What holds academically able teachers in the profession? A study of three teachers

Abstract

This article examines the career trajectories and biographies of three women who completed the same graduate preservice program in elementary education. While two have become successful teacher leaders, the third has moved in and out of teaching. This inquiry draws on a ten‐year longitudinal study of one of these teachers, positioning that teacher’s story in the context of two others from the same program in order to describe the layered process of socialization as a continuous reconstruction of personal and professional knowledge through the years encompassing teacher education and into the early years of teaching. Such an approach seeks specifically to understand what holds academically oriented students in a profession fraught with high dropout rates, especially among their peers who have graduated from top public and private universities with a strong demonstration of academic skills and content area knowledge. A focus on the retention of academically able teachers offers insight into the larger and well‐documented crisis of teacher retention among a specific population of teachers who may have the capacity to become ‘transformative intellectuals’. Understanding the recursive and non‐linear reconstruction of personal and professional knowledge required a qualitative documentary analysis that was guided by the constant comparative method. As a result of this analysis, the article presents both teacher portraits and emergent themes across the three teachers. Four prominent themes are discussed in relation to these teachers (collaborating with other teachers, belonging to the profession, engaging in leadership and creating supportive school cultures) to offer insight regarding the practices and structures to prepare, support and retain academically able teachers who may also be able to contribute in particular ways to the reform of schools and teaching.

Keywords:

• Beginning teachers
• Preservice teacher education
• Teacher knowledge
• Knowledge base for teaching

Notes

1. At the time of the study, the program was built around a central core that develops pedagogical and curriculum knowledge, taken concurrently with two semesters of student teaching. Subject methods courses such as reading, science, mathematics, foundations, and electives are spread out over more than 14 months that students take to complete a Master of Arts degree. The format for the teacher education core changes from year to year to reflect interests of new faculty and the desire to continuously improve. The program has had links to a professional development school (PDS) partnership since the late 1980s. Since graduation of the three teachers in the study, changes have been made in the program that reflect their input as well as that of faculty.

2. Among other program documents, the initial study examined Kay’s graduate papers, student‐teaching journals, countless observations of her interactions with children, formal and informal conversations with Kay and, eventually, interviews with her student teachers. Kay and other participants read and gave feedback on the larger study and the study reported here. Because it was Kay’s preference to use a pseudonym, we have used pseudonyms for all three teachers.