Cultivating Early Career Teachers’ Purpose: A Mechanism to Sustain Early Career Teachers’ Commitment to the Profession
type: CreativeWork
description: The attrition rate of early career teachers is high. In fact, the government spends $2 billion annually to replace teachers in the first five years of their tenure (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005). The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold: 1) to test the relationship between purpose, psychological well-being, and affective commitment to the profession, and 2) to design and examine the impact of a purpose-centered intervention in a sample of early career teachers in their first or second year of teaching, in the northeast. Study 1 examined the relationship between early career teachers’ purpose, psychological well-being, and commitment to the profession through a cross-sectional survey (N = 78) and regression-based analyses of a full mediation model. I hypothesized that early career teachers’ sense of purpose would contribute to their affective commitment to the profession through their feelings of psychological well-being. Results of Study 1 suggested that early career teachers’ purpose was a strong predictor of their psychological well-being and affective commitment to the profession. Building on Study 1, in Study 2 I developed, piloted, and tested a one-hour purpose-centered intervention (called Grounding in Purpose) using two t-tests (independent and dependent samples): 1) comparison of the waiting control group (n = 43) with the intervention group (n = 67) and 2) comparison of pretest and posttest scores of some participants in the intervention group (n = 20). Research findings for Study 2 indicate that a purpose-centered intervention may positively influence early career teachers’ purpose. Theoretically, the findings establish purpose as a key contributor to affective commitment in ECTs. Practically, the results offer educational leaders and professionals who support early career teachers with tangible recommendations to foster early career teachers’ purpose.
abstract: The attrition rate of early career teachers is high. In fact, the government spends $2 billion annually to replace teachers in the first five years of their tenure (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005). The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold: 1) to test the relationship between purpose, psychological well-being, and affective commitment to the profession, and 2) to design and examine the impact of a purpose-centered intervention in a sample of early career teachers in their first or second year of teaching, in the northeast. Study 1 examined the relationship between early career teachers’ purpose, psychological well-being, and commitment to the profession through a cross-sectional survey (N = 78) and regression-based analyses of a full mediation model. I hypothesized that early career teachers’ sense of purpose would contribute to their affective commitment to the profession through their feelings of psychological well-being. Results of Study 1 suggested that early career teachers’ purpose was a strong predictor of their psychological well-being and affective commitment to the profession. Building on Study 1, in Study 2 I developed, piloted, and tested a one-hour purpose-centered intervention (called Grounding in Purpose) using two t-tests (independent and dependent samples): 1) comparison of the waiting control group (n = 43) with the intervention group (n = 67) and 2) comparison of pretest and posttest scores of some participants in the intervention group (n = 20). Research findings for Study 2 indicate that a purpose-centered intervention may positively influence early career teachers’ purpose. Theoretically, the findings establish purpose as a key contributor to affective commitment in ECTs. Practically, the results offer educational leaders and professionals who support early career teachers with tangible recommendations to foster early career teachers’ purpose.
author: Daulat, Neesha Yatin
keywords: affective commitment, attrition, early career teacher, purpose, retention, well-being, Education, Organizational Behavior and Theory, Psychology
date published: 2021-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:39:50Z
provider: Claremont Graduate University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Claremont Graduate University