WITHDRAWN: Is It the Right "FIT"? Florida K–12 Public School Teachers' Motivations to Become a Teacher

Abstract

This study utilizes survey research methods to explore Florida K-12 public school teachers motivations to teach and to explore what extent teacher characteristics and teacher program characteristics had a relationship with particular motivational factors using the FIT-Choice scale.The recruitment and retention of high quality and diverse teachers is a continuous dilemma in the U.S. and beyond (Murnane & Steele, 2007; Ravitch, 2010). Currently, there are over 3.6 million public K-12 school teachers in the United States who are charged with the daunting task of preparing the next generation of students for the 21st Century global market, while typically working long hours with little financial compensation, low social status, and limited autonomy, with increased certification and education requirements, as well as major safety precautions, as evidenced by the recent events in Parkland, Florida (Spring, 2014, Darling-Hammond 2010, 2015. Given the high risk and responsibility of taking on this challenge, the critical question arises: Why teach? Consequently, significant efforts and resources-from teacher education program, communities, private enterprise to the state and federal government-have been devoted to advance the "recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most" ("Race to the Top Program Executive Summary," 2009, p. 2). Despite the myriad initiatives and investment, the efforts to increase both the quantity, quality and effectiveness of teachers have not resulted in the success desired (Darling-Hammond, 2010, 2013; NCATE, 2010). One potential shortfall of prior efforts is that the initial motivational factors that influenced people to become teachers may not have been taken into consideration when developing such initiatives. In other areas of teacher education research, practicing teachers, as well as pre-service teachers are being included in the research efforts to improve the state of teacher preparation and professional development (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2003, 2008; Zeichner, 2012). One of the ways that Is It the Right "FIT"? Florida K-12 Public School Teachers Motivations to Become a Teacher teachers' voices have been overlooked is through the lack of research on their motivations. Until the last decade, there has been a limited amount of high-quality empirical research on both the use of, and potential for, motivational theory in teacher education until Watt and Richardson's (2007) landmark conceptual and methodological models: the FIT-Choice (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice) Scale (Butler, 2014; Heinz, 2015). Many recent researchers posit motivational theory can provide critical insights as to how to better recruit, prepare, and retain effective teachers by examining their aspirations, beliefs, values, and experiences as they relate to their role (