Date Created

5-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Leadership Policy and Development: Higher Education and P-12 Education, LPD Student Work

First Advisor

Cooney, Jonathan

First Committee Member

Cohen, Michael

Second Committee Member

Marchant, William

Third Committee Member

McConnell, Christine

Abstract

A key element of teacher evaluation systems is to support professional growth by providing teachers with feedback on their instructional practices and identifying opportunities for improvement. Despite this intent, research consistently indicates that teachers often perceive evaluation feedback as vague, generic, or disconnected from their instructional context. These concerns are particularly evident at the secondary level, where evaluators frequently assess teachers outside their area of content expertise. As a result, recent research suggests that a lack of content knowledge may serve as a barrier to providing meaningful feedback.

The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to examine how secondary teachers perceive feedback as meaningful when their evaluator’s content-area specialization differs from their own. The study was guided by two research questions: (1) How do teachers describe receiving effective feedback from evaluators outside their content area, and what makes that feedback meaningful despite the evaluator’s lack of subject expertise? and (2) What components of the feedback contribute to its perceived effectiveness?

Data were collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with eleven secondary teachers from multiple states who self-reported receiving meaningful feedback during a recent evaluation cycle from an evaluator without content expertise in their subject area. Interview data were analyzed thematically to identify shared patterns across participants’ experiences and perceptions.

Findings revealed that teachers did not view content expertise as a necessary condition for meaningful feedback. Even in the absence of content knowledge, participants believed evaluators could provide valuable feedback. Teachers emphasized the importance of reflective questioning, the evaluator’s tone, and efforts to understand the classroom context. They also valued feedback that identified patterns they had not previously noticed, such as pacing or teacher movement, and feedback that incorporated strategies observed in other classrooms. Together, these findings indicate that meaningful, growth-oriented feedback can occur even when evaluators lack subject-specific expertise.

This study contributes to the literature on teacher evaluation by identifying practices that support instructional growth across content areas and offering implications for evaluator training and instructional leadership preparation. Further research is needed to examine how these practices function across diverse school contexts and evaluation systems and to better understand how evaluators can be prepared to deliver meaningful feedback consistently in contentmismatched settings.

Abstract Format

html

Language

English

Extent

120 pages

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

Digital Origin

Born digital

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