Research has shown links between high levels of teacher self-efficacy and increased student achievement. Theorists and educational researchers have identified conditions and resources that increase teacher self-efficacy. Building on existing research, this quantitative study used data from 46 teacher respondents in one Saskatchewan school division. The purpose of the study was to examine teacher self-efficacy and its relationship to teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions. An online questionnaire, based on the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) and the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Survey, was used to collect the data. The mode of data analysis consisted of frequency counts (means and standard deviations) for the descriptive items relating to levels of self-efficacy and perceptions of working conditions. Non-parametric methods were used to measure significance and level of differences among variables, and Spearman’s rho correlations were employed to identify the level of significance of relationships between and among the dimensions and items of teacher self-efficacy and teacher working conditions. A significant correlation was found between the two major constructs of teacher self-efficacy and teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions, and strong correlations were also found between specific dimensions of teacher self-efficacy and dimensions of working conditions. Teacher levels of self-efficacy were predominantly in the moderate and high levels, and teacher leadership was rated highest among working conditions variables. Time availability was rated the lowest of all working conditions, and was found to be significantly related to the teacher self-efficacy dimensions of classroom management and instructional strategies. Further research, using student achievement data and a greater number of participants, may clarify how teacher self-efficacy and working conditions affect student achievement.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between school administrators' path-goal approach to leadership and their teachers' perceptions of working conditions. Findings from this research may help school administrators and leadership preparation programs to understand better the application of theories related to motivation, leveraging power, and goal attainment. The conceptual framework behind this study was the inherent inclinations of school administrators in approaching leadership decisions from four pathways; directive, supportive, participative, and/or achievement-oriented. For use in statistical analysis through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), data were collected via a questionnaire to currently practicing school-based administrators regarding their path-goal approach to leadership and a download of the publicly available teacher working conditions survey results from teachers as matched to each administrator respondent. The data were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at the 0.05 level of significance. Six research questions were addressed by testing the null hypothesis. The results revealed that there were no statistical differences in teacher working conditions survey results between administrators with different tendencies toward any one path-goal approach to leadership.

Teacher recruitment and retention is a problem of perpetual concern among education policymakers. High rates of teacher attrition, particularly within the first few years of a teacher’s service have been of particular concern. It is believed that persistent teacher shortages contribute both to underperformance of students generally, as well as to achievement gaps between students of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds. The importance of this issue has led to a great deal of research in the field, which has found that there are a large number of factors that influence the desirability of schools to teachers. What is still unclear from this research is how much these different factors matter relative to one another and to salary. This study aimed to address this gap in the literature by introducing a new survey methodology to the field that allows for quantification of the extent to which various working conditions factors matter to teachers. A survey was distributed to all secondary teachers in the state of Utah where respondents were asked to choose between hypothetical school choices that varied on salary and certain nonmonetary factors. Periodically, respondents were asked to answer open-ended questions explaining their responses. The results of this survey allow for an estimate for each individual of how much salary and each of the working conditions influenced the decisions that they made. These results were analyzed for trends with respect to teacher demographics and contextual factors and were compared to the responses teachers gave to the open-ended questions. This study resulted in a number of practical recommendations for school administrators, policymakers, and fellow researchers. For practitioners, there are results from this study that generate clear recommendations for using limited resources to make schools more desirable to teachers. The results of this study also provide estimates for how much additional salary is needed to entice teachers to work in schools that traditionally struggle to recruit and retain high quality teachers. For researchers, this study provides a model that can be replicated in additional contexts to answer these important practical questions. The study also opens up avenues of future research including new methodological questions worthy of further investigation. By introducing a new survey methodology to this well-developed field of research, this study aims to recommend a new tool for use by researchers in addressing the persistent challenge of teacher recruitment and retention.

The COVID-19 pandemic has immeasurably impacted nearly every aspect of schools from day-to-day operating procedures to the way students attend classes to curricular and instructional matters. In the early stages of the pandemic, while COVID-19 spread across the country, the large-scale, nationwide closure of schools in March 2020 forced educators, students, and families alike to adjust to emergency remote teaching with virtually no warning or preparation (Marshall et al., 2020; Hodges et al., 2020). As the 2019–2020 school year came to a close remotely, states began the process of reopening after initial COVID-19 related closures; and the predicament of how to reopen schools in the fall became a major topic of debate. This contentious debate continued throughout the rest of the 2020–2021 school year as school buildings went in and out of in-person, hybrid and remote instructional models; and the public health crisis persisted. Caught squarely in the crossfire of the debate and on the receiving end of policy coming down from state governance were public-school classroom teachers. Historically, this top-down dynamic is certainly not new for the teaching profession (Lortie, 1975; Cohn et al., 1993; Gratch, 2000). Intersecting with this reality is the view of teachers as executors of policy that others create (Cohn et al., 1993; Cochran-Smith et al., 2009) — a view that situates teachers in a web of bureaucracy (Elvira, 2020) that is often at odds with their expertise and local knowledge of practice (Cochran-Smith et al., 2009). This view ultimately results in the exclusion of teachers’ voices in decision-making arenas (Cohn et al., 1993). While preliminary research investigating the impacts of COVID-19 on teachers and the teaching profession has established some of the emotional and physical toll that has occurred, more details with respect to the way that teachers experienced the work of teaching itself in conjunction with policy decisions is necessary. The three studies in this dissertation address these needs by teasing out teachers’ perspectives, challenging the lingering image of teachers as technicians and the status quo of top-down policy enactment, and determining a way to move forward. More specifically, these studies occur within the context of public-school teaching in the state of Massachusetts (MA) and involve data sources that include survey responses from full-time, public-school teachers in MA who actively taught in the 2020–2021 school year as well as policy memos that came from the MA state educational agency (SEA). The combination of articles in this dissertation examines topics including the status of teachers’ voices and influence in decision-making forums, the relationship between policy and teachers’ work, teachers as experts versus technicians, and teacher demoralization throughout the pandemic. By drawing upon teacher survey data from 122 full-time, public-school teachers in MA, the first study captures their experiences teaching during the pandemic from the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 through April of the 2020–2021 school year. This first study provides a window into the direct experiences teachers had teaching during the pandemic in comparison to teaching prior to the pandemic and sets the groundwork to show how teachers’ experiences do not align with images of teaching as put forth by the MA SEA and the policy rolled out during the pandemic. The second study uses document analysis to examine policy artifacts produced by state governance in the wake of COVID-19 and the way they communicate certain perceptions of teachers and the work of teaching. The third study returns to teacher responses to inquire about their perceptions of the state educational agency’s level of support and policy developed during the pandemic. As such, this third study demonstrates the teacher demoralization that results from the lack of inclusion of teachers’ voices in decision-making forums and the disconnect between policy and teachers’ work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together these studies reflect that the COVID-19 pandemic has further underscored the gap between the individuals in the classroom and those in decision-making forums. As such, it has revealed the need for a more detailed understanding of the commitments that teachers juggle at the classroom level in order to better align policy, research, and state and national responses with the daily needs of students and teachers.

No description available.

Given issues in education concerning teacher shortages, the omnipresence of alternative certification programs and the growth of online programs in higher education, this study investigated teacher retention for 77 secondary education teachers who completed an online teacher preparation program in Texas. Teacher retention was examined from 2003-2013 and investigated the influence of factors such personal characteristics, working conditions and school setting characteristics on teacher retention. Data was collected electronically utilizing a survey instrument designed by two teacher education experts and I. A total of 21 variables and two open-ended questions were investigated using the survey instrument. Exploratory factor and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify a multi-factor model for teacher retention utilizing the participants' survey responses. These analyses yielded evidence of the program's effectiveness in preparing teachers for long careers. Specifically, the areas of program support, field experience, and classroom management were statistically significant factors that contributed positively to teacher retention. Additionally, variables outside the program, were examined. These factors included personal characteristics, working conditions, and school setting factors. The predictor model accounted for 56% of the variance; F (17, 54) = 3.015; p = < 0.001. In particular, working conditions contributed to 41% of the variance associated with the teacher retention model. A qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions was used to further examine decisions to remain in teaching. Support of administration, colleagues, staff, and parents was shown to influence teacher retention.

This research had as its main purpose of investigation the multiple-grades classes, a type of school organization mainly found in schools located in Brazilian countryside, where they are centered in the same schooling time and space, students from different grades (and ages) and, most of the cases, under the teaching of the same teacher. The question which originated this research was built through empirical experiences, and the data taken from the reality and theoretical readings on Countryside Education. In this sense, what is the reality of multiple-grades classes, concerning teachers training and working conditions during the initial grades of countryside Elementary School in Coronel João Sá/BA? The general objective of the research was to analyse the multiple-grades classes regarding teachers training and working conditions in that educational context. Moreover, we constructed the research through the discussion in relation to the agrarian question, education and countryside school in Brazil; identification and discussion on the formation of teachers who teach in multiple-grades classes and the verification of teachers working conditions through the structural and didactic-pedagogical characterization of schools with multiple-grades classes. The qualitative theoretical-methodological approach was adopted in this research, in order to be circumscribed in dialectical historical materialism. The research sample was formed by six schools and fifty-three teachers. Regarding the instruments of data gathering, we used the questionnaire, the interview, the documental analysis and observation. Through the data and the analyses performed, we considered that teachers are not especially trained to teach as well as they work in substandard conditions, what confirms, therefore, the research hypothesis that the State neglects the education in countryside schools, particularly in this organizational way of teaching, when it comes to those teachers training and working conditions. / A pesquisa teve como objeto de investigação as classes multisseriadas forma de organização escolar encontrada geralmente nos estabelecimentos de ensino localizados no campo brasileiro , em que são concentrados em um mesmo tempo e espaço escolar, estudantes de diferentes séries/anos (e idade) e na maior parte dos casos, sob a regência de apenas um professor. A pergunta que deu origem a pesquisa foi construída a partir de experiências empíricas, de dados da realidade concreta e de leituras teóricas sobre a Educação do Campo, que assim explicitamos: qual a realidade das classes multisseriadas no que se refere à formação e às condições de trabalho dos professores da fase inicial do Ensino Fundamental do campo, no município de Coronel João Sá/BA? O objetivo geral da pesquisa foi analisar a realidade das classes multisseriadas no que se refere à formação e às condições de trabalho dos professores do referido contexto educativo. Para tanto, construímos a pesquisa a partir da discussão em relação à questão agrária, educação e escola do campo no Brasil; da identificação e discussão sobre a formação dos professores que atuam nas classes multisseriadas; e, da verificação sobre as condições de trabalho dos professores, a partir da caracterização estrutural e didático-pedagógica das escolas com classes multisseriadas. Como abordagem teórico-metodológica, adotamos a pesquisa qualitativa, buscando estar circunscrita ao materialismo histórico dialético. A amostra da pesquisa foi composta por seis escolas e cinquenta e três docentes. Quanto aos instrumentos de coleta de dados, utilizamos o questionário, o formulário, a entrevista, a análise documental e a observação. A partir dos dados e das análises realizadas, consideramos que os professores não são formados para lecionar especificamente com as classes multisseriadas, bem como trabalham em condições precárias, confirmando, desse modo, a hipótese da pesquisa de que o Estado tem negligenciado a educação nas escolas do campo, em particular nessa forma organizativa de ensino, no tocante a formação e as condições de trabalho dos docentes.