Year: 2006
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to describe school working conditions perceived by beginning teachers about their first year of teaching in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The specific working conditions that were examined were those identified in the research as contributing to either teacher retention or attrition. The researcher developed three research questions that guided her study. The Pennsylvania State Board of Education aided the researcher in reaching a random sample of Instructional I certificate holders by mail. The letter asked potential subjects to log on to the state board's website and complete an electronic survey concerning the conditions surrounding their first year of teaching in Pennsylvania. Two hundred and seventy-nine certificate holders, who had completed one, two, or three years of teaching, completed the survey. The researcher surmised that the poor response rate was due to insufficient addresses and large numbers of certificate holders who are not currently teaching or not currently teaching in Pennsylvania. Quantitative data were analyzed using percentages, means, and standard deviations. The researcher applied qualitative analysis to interpret the data obtained from the open-ended questions concerning induction programs at the end of the survey.The results of this study indicated that approximately 26% of survey respondents said they had left teaching altogether or had migrated to another school district. The researcher also found that some of the workplace conditions identified in the literature were causes for this rate of attrition. Many respondents felt their schedule was the same or more challenging than those of veteran teachers, while over half said they taught four or more subjects a day. Many said they were unhappy with their salary and administrative support, citing these as reasons for migrating to other school districts or leaving the teaching profession altogether.Another important finding is that nearly all Pennsylvania teachers participated in an induction program. However, many respondents felt the content of the induction program was impractical and felt time spent in induction could have been better spent in preparing lessons.
Author: Tracy Lynn McCalla
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W86855413