An Anecdotal Case Study in Psychological Anthropology of Two Retired Middle School Teachers’ Perceptions of Classroom Life in the United States

Adam I Attwood

doi:10.3389/feduc.2021.655457

Abstract

In this qualitative study, interviews of two former middle school teachers were conducted and analyzed for how they fostered a supportive classroom environment in the United States despite the national stress of the Vietnam War during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Half a century later in 2020-2021, similar trends seem to remain just as important in society though the context has shifted. Implications for social-emotional learning from then and now are discussed. Each of the two participants in this study established centralized control through slightly different means and both used written guidelines and rules while emphasizing prosocial behaviors. Three themes emerged: 1) a syllabus was important in management style, 2) sports, and 3) the national social context—such as the Vietnam War—manifested itself in the discourse of the social environment to affect classroom life. Implications for the socio-spatial context of school architectural layout are explored.

Highlights

This case study provides an answer to the question: What was a perspective of middle school classroom life and management from the Vietnam War era? This question was asked because of the approaching fifty-year anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War
As part of the purpose of this study was to explore anecdotal perception of classroom life from recollections of the Vietnam War era in the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War legacy on social-emotional development emerged as a theme
This study focuses on the interview data as a case study exploring the concept of middle school classroom life from a snapshot in time

Summary

Introduction

This case study provides an answer to the question: What was a perspective of middle school classroom life and management from the Vietnam War era? This question was asked because of the approaching fifty-year anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. This case study provides an answer to the question: What was a perspective of middle school classroom life and management from the Vietnam War era? This seemed like a historical moment to get the recollections of former middle school teachers as a snapshot in time and for their implications for middle school classroom life. The assumption is that there are generational cultural cycles This is a qualitative case study in psychological anthropology, what Stein (1985), Rosa (1996) called psychoanthropology. The difference in time and age is an intentional component of the study because this is a case study comparison (Stake, 1995) between two former

Objectives

Results

Conclusion