Still keen and committed: piloting an instrument for identifying positive veteran teachers

ABSTRACT

Since the mid-1980s, the working lives of teachers has become an enduring research topic. Much research has focused on early-career teachers and is often reported from deficit positions, i.e. why they leave the profession. However, career trajectory studies have described a small cohort of veteran teachers who remain positive and committed to teaching. This article reports on the creation and piloting of an instrument designed to test whether this positive cohort can be empirically identified within a wider teaching population. Four constructs (experimentation, challenge, comfort and leadership) drawn from Huberman (1993), and Day and Gu (2007) formed the basis for an online pilot survey completed by 145 teachers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported three of the four factors (experimentation, comfort, leadership), with challenge loading strongly with experimentation. Initial findings suggest the potential of the instrument in helping identifying positive veteran teachers within systems, as well as the voracity of the research approach. Examining and articulating how these veteran teachers maintain their positive outlook may prove valuable as many countries confront an ageing teaching workforce, increasing student numbers and difficulties in retaining experienced teachers, meaning those who remain will be expected to sustain their commitment for longer.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher career trajectories
• veteran teachers
• experimentation
• challenge
• comfort
• leadership

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Geoffrey Lowe

Geoffrey Lowe is a former secondary school music teacher, and is now Senior Lecturer in Education within the School of Education at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. His research interests include music education in secondary schools, student motivation, and more recently teacher efficacy.

Christina Gray

Christina Gray is a former secondary drama teacher and now the Coordinator of Dance and Drama Education (Secondary) with the School of Education at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. Christina’s research interests include: drama and Arts education in secondary schools; teacher education and the practicum; teacher beliefs, portraiture and narrative methodologies.

Peter Prout

Dr Peter Prout’s current passion and interest centres around 21st C teachers being highly skilled as reflective professionals who are committed to leading their students away from ignorance and towards high personal standards of intellect and social and community behaviour and leadership.

Sarah Jefferson

Sarah Jefferson is a former Head of English and Literacy Co-ordinator. She is currently a Unit Co-Ordinator for the Master of Teach Secondary at Edith Cowan University. Sarah’s current research is examining the positive coping strategies of Veteran West Australian teachers.

Therese Shaw

Therese Shaw is a statistician with over 20 years’ research experience, in particular in school-based health promotion research. Her expertise lies in study design, instrument development and testing, intervention implementation measurement and statistical evaluations of intervention trials.