Professional Fit and Early Career Teachers' Career Commitment

• In Event: Professional Fit of Multiple Routes to Teaching: STEM and Urban Settings

Abstract

This study examines how early career teachers’ (ECT) career commitment is influenced by their degree of professional fit with school-based colleagues in the area of mathematics instruction. Drawing on survey data collected from elementary ECTs and their social network members in 2015-2016 for the Elementary Mathematics Study, we conducted multilevel regression analysis and social network analysis. The study found that professional fit with regard to mathematics instruction has significant effects on ECTs’ intent to remain (a) teaching in the same school and (b) in teaching profession; and these effects are stronger in disadvantaged/hard-to-staff schools. This study contributes to a better understanding of the role of professional fit in the area of mathematics instruction and its effect on ECTs’ career commitment.

Authors

• Yincheng Ye, Michigan State University

• Jihyun Kim, Lehigh University

• Kenneth A. Frank, Michigan State University

• Peter A. Youngs, University of Virginia