“Hello, goodbye”: Exploring the phenomenon of leaving teaching early

Abstract

High teacher attrition rates hinder schools in their ability to provide quality instruction. This study seeks to understand why teachers leave early in their careers (within the first 5 years) using a mixed methods approach that combined 50 in-depth interviews with 15 public and 10 Catholic school teachers in the United States who left early with statistical analyses of public and Catholic school early leavers' responses in the national Schools and Staffing and Teacher Follow-up surveys. This study argues that to understand why teachers leave early requires examining teachers' entire experiences throughout their short time in the profession. A framework informed by sociocultural and commitment theories was developed through systematic analysis of the interview and survey data providing a complex approach for examining the phenomenon of early leaving. Findings suggest that teachers' career decisions were influenced by the unique public and Catholic school cultures, as well as their commitment to teaching, their teaching experiences, and their beliefs and values. Differences between public and Catholic early leaver experiences are discussed.

Relative Teacher Salaries and the Decision to Teach

“…Overall, the results support previous findings that higher relative teacher salaries more likely keep teachers from leaving the profession (Baugh and Stone 1982;Imazeki 2005;Murnane and Olsen 1989;Stinebrickner 1998;Torres 2012). Our results also are supportive of previous findings that relative salaries matter more for math and science teachers (Rumberger 1987), though the effect we found was for males and not for females, and contrasts with that reported by Ingersoll and May (2012).…”

“…Gilpin (2011) found that inexperienced teachers are the most responsive to wage differentials between teachers and nonteachers, where higher salaries of experienced teachers have been reported to reduce the exit of less-experienced teachers from the profession (Imazeki 2005). Torres (2012) likewise found higher salaries and other positive acknowledgments keeping teachers in the profession. Regarding differences among teachers, Ingersoll and May (2012) found math and science teachers no more likely to leave the profession than other teachers, though previous evidence exists that engineering salaries affected shortages of mathematics and science teachers, mostly for females (Rumberger 1987).…”

Η Αφοσίωση Των Εκπαιδευτικών Ειδικής Αγωγής Στο Σχολείο Που Υπηρετούν: Η Υποστηρικτική Ηγετική Συμπεριφορά Του Διευθυντή Του Σχολείου, Η Επαγγελματική Ικανοποίηση Και Το Συναίσθημα Στο Χώρο Εργασίας Ως Προβλεπτικοί Παράγοντες

“…Δηδηθά γηα ηνπο εθπαηδεπηηθνύο πνπ ππεξεηνύλ ζηελ εηδηθή αγσγή, ε αθνζίσζε απηή αμηνινγείηαη ζεηηθά θαζόζνλ επηδίδνληαη ζην απαηηεηηθό έξγν ηεο εθπαίδεπζεο ησλ καζεηώλ κε εηδηθέο εθπαηδεπηηθέο αλάγθεο ή αλαπεξία (Payne, 2005). ύκθσλα κε ηε ζεσξία ηεο αθνζίσζεο, ε αθνζίσζε δελ είλαη θάηη ην ζηαηηθό αιιά δηακνξθώλεηαη αλάινγα κε ην πιαίζην άζθεζεο ηνπ επαγγέικαηνο, ηηο δπζθνιίεο, ηηο απαηηήζεηο ηνπ, θαζώο θαη ην επξύηεξν πιαίζην ζην νπνίν δνπλ θαη δξαζηεξηνπνηνύληαη νη εθπαηδεπηηθνί (Torres, 2012). ην ελλνηνινγηθό κνληέιν ηεο Billingsley (1993) πνπ αθνξνύζε ζηηο επαγγεικαηηθέο απνθάζεηο εθπαηδεπηηθώλ γεληθήο θαη εηδηθήο αγσγήο, απνηεινύζε ην δηακεζνιαβεηηθό παξάγνληα κεηαμύ ησλ ζπλζεθώλ εξγαζίαο, ησλ αηνκηθώλ/δεκνγξαθηθώλ ραξαθηεξηζηθώλ ησλ εθπαηδεπηηθώλ θαη ησλ απνθάζεσλ πεξί απνρώξεζεο από ην επάγγεικα ή αιιαγήο πιαηζίνπ εξγαζίαο.…”

Why teachers stay in the classroom : a case study of a low-attrition Alaskan school district

“…Secondly, the shortage in 2004 was much deeper in hard-to-staff schools, meaning those in urban, lower income neighborhoods (Cochran-Smith, 2004). Later, Torres (2012) found that the 2004 shortage described by Cochran-Smith had became self-sustaining and was still ongoing on in 2011.…”

“…Numerous studies investigated the teachers who leave teaching (Borman & Dowling, 2008;Goldring et al, 2014;Gray & Taie, 2015;Ingersoll, 2001;Luekens, Lyter, & Fox, 2004;Marvel et al, 2007;Pucella, 2011;Roness, 2011;Torres, 2012;H. Wang, Hall, & Rahimi, 2015) and some looked into the relationship between schools with high attrition rates and the teachers who leave (Aggarwal & D'Souza, 2012;Boyd et al, 2011;Olsen & Anderson, 2007;Ping-qing, Weizheng, & Li-xing, 2013;Swars, Meyers, Mays, & Lack, 2009).…”