Week 9/10 – Is this it? (Maybe?)
Project Identity
When looking into more literature, I was able to discover some studies discussing public perception and teachers, namely, “Americans’ Views of Public School Teachers and Personnel in the Wake of COVID-19” by Doonan and Kenneally (2022). Not only is this source recent and relevant, it asks a great deal of the questions that I was curious about. However, while this resource is important to look at during my project, it is not asking questions in the way that I believe it should. This is why my research questions look the way they do. The aforementioned report discusses that 95% of the public agrees with the statement “teachers & school personnel are an important part of our community.” 90% agree that teachers deserve more respect and 88% agree that teachers deserve higher pay. This information is interesting to me because, if this were the case in a democratic society, why has this not been achieved? This is a higher percentage of agreement than most things that pass into law. This is a reason I have decided to add an aspect of public policy into the project.
My projects identity is an attempt to get down to the true reason why teacher retention continues to nose-dive throughout America, especially since COVID-19. While I believe I have a better grasp on my research questions and methods, I could see these things changing. However, the overarching idea of poor teacher retention continues to be the main backbone of this project.
Research Questions
How is teacher retention connected to workload and overall occupation prestige in the United States of America?
How does public perception affect policies made about educators in the United States of America?
Methods
As stated in the previous blog, I will be attempting to do an ethnographic study to create a narrative in an attempt to explore poor retention of teachers and how public perception may relate to this. I hope to display my findings in a informative film of sorts. While this requires much more thought to be put into it before the idea is officially ready (planning, interviews, plot, etc), I believe this is the method in which I would like to use for this project.
Possible Literature
- Americans’ Views of Public School Teachers and Personnel in the Wake of COVID-19 (Doonan and Kenneally, 2022)
- Impact of the society’s perception on teachers’ professionalism (Fauziah et al, 2021)
- Quality Education: Critical Policy Considerations that Impact Teacher Retention in Schools (Ackah et al, 2022)
- Stress Topped the Reasons Why Public School Teachers Quit, Even Before COVID-19 (Dilberti, Schwartz, and Grant, 2021)
-Kate 🙂
Recent comments