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Moulthrop dissertation.pdf (1.37 MB)

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Retaining and Sustaining Mid-Career Teachers: The Middle Years Matter

Moulthrop, Dorothy Russo
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4127-6479
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1521788878644674

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Educational Studies.
Teacher turnover is widely understood to be one of the most pressing challenges facing the American elementary and secondary education system. Studies indicate mid-career teacher attrition is a growing phenomenon in the United States. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of mid-career teachers with an aim toward understanding the factors that encourage them to stay in the profession and those that repel them from it. Using a qualitative research design, I employed a life history approach from a naturalistic inquiry and constructivist paradigm. I interviewed eight mid-career teachers, four who currently teach and four who left teaching at mid-career. Findings indicate there is a range of factors that influence teacher's career decisions. Some of these factors are particular to the individual and some are particular to the profession. While experience mitigates some of the challenges of being a beginning teacher, adverse working conditions present ongoing barriers to satisfaction. The mid-career teachers in this study who continued in the profession developed strategies to confront these barriers. Relationships are the key sustaining force for the participants in this study. For some, a sustaining force is their faith. Policies could better support teachers, so they could rely less on themselves, their families, their colleagues and their faith, and more on institutional and organizational structures. Further, education policy to stem mid-career teacher attrition needs to respond to the objective professional aspects of the job and not the personal ones. We will never be able to eliminate an individual's preference to stay or leave teaching, nor would we want to, but we can make schools and the profession more desirable places to work for teachers in the system and those considering becoming a part of it.
Belinda Gimbert (Advisor)
Antoinette Errante (Advisor)
Ann Allen (Committee Member)
207 p.
Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership
teacher retention; teacher attrition; mid-career teachers; mid-career teacher retention; teacher job satisfaction; life history research; qualitative study; education policy; career stages; working conditions; performativity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Moulthrop, D. R. (2018). Retaining and Sustaining Mid-Career Teachers: The Middle Years Matter [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1521788878644674

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Moulthrop, Dorothy. Retaining and Sustaining Mid-Career Teachers: The Middle Years Matter. 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1521788878644674.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Moulthrop, Dorothy. "Retaining and Sustaining Mid-Career Teachers: The Middle Years Matter." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1521788878644674

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1521788878644674
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.