Career Change Intentions of Novice Teachers in the Czech Republic: The Role of Out-of-school Factors
Conference:
ECER 2017
Format:
Paper

Session Information

10 SES 11 D, Politics and Recognition for Beginning Teachers

Paper Session

Time:
2017-08-24
17:15-18:45
Room:
K5.07
Chair:
Susann Hofbauer

Contribution

Novices are one of the most vulnerable groups of teachers (e.g. Hanushek et al., 2004; Johnson et al., 2005; Smethem, 2007). Research suggests that they are faced with the so called practice shock (Stokking et al., 2003) and challenged by everyday teaching situations, being still at the “survival stage” (Huberman, 1989). Even though they lack experience, they are required to take on all responsibilities of seasoned teachers, many times even being placed into the most demanding schools and classes (cf. Kearney, 2014). This can have a negative effect not only on their perceived self-efficacy, but also their well-being in general. Despite the general belief, even at the start of their career they are threatened by the burn-out syndrome (Mansfield, Beltman, & Price, 2014). However, the issues directly connected to the teaching profession are not the only ones influencing beginning teachers. Oftentimes they are in a stage of change in their personal lives, too, settling down in a new place, building a home and starting a family. All this can sometimes lead to their decision to leave the profession. This has negative effects at the state level (quality of education, economical loss), the school level (cooperation in schools) as well as the classroom level (quality of teaching influenced by changing teachers). It is thus vital to study the factors that influence novice teachers’ drop-out so that appropriate measures can be taken. In the Czech Republic, the data pertaining to novice teachers, their numbers and drop-out rate are scarce. The presented study focuses on this underresearched group and aims to establish how selected out-of-school factors are associated with beginning teachers quitting teaching. Two areas are investigated – those directly connected to profession but not to the school itself (parents, community, educational context and policy) and those connected to novices private lives (well-being, commute, family status, …). 

Method

The data was collected in two stages using a questionnaire consisting of 70 Likert scale items, and additional context questions. The items focused on: the classroom context, the school, colleagues, leadership, community, parents, broader social context, teachers’ family status and living arrangements, and their well-being. In this study, however, only items connected to out-of-school factors will be analysed. One of the final items of the questionnaire aimed to find out the teachers’ intentions connected to their future career, namely whether they are planning on staying in their school, changing the school or leaving the profession altogether. The target group is beginning teachers with up to three years of teaching experience. In order to investigate the changes in their views over time, the questionnaire (with adaptations) is sent out twice to the same group of respondents – at the start of the school year and approximately 6 months later. The data was collected over the course of two academic years separately in six different regions in the Czech Republic. The data collection is to be finished by the end of May 2017. In the time of writing the abstract, 126 teachers completed the questionnaires both times they were approached. The data will be analysed using standard statistical procedures.

Expected Outcomes

The preliminary analyses suggest that when it comes to out-of-school factors, beginning teachers who express the intent to stay in the profession are more positive in the evaluation of their well-being. They also view the general conditions of teachers (their salary, work contract conditions) better and perceive the state educational policy more positively. When it comes to parents, the lack of support and respect from them seems to be connected more to teachers wanting to leave a specific school than wanting to leave the profession altogether. Statistically significant differences are particularly in the items that are connected to beginning teachers feeling appreciated by the parents. Smaller differences following the same trend are in items targeting how parents cooperate with the teacher and how much they care about their children’s education. The evaluation of the support for teachers from the general public does not differ significantly between those who want to stay and those who want to leave, with slight trend towards the negative perception in the group of “leavers”. These results are, however, only partial as the data collection and analysis have not been completed. At the time of the conference, all the data and analyses will be available.

References

Hanushek, E. A., Kain, J. F., & Rivkin, S. G. (2004). Why public schools lose teachers. Journal of Human Resources, 39(2), 326–354. Huberman, A. M. (1993). The lives of teachers. London: Cassell. Johnson, S. M., Berg, J. H., & Donaldson, M. L. (2005). Who stays in teaching and why: A review of the literature on teacher retention. Boston: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project on the Next Generation of Teachers. Kearney, S. (2014). Understanding beginning teacher induction: A contextualized examination of best practice. Cogent education, 1(1), 1–15. Mansfield, C., Beltman, S., & Price, A. (2014). ‘I’m coming back again!’The resilience process of early career teachers. Teachers and Teaching, 20(5), 547–567. Smethem, L. (2007). Retention and intention in teaching careers: Will the new generation stay? Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 13, 465–480. Stokking, K., Leenders, F., De Jong, J., & Van Tartwijk, J. (2003). From student to teacher: Reducing practice shock and early dropout in the teaching profession. European Journal of Teacher Education, 26(3), 329–350.

Author Information

Eva Minarikova (submitting)
Masaryk University, Faculty of Education
Brno
Miroslav Janík (presenting)
Masaryk University
Institute for Research in Education
Brno
Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Czech Republic
Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Czech Republic
Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Czech Republic
Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Czech Republic

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