Why Some Stay When So Many Leave: A Phenomenological Study on Why Teachers Remain in Low-Income, High-Minority Schools

1 online resource (131 pages) : PDF

2021

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Tens of thousands of teachers in the United States leave their schools to work in other occupations or other schools each year. This has earned the teaching profession the reputation of being a "revolving door," with a large number of qualified teachers leaving the profession prior to retirement. A wealth of literature has been devoted to understanding factors that lead to teacher attrition; however, little attention has been given to understanding the factors affecting why teachers remain in low-income, high-minority schools.This qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to determine the lived experiences that keep six elementary school teachers teaching in low-income, high-minority schools when so many of their peers chose to leave. This study attempted to look through the lens of elementary-level school teachers who have stayed in low-income, high-minority schools for 5 years or more. This study was guided by four research questions: What do teachers who stay in predominantly low-income, high-minority public elementary schools identify as obstacles to their longevity? What specific practices and strategies do teachers who work in low-income, high-minority public elementary schools utilize to support their longevity in these schools? How do the teachers’ overall experiences and understanding of predominantly low-income, high-minority public elementary schools affect their decisions to stay? and How do teachers’ experiences working in predominantly low-income, high-minority public elementary schools transform their opinions of perceived obstacles to their longevity and their ability to adapt to address the perceived obstacles?The findings of this study suggest that the participants’ lived experiences within their own personal educational experience or their professional teaching experience transformed their desire to stay in a low-income, high-minority school setting. Furthermore, the findings suggest that when a participant had a good experience within their professional teaching experience due to working conditions or administrative support, that would in turn give the participant’s students a good educational experience that would support academic growth and potentially a desire to go into the educational field. Low-income, high-minority schools present their own set of challenges and unique transitional stressors that are different from more low-poverty, low-minority schools. Teachers who work in these schools tend to leave more frequently and often than their peers who teach at schools that are more affluent. This study attempted to provide a deeper understanding in the hope to fill the gap in scholarly knowledge, while attempting to halt the "revolving door."

doctoral dissertations

School management and organization

D.Ed.

Educational Leadership

Flowers, Claudia
Watson, Jimmy

Hart, Walter
Polly, Andrew

Thesis (D.Ed.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2021.

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Hovis_uncc_0694D_12702

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2523