professional commitment.
2. Satisfaction in serving
society (e.g., making a
difference by educating
future citizens)
3. Satisfaction in working
with young people (including

Not
important

Of little
Importance

Some
what
important

Very
important

Inter
viewed
(N 9)
mean
(S.D)

Returned
Survey
(N 33)
mean
(S.D)

3.44 (0.53)

3.38 (0.98)

3.67 (0.71)

3.59 (0.86)

3.67 (0.50)

3.70 (0.68)

ARTICLE IN PRESS
G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

involvement in
extracurricular activities)
4. Satisfaction in being
successful at something you
enjoy (born to teach)
5. Satisfaction at seeing
young people learn and grow
6. Joy in teaching your
subject
7. The intellectual challenges
involved in teaching
8. Freedom and exibility in
the classroom
9. The opportunity to be
creative (e.g., in designing
curriculum and lessons)
10. Nowhere else to go (after
many years in teaching)
11. The holidays, summer
vacation, Christmas and
spring breaks, etc.
12. Job security (tenure)
13. Salary and benets
14. Enjoyment of school as
an institution
15. Advantages of a teaching
schedule for someone raising
a family
16. Good teacher colleagues
(e.g., interesting, supportive,
committed to teaching)
17. A good principal (e.g.,
able, open, supportive, good
manager)
18. Supportive parents,
community

823

3.78 (0.44)

3.76 (0.50)

3.89 (0.33)

3.85 (0.44)

3.33 (0.50)

3.59 (0.50)

3.67 (0.50)

3.52 (0.62)

3.44 (0.53)

3.64 (0.49)

3.67 (0.50)

3.61 (0.56)

2.00 (0.87)

1.45 (0.72)

3.25 (0.71)

2.97 (0.93)

1
1
1

2
2
2

3
3
3

4
4
4

3.12 (0.64)
2.75 (0.89)
2.00 (0.71)

2.88 (1.04)
2.67 (1.06)
2.50 (0.88)

2.33 (1.12)

2.25 (1.08)

3.11 (0.78)

3.45 (0.67)

3.11 (0.93)

3.56 (0.72)

2.44 (1.01)

2.83 (0.99)

For each statement below, please circle the pertinent number:

1. I look forward to coming to

work each day.
2. I would like to be teaching in
ve years.
3. If I had it to do over I would
choose the
teaching profession again.

Strongly
disagree

Disagree

Agree

Strongly
agree

Interviewed
(N 9)
mean
(SD)

Returned
survey
(N 33)
mean
(SD)

2.94 (0.73)

3.17(0.74)

3.00(0.93)

3.48(0.73)

3.38 (0.52)

3.52 (0.57)

ARTICLE IN PRESS
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G.J. Brunetti / Teaching and Teacher Education 22 (2006) 812825

4. I am satised with my job.

1
5. Students motivation and
1
performance depend on their home
environment; a teacher cannot do
much to overcome this.
6. With hard work, I can get
1
through to even the most difcult
students.

2
2

3
3

4
4

3.06 (0.81)
2.38(0.74)

3.29 (0.74)
2.44 (0.82)

2.71 (0.49)

2.77 (0.61)

If you have further explanations or comments, please write them below or on a separate piece of paper.
I would like to conduct individual interviews with some of you to explore further your experiences in
teaching and your motivations for remaining in the high school classroom. I anticipate that each interview,
scheduled at your convenience, will run approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Would you be willing to be interviewed?
___Yes
___No
___Possibly. Please call me.
If you answered Yes or Possibly, please include your name and telephone number
so that I can call you.
Name _________________________ Phone Number: ( )_____________

Additional explanations or comments (use an additional sheet if needed):

Please mail the survey on or before Monday, March 8, 2004.
Thank you very much for your assistance in this study.

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