Gender differences in Teachers' Professional Development (TPD) and retention of teachers

Author(s):

Edina Kovacs(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 06 C, Development Strategies and Retention, Stress and Disengagement

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

15:30-17:00

Room:

K3.13

Chair:

Melanie Janzen

Contribution

Preparedness and effectiveness of teachers are key elements of a successful education system. Related to these issues we can see similar questions and problems all around in Europe. There are many researches both national and international level which examine in-service and pre-service trainings, retention and achievement of teachers and students in teacher education.

The “Teachers Matter” (OECD 2005) put four main concerns: the teaching career is not attractive enough to the best students; the connection between teacher education, teachers’ professional development, and school needs is limited; students is disadvantaged areas need the best teachers but there are not enough highly qualified teachers in these areas; there are high rates of teacher attrition, especially among new teachers.

Many researchers examined what makes TPD effective. The TALIS 2013 listed the features of high-quality TPD, which are: content focus; collective participation; active learning; duration (longer term TPD programs are more effective) and coherence.

Less research examines the gender specificities of the teaching profession, even though the teacher's role definitely related to gender roles. The high rates of women among the teachers, the probability that they leave or stay are not independent from the teacher’s image and the status of the teaching profession. After the 2^nd World War the appearance of women as teachers of lower levels of education meant that the kindergarten teacher and the primary teacher’s role contained primarily feminine attributes: it emphasizes the importance of personal attachment, concern and caring.

My previous researches showed that male teachers not only intend to leave the teaching profession because of the lower income opportunities, but also because they are the ones who prefer the frontal teaching methods, and believe that transfer of academic knowledge is more important than competences.

This research examines how gender roles are effected the teaching career and TPD in Hungary. Are there significant differences in the career path between male and female teachers? What kind of degrees they have? How they have chosen their in-service trainings? Does the higher quality training more popular or what points are important to the teachers?

Hungary didn’t take part in TALIS 2013, but the results of TALIS 2008 were similar to the other European countries. So it is worth compare the results with the results of the TALIS 2013 as well.

Method

A database called TELEMACHUS 2014 (TEachers’ LEarning Motivation and AChievement in eastern part of Hungary Survey) was built at the end of 2014. The questionnaire was made by researchers of CHERD-Hungary. The examined region is the North Great Plain area, which is the wide agglomeration of the University of Debrecen. We used multistage probability sampling. 1056 teachers filled the questionnaire. The composition of the sample by gender and age meets the proportion of Hungarian teachers by gender and age. Independent variables: gender, level of education (we asked pre-primary, primary and secondary teachers) and the highest grade of parents. Dependent variables: retention, human capital (grades and completed in-service trainings) and importance of professional competences. Data has been analyzed by statistical analysis, with SPSS software. Crosstabs-analysis was most frequently used. Detecting correlations between variables factor analysis was used.

Expected Outcomes

Female and male teachers see the teaching profession different ways. More male teachers have university degree and during their career get university degrees twice more than female teachers. Their spouses have higher degree than spouses of female teachers. The academic content of their subject is more important to them than to female teachers. They take part in less in-service trainings than female teachers and found those training less useful. Female teachers not only take part in more in-service trainings but also require more interactive methods. They want to use a wide variety of teaching methods and they say that self-reflection is an important part of their profession. More male teachers intend to leave the teaching profession than female teachers, but the gender difference almost disappears among the teachers who work in secondary schools. Their image about the teaching profession is more masculine than others. Overall, it seems that the Hungarian in-service teacher trainings don’t fit into the Hungarian career model; they do not contribute to one’s career. Except for the so called “professional exam” trainings, but the reason is not the content or the methodology of these trainings, only the degree which one can has this way. The TALIS 2013 results show that there are far more subject matter focused TPD than curriculum-focused in the most participant countries, although curriculum-focused TPD would be more useful. This may suggest that other countries have a similar situation. So it would worth to examine the coordination between career model and in-service trainings.

References

Abele, Andrea E. (2000): A Dual-Impact Model of Gender and Career-Related Process. In: Thomas Eckes, Hanns M. Trautner (eds.) The Developmental Social Psychology of Gender. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, London Borko, Hilda (2004): Professional development and teacher learning: mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3–15. Charles, Maria and Bradley, Karen (2002): Equal but Separate? A Cross-national Study of Sex Segregation in Higher Education. American Sociological Review. 67(4), 573 – 599. Denzler, Stefan and Wolter, Stefan C. (2008): Self-selection into Teaching: The Role of Teacher Education Institutions. Institute for Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn Drudy, Sheelagh (2008): Professionalism, Performativity and Care: Whither Teacher Education for a Gendered Profession in Europe? In: Brian Hudson and Pavel Zgaga (eds.): Teacher Education Policy in Europe: a Voice of Higher Education Institutions Gaskell, Jane and Mullen, Ann L. (2006): Women in Teaching: Participation, Power and Possibility. In: The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Education. SAGE Publications Hargreaves, Andy and Fullan, Michael (2012): Professional Capital. Transforming Teaching in Every School. Teachers College Press, New York Mourshed, Mona and Barber, Michael (2007): How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top. McKinsey & Company Niemi, Hannele (2008): Advancing Research into and during Teacher Education. In: HUDSON, Brian and ZGAGA, Pavel (eds.): Teacher Education Policy in Europe: a Voice of Higher Education Institutions, 183–208. OECD (2005): Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers OECD (2009): Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2008 OECD (2013): Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013 Opfer, Darleen V. and Pedder, David (2011): Conceptualizing Teacher Professional Learning. Review of Educational Research 81(3). 376–407. Weiner, Gaby (2001): Uniquely Similar or Similarly Unique? Education and Developement of Teachers in Europe. Teaching Education. 13. 273 – 288.

Author Information

Edina Kovacs (presenting / submitting)

University of Debrecen, Hungary

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