Demystifying the Notion of Charisma: Micro-Ethnography on a Veteran-Teacher’s Classroom Practices

Abstract

This IRB-approved and grounded in social semiotics theory micro-ethnographic case study was conducted within a longitudinal ethnography project and is focused on the teaching style of one veteran teacher in a public urban elementary school in the North-Eastern United States. The data in this qualitative micro-ethnographic case study were collected from multiple sources (e.g., field notes, observations, interviews, audio- and video-recordings). The interview data were analyzed using Saldaña’s (2013) thematic and value coding. The focus research participants’ verbal and non-verbal behaviors during her interactions with her students were analyzed in accordance with the micro-ethnographic research traditions. The above data were triangulated with the ones from the multimodal language analysis. This research found that teachers may set the goal and develop in themselves highly attractive for students so-called charismatic professional qualities.