The Disclosure Dilemma in Action: A Qualitative Look at the Effect of Teacher Disclosure on Classroom Instruction

Abstract

Using Kelly’s (1986) four perspectives on teacher disclosure, I analyze the quality of instruction present in the classrooms of six high school government teachers during their coverage of the 2008 Presidential Election, an event that received widespread media attention and elicited strong feelings on both sides of the political spectrum. Four of the teachers chose to remain neutral throughout their coverage of the election by not revealing their candidate preference to their students, while the remaining two teachers disclosed their preferences early in the semester, although in strikingly different ways. The findings of this study offer a practical approach to evaluating the “disclosure dilemma” encountered by many pre-service and practicing teachers during their classroom instruction.