This dissertation examines the attitudes and career plans of college-age Latino/a students in order to determine the best next steps for educator preparation programs as they seek to recruit, prepare, support, and retain teachers of color, specifically Latino/a teachers, for the K-12 public school system. A review of the literature regarding the recruitment of teachers of color informed this research. The components of recruitment programs were examined in terms of how they addressed the individual and the career of teaching. The effectiveness of these recruitment models is not completely clear, and many have not been proven to have long term success. However, there are a few promising models worthy of serious study. This research utilized data obtained from interviewing college-age Latino/a students who were making decisions about career choices. Data from student participants validated much of what is thought to be known about the challenges of teacher recruitment. For example, there is a continued perception that teacher salaries are relatively low and are not competitive with many other professions, the status and prestige of the teaching profession is low, and the often inadequate working conditions for teachers can dissuade students of color from pursuing careers as teachers. Also, minority student access to higher education continues to remain a problem. Access issues need to be addressed during the formative (K-12) years in order to fill the pipeline more fully. The findings also suggest that problems associated with recruitment models are systemic in nature. Challenges range from long-term commitment toward valuing diversity and program development to sustainability of programs via regular and reliable funding sources. Conclusions include specific recommendations that provide hope for future success. In order to help diversify the teaching force, educator preparation programs should consider the following recommendations: market the field of education; develop active recruitment processes; diversify college faculty and staff; develop sound mentoring and support systems on campuses; provide assistance with financial support; and increase collaboration with K-12 partners and policymakers. Each of these recommendations should be institutionalized in order to be fully utilized and effective.

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the effects that multicultural and diversity training had on preservice teacher perceptions with low-socioeconomic minority and urban students on the secondary (middle and high school) level. Eleven middle- and high- school student teachers of disadvantaged or minority students were purposefully selected as participants. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, direct observations, detailed field notes, and reflective journals kept by participants. Document data such as lesson plans, student work samples and classroom and district curricula were also collected. All data, including field notes and reflective journals, were analyzed according to Strauss and Corbin's (1990) grounded theory method. Responses for each research question were coded and categorized inductively. Results are discussed in light of literature on the effects multicultural and diversity training has on preservice teacher perceptions and dispositions with culturally diverse and minority youth on the secondary level. These findings have implications for informing new directions in teacher education, multicultural education, teacher preparation and teaching effectiveness.

This study examined the effectiveness of a national support program in Namibia designed to help new teachers improve teaching and enhance student learning. The support activities currently undertaken are short-lived and not effective, therefore not providing teachers with the continual support needed to strengthen and augment their repertoires. The study also examined problems experienced by new teachers in their initial years of teaching. A major problem affecting teachers' competencies in Namibia is the availability of teaching and learning resources. Another impediment perplexing teachers is learner discipline. Teachers need the appropriate skills to be able to adequately deal with these and other problems, so as to create a nurturing environment for teaching and learning. Based on the recommendations teachers made, a national support program for helping teachers deal effectively with aspects of teaching and learning was advanced. Teachers recommended that the support program incorporate induction and mentoring sessions for new teachers. They also strongly recommended that the program effectively deal with competencies in curriculum and instruction. Teachers reiterated the need for access to knowledge, provision of sufficient teaching and learning resources, and opportunities for further education.

Research has suggested PD as a way of enhancing teacher instruction. Although research has shown that many factors improve its effectiveness, the role of teacher motivation has not been thoroughly assessed. If PD is to have its intended impact, then school leaders need to address it when planning. Using Herzberg’s (1959) two-factor theory, this study set out to determine which factors, intrinsic and extrinsic, increased teacher engagement and disengagement, respectively, and how well school leaders address them. The findings showed the following for the role of intrinsic factors: (a) professional growth and the PD work itself including relevance to the classroom, presentation quality/presenter credibility, collaboration with colleagues, and choice are highly significant and school leaders are mostly planning for them; (b) autonomy over their own PD work is highly significant although school leaders are not planning explicitly for it; (c) recognition is significant although school leaders are not planning explicitly for it; and (d) although important, PD achievement is not the greatest motivator nor are school leaders effectively planning for it. The findings showed the following for the role of the extrinsic factors in teachers’ disengagement during PD: (a) lack of organization and management including work already known/repetitive work and work that is irrelevant to the classroom—an intrinsic factor—are dominant; however, school leaders are mostly attending to these; (b) poor working conditions including poor timing/too long, other work demands, and tired are significant; however, the findings were inconclusive for how school leaders were attending to them; (c) disruption to personal life, inadequate physical space, negative relationships with supervisors, negative relationships with colleagues, and lack of compensation are not as significant; however, although some improvements need to be made, school leaders are attending to them; and (d) although school leaders are attending to it, lack of security was ruled out as significant.

A dissertation submitted in the Faculty of Education in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of Education Degree in the Department of Social Science Education at the University of Zululand, 2018. / Subject advisors encountered problems that affected curriculum delivery in the intermediate phase of schools in South Africa and other countries. There are factors influencing curriculum delivery in different countries ranging from what happens in and with the government to what takes place and is obtained in the classroom. If challenges or factors influencing curriculum delivery, such as political interference, social, economic, access to technology and environmental factors, are not addressed, this will have detrimental consequences not only to the delivery and implementation of curriculum but also to our education system. Teacher education curriculum, recruitment, training and retaining of teachers, non- professionalization of teachers, poor funding and insufficient ICT access; are the reasons for the challenges faced in the actual delivery of the curriculum. This quantitative research design was conducted in King Cetshwayo District in Kwa-Zulu Natal Province with the aim of finding out what the subject adviser`s perceptions are in curriculum delivery. The sample consisted of educators, SMT`s and subject adviser`s. Data was collected through questionnaires and quantitative research. The study revealed the need for the Department of Education to increase the number of Subject Advisers` with the purpose of educating more educators about the curriculum, through facilitated workshops and other refresher training. The study also divulged the need for the government to improve the existing infrastructures in the schools, in order to motivate educators and members of the school management team in the discharge of their duties.

In the early 1980?s teacher induction programs were introduce widely in the US in order to support novice teachers, and to stem the rising trend in teacher attrition. However, 9.5% of all teachers continue to leave teaching within the first year, and up to 50% leave within five years. Mentoring is the basis of most induction programs therefore, in order to understand the impact of induction programs, it is important to understand the role of mentoring within induction. Induction programs tend to be generic in their approach and do not specifically, and intentionally acknowledge the individual and diverse needs and expectations of novice teachers as autonomous, rationale self-directed adult learners. This phenomenological case study research utilized adult learning as the theoretical framework to explore novice teachers? perceptions of mentoring supports as they learned to teach. This research focused specifically on their perceptions of the formal and informal mentoring and interactions that they experienced in their first four months of teaching. The analysis revealed that the supports received by novices could be conceptualized as a mosaic of mentoring interactions that take place in a number of conceptual spaces, two formal (formal induction programs and schools as ecological systems or school ecologies) and one informal (informal networks and interactions within and between two formal conceptual spaces). The analysis also revealed that each conceptual space comprised three levels where mentoring took place namely, the macro (systemic and institutional) level, the meso (departmental and school geographic) level, and the micro (individual or interpersonal) level. The findings indicate that induction is a multi-faceted process that should include all stakeholders, both district and school, in order to provide initial and sustained support to novices. School ecology is an untapped resource in providing support to novice teachers. The strategic use of physical space, the physical presence of people and systematic organizational inclusion of strategies such as creative scheduling, all provide additional organic support for novice teachers. Both formal induction programs and school ecology should be strategically structured to allow informal networking to occur, as these networks emerged as the most effective ‘mentoring’ support experienced by the participants.

This study explores the process of planning, implementing, and following-up teacher professional development programs (TPDPs) in Palestine focusing on the programs that are directed to mathematics teachers. It also describes teachers’, supervisors, principals’, and policy makers’ beliefs about mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning, and the beliefs that TPDPs have about mathematics teaching and learning. The study used qualitative methods, including interviews and document analysis, to collect data. The participants were chosen from two district areas in West Bank and included five policy makers, eight supervisors and training developers, four principals, and six teachers. In addition to interviews, training materials and policy documents related to teacher training and supervision were studied for the purpose of this study. The data obtained from these documents integrated and validated the data which were collected through the interviews. The findings of the study suggest the necessity to improve the methods used in teacher training in a way that activates the role of the trainee teachers and reflects the content of the training in the process of teacher training. In addition, there is a need to provide teachers with better follow-up methods through and after their participation in TPDPs. Most importantly, TPDPs should be based on a clear vision of their objectives that is based on understanding the problems in student learning and current teaching practices as well as the desired behaviors and actions that help to mitigate problems. The findings also indicated that most of the participants hold the instrumental view of mathematics where mathematics is viewed as a body of facts and procedures. Furthermore, their views about mathematics teaching and learning and the curriculum correspond with the instrumental view or with the content-focused approach in teaching mathematics. The researcher concluded that there should be more emphasis on TPDPs that are planned on the district and schools level or what is called job-embedded professional programs. In parallel, trainers’ competences should be upgraded so that they are more able to respond to teachers’ needs in their contexts. Improving the way in which TPDPs is planned and implemented will have a greater influence on teachers’ beliefs and practices.

This study documented the process of creating, executing, and assessing, a cost-effective, school based, researcher conducted staff development program which included one African American seventh grade social studies faculty member, one European American tenth grade faculty member, and one European American Chapter I reading teacher, at Roosevelt Junior Senior High School, Roosevelt, New York, during the 1989-1990 school year. The objective was to obtain more information about increasing school effectiveness in low income school districts. Staff development efforts were aimed at broadening faculty members' preparedness in developing reading instruction strategies used in the content area of social studies, which conform more concisely with urban African American students' range of reading levels in three homogeneously grouped classes. The goals of (a) improving students' academic performance, (b) attending to individual needs, and (c) providing the tools needed to control learning, are addressed. Five collaboratively designed staff development workshops on developmental reading instruction strategies in the social studies content area enabled members of the faculty to: (a) reevaluate perceptions of teaching reading in the social studies classroom, (b) develop the techniques needed to enable students to independently evaluate the many types of printed material, and, (c) professionally incorporate a concern for teaching the "what" of content, and how the student may obtain the content. Informal and formal discussions, realization of self-concepts, interests, attitudes, completion of evaluations, diagnosis and prescription, conferencing, and observations, led the researcher to the determination that members of the faculty: (a) developed a unified strategy for teaching students how to read their social studies texts with fluency and efficiency, (b) collaboratively planned lessons stressing reading skills without loss of social studies content, (c) realized that content was naturally acquired as a result of improved reading skills, (d) regarded the process of reading as a necessary component in the curriculum, a skill that opens the door to higher level thinking, and, (e) viewed reading not as an isolated skill but rather as a means of enhancing and enriching the social studies curriculum. The students in this study: (a) demonstrated improved reading skills, for example, increased levels of comprehension, (b) learned how their textbook was organized and how to make the best use of all its parts, (c) increased their vocabulary, (d) obtained a better idea of their own interests in social studies, and, (e) acquired techniques to improve study skills which included taking notes and studying for and taking tests. Indications of increased school effectiveness imply that staff development is practical in low income school districts where there is evidence of a corroborative Board of Education, administrative team, faculty, and curriculum and instructional designers.

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