Principals Making Sense of Teacher Labor Market Policies: Shortages, Salaries, and Strikes

• In Event: 67.067 - MTCC Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 67.067-3 - Can We Keep the Best? Research on Principal and Teacher Turnover

Abstract

Research has largely addressed the challenge of teacher shortages as inherent economic problems of recruitment, retention, hiring policies, and teachers’ personal decision making. However, like all social problems, multiple lenses are warranted to address problems in full. This paper draws from political economy and uses a political lens to examine teacher shortages as a consequence and process of state politics. Using a qualitative case design, it focuses on teacher policies in Oklahoma and how principals makes sense of the state’s role in the workforce, especially as states experience challenges related to teacher shortages, salaries, and strikes. Findings from this study of teacher policies contributes to research and policymaking and extends conceptualizations of shortages in teacher labor markets.

Author

• Andrene Castro, The University of Texas at Austin