With almost half of all new teachers leaving the profession in the first few years, it is imperative that school systems find ways to support and retain these new teachers. Formal mentoring is a growing necessity. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the effectiveness of one school system's mentoring program. This study included 4 sets of mentor and mentee teachers. Each set consisted of a beginning teacher in her 1st year of teaching and an experienced teacher trained by the school system to serve as a mentor. This study was conducted in a rural East Tennessee School System. The qualitative interviews were conducted by meeting with the 8 participants. A list of possible participants was obtained from the central office (see Appendix A). An email was sent to each possible participant explaining the nature of the study (see Appendix B). An interview guide was used and participants signed the Informed Consent Form (see Appendix C). During the interview process, 3 commonalities were found among the 4 sets of teachers. These were the need for better training, common grade level assignments, and the overall positive experience of mentoring. All of the teachers interviewed indicated that mentoring was a positive experience. Allowing veteran teachers to reflect on and enhance their own teaching while guiding new teachers through procedures and routines is a win-win situation for all involved. This study found congruence with the review of literature. The study indicates that the mentoring program in this rural East Tennessee county to be a positive and beneficial endeavor. Recommendations for the program include extending the time for mentoring past the 1st year and striving to assign mentors to mentees within similar teaching assignments.

Teacher retention is a growing problem in the 21st century. Many veterans teachers are reaching retirement age and there are increasing numbers of new teachers entering school systems. School administrators across the state of Tennessee realize that there is a significant number of beginning teachers who are leaving the teaching profession within the first 3 to 5 years of their teaching careers. Beginning teachers are being surveyed to determine why many leave the profession. After gathering input from beginning teachers across Tennessee, school officials began to develop teacher mentoring programs designed to retain beginning teachers. The purpose of this quantitative study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Knox County Schools system's teacher mentoring program, New Teacher Induction (NTI), for beginning teachers. The participants in this study were novice teachers (with 1 to 3 years of teaching experience). Two hundred novice teachers were invited to participate. Thirty-eight (19%) participants responded to the first survey. Efforts were made to increase the response rate through reminder emails. Reminders emails were sent 3 times. Hard copies of the participant letter and survey instrument were mailed to the novice teacher group during the 2nd data collection to increase the participant responses. Thirty-one responses were collected during the second data collection. Sixty-nine (34%) teachers participated in this study. Findings of the study are congruent with the literature in terms of perceptions of beginning teachers regarding the effectiveness of their mentoring experience and recommendations for enhancing mentoring programs. Most of the novice teachers indicated that their mentoring experience was successful. Many of the novice teachers also said that they attribute their decision to return to their school the following year to their successful mentoring experience.

Teachers, especially beginning teachers, continue a trend of leaving the profession at alarming rates within the first 5 years resulting in excessive costs to school systems and diminished instructional quality. Some programs, however, have shown impressive results. The purpose of this qualitative study, using an emerging interview process, was to examine the perceptions of beginning teachers in their 1st or 2nd year and those of veteran 3- to 5-year teachers regarding the effectiveness of mentoring and other guidance they received as beginning teachers in a secondary school and to understand their vision of how mentoring should be structured for beginning teachers. Specifically, the study addressed satisfaction with 1st year experiences specially designed to support the personal and professional well-being of beginning teachers. The study included 8 beginning teachers, 7 of whom had received mentoring in their first year of teaching and 1 who had received no mentoring and 13 veteran teachers, 7 of whom had received mentoring in their first year of teaching and 6 who had received no mentoring. The study was conducted in a secondary school in rural East Tennessee. Findings of the study are congruent with the literature in terms of perceptions of both beginning and veteran teachers regarding effectiveness of their mentoring experiences and recommendations for enhancing mentoring programs. Most beginning and veteran teachers indicated that mentoring could be helpful given certain conditions such as motivational support, encouraging communication, routine guidance in day-to-day school operations and mentor/mentee compatibility. Some said they felt that their own mentoring experiences actually helped them to remain in the profession. However, obstacles to effective mentoring such as lack of adequate time, lack of physical mentor/mentee proximity, lack of mentor interest in the process, and lack of mentoring skills were identified. Recommendations of beginning and veteran teachers for enhancing mentoring program effectiveness include using only those teachers who have a real interest in mentoring, matching mentor/mentee personalities for compatibility, creating clear guidelines and providing dedicated time for mentoring, logistically arranging mentors/mentees in close proximity, and providing appropriate mentor/mentee training.

The United States Department of Education predicts that the nation will need more than one million new teachers by the year 2010 (U.S.DOE, 1996). At the same time, 43% of teachers leave the profession within their first five years of employment. Southwest Florida is experiencing a tremendous growth rate. This growth rate pattern has been predicted to continue through the year 2010. The school districts of Southwest Florida find themselves scrambling to build new schools in order to keep pace with the growth. These new schools must be staffed with qualified teachers. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 coupled with the Class Size Reduction Amendment IX, has also increased the demand for qualified teachers. A child's teacher, next to the family, is the single most influential entity in their educational experience. A competent, caring, qualified teacher will make a lifelong impact on both the learning and development of a child. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that caused dissatisfaction for beginning teachers, and to determine if there was a relationship to attrition. A total of 99 full-time Southwest Florida teachers participated in this study. The number of teachers from Charlotte County was 20, the number of teachers from Hendry County was 17, and the number of teachers from Lee County was 62. Data regarding dissatisfaction factors were analyzed to determine if a significant difference was observable between the three counties. In addition, the study addressed the racial and gender variables between counties as it related to dissatisfaction factors. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the dissatisfaction factors between the races and counties. Analysis of the data suggested that there was no significant difference between race and county for any of the six factors. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also used to compare the dissatisfaction factors between the gender and counties. Analysis of the data suggested that there was no significant difference between gender and county for five of the factors but there was a significant difference observed in factor 3, Safe Equipment, for gender. The results of this study indicate that there are distinct factors that cause dissatisfaction for beginning teachers. The results presented in the current study offer implications that although a single factor cannot be directly linked to teacher attrition, it does suggest that a combination of factors may lead to attrition. This data can inform educators that supervise beginning teachers of areas of concern. Decreasing the number of dissatisfaction factors can increase the probability that beginning teachers will not leave the profession within their first five years of employment.

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[pt] O presente texto apresenta um estudo com os licenciados em Pedagogia e em Biologia com enfoque nas representações sobre a profissão docente. A análise sobre a formação inicial e a atuação profissional nos primeiros anos de carreira buscou evidenciar o ponto de vista desses professores na construção da identidade profissional. Em tempos de reformas na estrutura e funcionamento dos sistemas de ensino e no papel dos professores, se faz necessário tensionar as motivações, disposições e os valores manifestados por aqueles que se inserem nesse campo. A polissemia de conceituações teóricas e suas interfaces são debatidas a fim de identificar as especificidades da docência como atividade em vias de profissionalização e reconhecer as múltiplas influências que levam alguém a se tornar professor. O material empírico foi produzido por 195 questionários respondidos por egressos dessas licenciaturas, formados no período de 2008 a 2015. As categorias analíticas utilizadas foram professores iniciantes, profissionalidade, profissionalização e trabalho docente. Na opinião desses professores, o excesso de teorizações e a falta de abordagens práticas das funções docentes na formação inicial a tornam insuficiente, o que gera sentimentos de insegurança e o choque de expectativas com o mundo real do trabalho. Há o reconhecimento de cada vez mais exigências para o desempenho dos professores, embora estes não participem das instâncias de regulação e controle da profissão. Somado a isso, a precarização das condições, o desprestígio social e os efeitos da responsabilização pessoal sobre a eficiência no trabalho constituem os desafios para socialização e o desenvolvimento profissional do magistério. / [en] This document presents a study of graduates in Pedagogy and Biology with a focus on representations of the teaching profession. The analysis of the initial training and professional practice in the early years of career sought to highlight the point of view of these teachers in the construction of their professional identity. In times of changes in the structure and functioning of education systems, and the role of teachers, it is necessary to tighten the motivations, dispositions and values expressed by those who are part of this field. The polysemy of theoretical concepts and their interfaces are discussed in order to identify the teaching specificities as an activity in the process of professionalization, and to recognize the numerous influences that lead someone to become a teacher. The empirical material was produced by 195 questionnaires filled by graduates, formed from 2008 to 2015. The analytical categories used were beginning teachers, professionality, professionalization, and teaching work. According to these teachers, excessive theorizing and lack of practical approaches of teaching duties in the initial training makes it insufficient, and generates insecurity and the clash of expectations with the real world of work. There is a recognition of increasing requirements for the performance of teachers, although they do not participate in the instances of profession regulation and control. Added to this, the precarious conditions, lack of social prestige, and the effects of personal accountability on efficiency at work are the challenges for socialization and professional development of teachers.

Beginning teacher attrition is a problem that exacerbates the inequity of opportunities for all students, especially for those in schools that are already challenged by poverty. This study makes use of the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey (covering the period between 2008 and 2012) and U.S. Census data to identify which teachers leave and to explain why. Beyond that, it also offers a look into the characteristics of those teachers who stay at the same school for five years. The empirical investigation is embedded in a conceptual framework that draws from motivation and identity theories and brings in insights about the importance of geography and of neighborhood effects from works on poverty and education. The study utilizes a dataset with survey responses from approximately 1,800 full-time teachers from a sample designed to represent the overall population of beginning teachers in the United States. By combining individual-level longitudinal data with information about communities, it makes an important contribution to the study of new teacher placement, attrition, and retention. The evidence is presented using a variety of descriptive and inferential statistics, and the analysis includes factor analysis and logistic regression models. The results show that indicators of leaving the profession before the fifth year become apparent early on, as factors measured at the end of year one have significant effects on early career outcomes. Most prominently, higher degrees of burnout reported by teachers, which includes factors such as decreased enthusiasm and increased fatigue, are associated with increased risks for leaving the profession without the prospect to return to it and with transferring to a different school district. Several other factors on the individual and school-level emerge as relevant to career outcomes. Teachers who have Highly Qualified Teacher credentials and report a supportive school climate are at less risk to leave the profession. On the other hand, teachers with alternative certification and master’s degrees are more likely to move to a different school or districts in the first five years. In terms of socio-geographic factors that help explain teacher retention and attrition, the only significant variable in the regression models used in the analysis is the percentage of White residents at the Census tract of the Year 1 school. When everything else is held constant, decreasing this percentage from 100 to 0 increases the predicted probability of leaving the profession by approximately 20%. Considering that a vast majority of beginning teachers both in the sample and in the overall population are White, this findings fits in with theories about “the pull of home” and cultural habitus. The magnitude and significance of this finding suggest that it warrants further exploration, as racial composition of the communities is likely a measurement proxy for complex processes of inequality. / Urban Education

The aim of the diploma thesis was to find out how beginning teachers perceive the influence of the higher education and the support of the school environment in the course of their first years of practice and also how they subsequently propose to improve the quality of the higher education and the support of the school environment. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with twelve beginning teachers with a one to five years of experience. The data were processed by the method of the grounded theory. It was discovered that the beginning teachers' perception of the higher education and the support of the school environment is influenced not only by the form of those two elements but also by the teachers' perceived problems, which are very individual. The factors that cause the individuality of the problems and subsequently the point of views of the beginning teachers are discussed in the thesis. It is not possible to determine the form of the higher education and the support of the school environment that would suit everyone given the individuality of the beginning teachers' views. On the other hand, there are some trends across the opinions of beginning teachers and thus they are presented in the thesis. Key words: beginning teacher, problems of beginning teachers, higher...

The main aim of the theoretical part is to introduce difficulties of the teaching profession, such as the problems that are encountered today, when they are available for work and the challenges that they are not prepared for. With the aid of literature, I define the term 'beginning teacher' and I introduce the most common types of problems that arise. Furthermore, I focus on the possible support system for beginning teachers. The empiric part presents the assessment of the results from completed questionnaires and the dialogues with the beginning teachers of primary education. In my prepared and structured questionnaire and dialogue, I focus on the problems, which they might have struggled with or are still struggling with, such as if they feel that university was not able to prepare them adequately for their future job. In addition to this, I aim one's attention to the support system, which was provided to them, if they had an opportunity of a mentor. I am interested in parent's reaction when they found out that the new class teacher of their children is a fresh university graduate. Lastly, if they had a big problem to gain children's authority. KEYWORDS a beginning teacher, primary education, problems of beginning teachers, a mentor, support system for beginning teachers, the teaching...