TU Today

Dissertation Defense: Department of Learning Technologies, Design & School Library Media

Secondary Teachers’ Perceptions of Attrition and Retention Factors: Comparing Mathematics Teachers to Teachers of English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies

Presented by: Brocha Siff, Doctoral Candidate for Instructional Technology, Ph.D. Program

Wednesday, November 20th
9 a.m. – 11 a.m.
via Webex

Abstract: 

There is a greater shortage of mathematics teachers than teachers of other subject areas. These shortages of mathematics teachers are draining the school systems. The purpose of this research was to identify which issues are dominant among mathematics teachers when compared to secondary teachers of science, social studies, or English language arts. Factors that were investigated in the study were identified in the literature review. These factors included burnout symptoms, teacher self-efficacy, curriculum autonomy, job satisfaction, attitudes towards high-stakes testing, effects of online teaching transitions, principal support, and teacher certification route. Over 400 secondary teachers that teach mathematics, science, social studies, and English language arts, were surveyed on their perception of these issues. The ANOVA or chi-squares tests were used to compare mathematics teachers’ perceptions to the teachers of the other secondary subject areas. The findings showed that mathematics teachers were significantly different than other groups of teachers in their perception of the effects of high-stakes testing on instruction, their self-efficacy in instructional strategies, and their perception of their curriculum autonomy. In addition, mathematics teachers were significantly more concerned about teacher retention when compared to the other teachers. A logistic regression analysis was also employed to determine if the teachers’ responses on the inventories could predict what subject they taught. The findings from this analysis highlighted the same retention issues that arose in the hypothesized testing. In addition, two of the burnout subscales, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, were found as predictors of teachers’ subject area. In total, five of nine retention issues were noted as significant factors for mathematics teachers. Suggestions are shared to help school systems mitigate these issues for mathematics teachers.

Join on Webex

Categorised in: General

This post was written by Miller, Kendall