Summaries of Early Papers
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Summaries of Early Papers
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The
Project on the Next Generation of Teachers In an effort to understand what it will take to recruit and support the next generation of new teachers, we conducted an interview study with a diverse sample of 50 first- and second-year Massachusetts teachers working in a wide range of public schools. Approximately two-thirds of our respondents were female, one-third male. Almost one-half had entered teaching as a first career, while the rest had entered mid-career. Almost three-quarters were teaching in traditional schools, and one-quarter were in charter schools. On the basis of these interviews, we prepared four papers, each of which is summarized briefly below.
In “The Next Generation of Teachers: Changing Conceptions of a Career in Teaching” by H. G. Peske, E. Liu, S. M. Johnson, D. Kauffman, & S. M. Kardos (Phi Delta Kappan, December 2001), we explore our respondents’ career options and choices. Our findings suggest that, rather than approaching teaching as a calling and lifelong commitment, many new teachers—both those who complete teacher preparation programs and those who do not—approach teaching tentatively or conditionally. While there were respondents who planned to make teaching a lifelong career, they were surprisingly few in number. These findings suggest that retaining the next generation of teachers may be more difficult than retaining the previous generation. Teachers’ decisions to stay in the profession depend a great deal on their conceptions of career, their specific interests, and the day-to-day experiences they have in their schools. For those respondents who will pursue teaching for the long-term, the possibility for differentiated roles and the possibility of redesigned work holds promise, while for those who envision short-term careers, well-designed alternative routes to teaching and support at the school site might ensure that they enter and remain in teaching and do their work well. back to index of papers
In “Barely Breaking Even”: Incentives, Rewards, and the High Costs of Choosing to Teach by E. Liu, S. M. Kardos, D. Kauffman, H. G. Peske, & S. M. Johnson, we consider the role of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in teachers’ career decisions. Although the new teachers we interviewed entered teaching in search of intrinsic rewards, they were by no means unconcerned about money and financial rewards. Many were very dissatisfied with their pay, especially given the importance and difficulty of their work. While they stressed that they did not enter teaching “for the money,” they worried about whether they could “afford to teach” over the long term. Respondents also talked about the high costs of choosing to teach. These included the opportunity costs of choosing teaching over higher-paying occupations, and the costs—both opportunity and out-of-pocket—of teacher preparation and master’s degree programs that were required for certification. While some respondents reported that they could afford to teach and live comfortably, the majority described tight financial circumstances. They suggested that pay would significantly affect whether they would stay in teaching. It is important to note that these individuals had already chosen teaching despite the low pay, and might thus be expected to be less concerned with financial rewards than the average individual. Our study suggests that if public education is to attract, support, and retain quality teachers, it must increase the financial rewards of teaching, reduce the costs of entry, or implement a combination of both strategies. back to index of papers
In Counting
on Colleagues: New Teachers Encounter the Professional Cultures of their Schools
by
S. M. Kardos, S. M. Johnson, H. G. Peske, D. Kauffman, & E. Liu (Educational
Administration Quarterly,
April 2001), we use new entrants’ accounts to characterize
three types of professional cultures or subcultures within schools:
veteran-oriented cultures, novice-oriented cultures, and integrated cultures.
In veteran-oriented cultures, new teachers described norms of
professional interaction determined, in large part, by the veterans, with little
attention to the particular needs of beginning teachers.
Such schools, or sub-units within schools, typically had a high
proportion of senior teachers who worked independently and whose patterns of
professional practice were well established. There were few meaningful
structural mechanisms in place to orient, induct, and provide ongoing support
for new teachers. In contrast, novice-oriented professional cultures typically
existed in schools with high proportions of new recruits.
Professional interactions in these settings were ongoing and intense,
although generally uninformed by the expertise and wisdom of veteran teachers.
Thus, new teachers received little professional guidance about how to
teach. However,
in integrated professional cultures, new teachers described being provided with
sustained support and having frequent exchanges with colleagues across
experience levels.
In these cultures, there were no separate camps of veterans and novices.
Expert teachers mentored and collaborated with their novice colleagues
and often found that they, themselves, benefited from the exchange.
Principals
proved to be important in developing and maintaining integrated professional
cultures. Teachers
in schools with such cultures said that the principals were present and
responsive, focused teachers’ efforts on improving teaching and learning, and
used the teaching schedule and meeting times to promote peer observations,
collaboration and teamwork among teachers. These principals were particularly
attentive to the needs of new teachers. In contrast, principals in
veteran-oriented and novice-oriented cultures were said to be preoccupied with
bureaucratic responsibilities or fund-raising, and rarely observed teachers at
work. They
focused attention on discipline and paperwork rather than instruction, and
seldom created opportunities for novice and veteran teachers to collaborate. back to index of papers
In “Lost
at Sea”: New Teachers’ Experiences with Curriculum and Assessment
by D.
Kauffman, S. M. Johnson, S. M. Kardos, E.
Liu, & H. G. Peske (Teachers College Record, Vol. 104 No. 2, March 2002), we describe how curriculum and assessment are important determinants
of new teachers’ experiences and sense of accomplishment. Overall, the new
teachers we interviewed received little or no guidance about what to teach or
how to teach. Left to their own devices, they struggled day to day to prepare
content and materials. Many said that they would prefer greater specification of
their curriculum, rather than greater autonomy, although they reserved the right
to modify what is provided. The standards and accountability environment created
a sense of urgency for these teachers, as state officials made it clear that
teachers were publicly accountable for teaching their students the prescribed
content and skills.
However, state and local standards and testing objectives, which served
as a surrogate for curriculum in many schools, offered
neither strategies nor materials for teachers.
Thus they did not constitute a curriculum, though they were all new
teachers received. The
absence of a coherent curriculum has implications for student achievement and
teacher retention, in that students may learn less from improvised curricula,
while new teachers who might have succeeded with more support may leave teaching
in frustration. This suggests an urgent need to carefully orient new teachers to
the curriculum, rather than simply turning unprepared teachers loose in schools.
Greater specification of what to teach and how to teach it can occur without
scripting lessons for new teachers, however. New models for professional culture
in schools may engage new and experienced teachers in collaborative, ongoing
efforts to develop curriculum and improve teaching practice. back to index of papers
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Last modified: May 06, 2005 |
