The Nature of Teacher Engagement in Blended Learning Communities in Secondary Education in Nassau, Bahamas: A Case Study

Purpose and Method of Study: The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine teacher engagement of West Indian faculty members as a part of their teaching roles in blended learning communities in secondary education in Nassau, Bahamas. Data included class observations, a self-assessment questionnaire, and interviews with five teachers in a private school. I observed 10 sessions of online, face-to-face, and mixed-modality classes and collected teaching material. The online questionnaire on teaching presence based on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey included 13 questions scored on a Likert-type scale. Interviews consisted of three open-ended questions related to the online questionnaire. Findings and Conclusions: Teacher engagement, defined by designing and organizing, nurturing, monitoring, motivating, facilitating discourse, and instruction tasks (Borup, Graham, & Drysdale, 2014), was evident in teacher roles. Teachers performed 25 (74%) of the 34 teacher engagement tasks Borup et al. (2014) described as indicative of K-12 practice. Four tasks emerged as additional themes. Teachers displayed most tasks of teaching presence in their blended instruction. Similarly, in online sessions, teachers were highly engaged with students, performing 24 of the 25 (96%) teacher engagement functions. For in-person learning, teachers engaged learners with tasks, reflecting 80% of the functions. Engagement levels in mixed-modality sessions reflected 69% of teacher engagement tasks. The way teachers engaged students showed that there were more commonalities than differences in teacher roles among participants. Key instructional roles described in this case study highlight the effective integration of information and communications technologies (ICT) in a Bahamian high school to provide equity in education, indicating a potential positive influence of ICT on student engagement. Further, high teacher engagement levels in synchronous blended instruction for collaborative study and community building consistent with deep learning were evident through the lens of the CoI theoretical framework (Borup & Archambault, 2023; Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 1999). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]