The development of teacher resilience is important in improving teacher retention. This study identified reasons veteran teachers have remained in the classroom; individual and contextual factors of resilience; significant challenges the teachers have encountered; and strategies the teachers used for dealing with the challenging situations. This was a qualitative study that included interviews with 15 teachers in a rural school division in Central Virginia. Data analysis occurred through deductive coding of the transcribed interviews using qualitative data analysis software. The findings for this study identified seven factors that veteran teachers indicated were important in their decision to remain in the classroom. The study also identified 22 individual factors of resilience and 10 contextual factors presented through the experiences of the veteran teachers. The veteran teachers described four challenges that they have faced in their school division and the strategies they used to overcome those challenges. The study concludes with the discussion, implication, and conclusion of the findings. / Doctor of Education / The development of teacher resilience is important in improving teacher retention. This study identified reasons veteran teachers have remained in the classroom; individual and contextual factors of resilience; the most significant challenges the teachers have encountered; and strategies the teachers used for dealing with those challenging situations. This was a qualitative study that included interviews with 15 teachers in a rural school division in Central Virginia. The findings for this study provide practitioners with a framework to develop a resilient culture within their schools.

This study was designed to evaluate the perceptions of novice and veteran teachers’ level of stress and their attitudes toward their profession. Stress may be caused by many different factors. Work related stress is common amongst many people in the work force. In education stress is endured, in some cases on a daily basis. There are many demands put on teachers to ensure student learning. These demands can cause an overwhelming amount of stress for teachers. This stress can have a positive or negative impact on teachers’ attitude toward their profession. The qualitative research method is the method that was used in this study. Qualitative research provides an opportunity for the researcher to have an individual interaction with participants. Interviews and focus groups were used to collect data. Twelve elementary teachers in Northeast Tennessee were interviewed. Of the 12 teachers who were interviewed, novice and veteran elementary teachers in Kindergarten through fourth grades participated in this study. During data analysis, 9 themes were identified. These themes were (a) resources, (b) testing, (c) lack of time, (d) changes in curriculum, (e) relationships with coworkers, (f) internet sources and technology, (g) school community and culture, (h) personal life, and (i) job satisfaction. Based on the research the following conclusions were presented. Some of the most common stressors among teachers are evaluations, paperwork, testing, and students’ academic and behavioral needs. Positive relationships with other teachers and staff members within a school are important throughout the school year. Support from school and district administrators is very much needed and appreciated in order to retain teachers. Providing support and encouragement for teachers could be beneficial to schools and school districts. Recommendations from this study’s findings may assist school districts and administrators in retaining teachers and supporting them in their profession.

The workforce in the United States is aging. Teachers, like all other workers in the country, are also aging. The veteran teachers in our nation's public schools possess wisdom gained through their on-the-job experience. With looming teacher shortages in our public schools, it is imperative that we retain this wisdom. Administrators, school boards, and the community have an obligation to tap this wisdom for the benefit of children. This study was conducted, therefore, with the purpose of learning how to do that. The data were collected through the process of one-on-one interviews with 21 veteran teachers in Knox County, Tennessee. This was done to make use of the knowledge gained by actual working professionals. The findings of this study were that veteran teachers did have a great deal of wisdom to share. The 21 interviewed teachers gave information that allowed the researcher to compile recommendations as to how administrators and other interested parties could retain and motivate all teachers, whether veteran or novice. The results of this study might prove useful to anyone interested in retaining teachers in our nation's schools. This knowledge could benefit the education of our nation's most valuable resource--our children.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:35:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseMDL.pdf: 1532558 bytes, checksum: c14d186c53d86bd0224da3c79b36e14a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-03-24 / Contrary to what is known as process-product researches, in which teachers used to be seen as a mere technical performer, nowadays the teacher is the centerpiece in the educational process. In this new approach, the teacher is the core of the debates and professional practices, personal life and know-how of the professional practices are analysed. Lee Shulman is one of the researchers who tries to make a list of required knowledge for a teacher to carry out his/her job. This list is referred to as knowledge base of teaching by the author, which is formed, mainly, by content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. As one of the sources to acquire such knowledge is the everyday practice, we have asked in which aspects and how a veteran teacher and a teacher-to-be, working together in their development process, and having a training teacher as mediator, can share the required knowledge in teaching. Two professionals graduated in Education and the researcher, in the role of mediator, took part in this study. One of the professionals, referred to as teacher-to-be, had no classroom practice; the other, referred to as veteran teacher, had an eighteen-year-long experience. Data was gathered from August through December 2003. The focal point was the elaboration, implementation and reflection about a series of five classes taught to early grades in Elementary School, the subject being air . The focus was the knowledge that is part of the knowledge base of teaching pointed out by Shulman. Results showed that the teacher-to-be faced the same difficulties and experienced similar tensions and anxiety as her veteran peer when at the beginning of her career. However, after years of practice, the veteran teacher seemed to have solid techniques or strategies on how to deal with students, differently from the teacher-to-be, who still tried to build them up by a process of trial and error. The greatest interaction between them was about the general pedagogical knowledge , when they talked about strategies to control students discipline, their characteristics and their behavior during classes. Both presented an important lack of content knowledge , which made it difficult for them to understand each other when that was the point. They had different motivation concerning the focus of analyses of the classes and about what they wanted to learn: the teacher-to-be focused on her own performance while the veteran teacher looked at the learning process by the students. Such fact might show that, instead of helping the development process, the longer the practice the more difficult for the peers to interact since the teachers interests could be different. Accepting an opinion or idea from a peer seems to be tied more to private characteristics of those involved. Contrary to what was expected, i.e., that the teacher-to-be could learn more about how to teach from the veteran teacher, there was learning by both professionals and an improvement in their knowledge base of teaching . / Em contraposição às pesquisas em que o docente era visto como mero executor técnico, chamadas pesquisas processo-produto , atualmente ele é peça fundamental no processo educativo. Neste novo enfoque, o professor ocupa o centro dos debates, tendo como análise suas práticas profissionais, sua vida pessoal e os saberes de sua prática profissional. Lee Shulman é um dos pesquisadores que busca apontar um rol de conhecimentos necessários para que o professor exerça sua atividade. A este conjunto de conhecimentos, o autor designou base de conhecimento para o ensino , que se constitui principalmente, pelo conhecimento do conteúdo específico, conhecimentos pedagógico geral e conhecimento pedagógico do conteúdo. Como uma das fontes de aprendizagem de tais conhecimentos é a prática cotidiana, questionamos em que e de que forma, um professor atuante e um aspirante, trabalhando conjuntamente em seu processo de formação, contribuem entre si na construção de conhecimentos necessários para o ensino, tendo como mediador a participação de um professor formador? Participaram desta pesquisa duas licenciandas de um curso de Pedagogia e o pesquisador, assumindo o papel de mediador. Uma delas, denominada professora aspirante , não possuía nenhuma experiência docente; a outra, denominada professora atuante , atuava como docente há 18 anos. A coleta de dados ocorreu durante o 2o. semestre de 2003 e teve como eixo norteador a elaboração/implementação/reflexão sobre um conjunto de cinco aulas dedicadas às séries iniciais do Ensino Fundamental acerca do tema ar . Tomou-se como eixo central de análise os conhecimentos constituintes da base de conhecimentos para o ensino , apontada por Shulman. Resultados mostraram que a professora aspirante enfrentou as mesmas dificuldades e vivenciou semelhantes tensões e angústias que sua colega experiente, quando no início da carreira. Porém, a professora atuante, após anos de prática, parecia possuir esquemas ou estratégias consolidadas a respeito de como lidar com os alunos, diferentemente da professora aspirante, que ainda buscava construí-los num processo de tentativa e erro. A maior interação entre elas ocorreu acerca dos conhecimentos pedagógicos gerais, quando comentavam sobre estratégias de controle da indisciplina dos alunos, suas características e comportamentos durante as aulas. Ambas apresentaram uma significativa carência referente ao conhecimento do conteúdo específico, o que dificultou a interação entre elas quando se tratava deste aspecto. Possuíam motivações diferentes quanto ao foco de análise das aulas e acerca do que buscavam aprender: a aspirante focava em sua própria performance e a atuante, na aprendizagem de seus alunos. Tal dado pode ser indício de que níveis de experiência distintos podem dificultar o processo de interação entre os pares, ao invés de ser um aliado na formação, pois os interesses dos docentes podem ser diferentes. Acolher uma opinião ou idéia de um par parece estar mais atrelada a fatores intrínsecos de quem se propõe a realizá-la. Contrariamente ao esperado, ou seja, de que a professora aspirante pudesse aprender mais sobre como ensinar com seu par experiente, houve aprendizagem de ambas as partes e uma ampliação em suas bases de conhecimentos para o ensino .

Background: For decades, teacher shortages brought concern in educational systems throughout the United States. As more classrooms were left without teachers, prior researchers focused on strategies and policies to address the problem of teacher turnover and attrition. States such as Wisconsin had fewer qualified candidates to fill positions and saw a 35% decrease in teacher education programs in the past decade. Purpose: This study sought to examine how the induction process was related to teacher attrition for experienced or veteran teachers (five or more years of experience). In addition, the study sought to determine factors that contributed to professional satisfaction or dissatisfaction as related to teaching longevity. By examining these components collectively and including conversations with current teachers, the researcher presented a holistic view of why veteran teachers make the decision to leave the profession. Setting: Northeastern Wisconsin public school districts serving populations from kindergarten through 12th grades in urban, suburban and rural locations. Subjects: The participants were five veteran teachers with five or more years of experience who left the profession before retirement. Research Design: Qualitative phenomenological study Data Collection and Analysis: The participants were interviewed about their induction processes, professional satisfaction and professional dissatisfaction during their teaching careers. The data were analyzed for commonalities and emergent themes among the shared teaching experiences of the participants to determine the reasons they left the profession. Findings: Common themes were identified through the participants’ interviews. The findings showed the induction process for veteran teachers did not meet the needs of these participants. Further, professional satisfaction during their teaching careers were related to intrinsic motivating factors such as improving and aiding in student academic achievement, collegial support, and “making a difference.” The findings indicated the former teachers’ professional dissatisfaction stemmed from challenging behaviors, lack of support, overwhelming responsibilities, monetary deficiencies, and lack of respect for the profession. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that veteran teachers leave the profession as a result of a combination of challenges during their teaching assignments. The study also uncovered that the participants of this study contemplated their decisions to leave their positions years before actually departing the profession.