Diminishing Respect Diminishes the Teaching Pool for Rural Hard-to-Staff Schools

• In Event: 25.083 - MTCC Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: 25.083-3 - Teacher Professional, Racial, and Ethnic Identities and High-Needs Schools

Abstract

This mixed-method study examines the influence of financial factors on motivating college students to consider teaching in hard-to-staff rural school districts in a state (South Carolina) facing severe teacher shortages. We also examined the role of perceived respectability of the profession on respondents’ stated employment consideration. This work relies on an explanatory sequential mixed-method design that surveyed college students across all majors at a regional public university in South Carolina, then interviews a subset of participants to further explore the key findings. Finally, the qualitative and quantitative results were compared, synthesized, and presented. The findings supported the importance of base salary and retirement benefits offered by the district and respondents’ view of the respectability of the teaching profession.

Authors

• Henry Tran, University of South Carolina, Columbia

• Doug Smith, University of South Carolina Columbia