Relationships and Belonging in Elementary Schools with High Teacher Turnover

<p>For many years, the <em>teacher shortage</em> has been a topic in educational news. This shortage is caused in part by high rates of teacher turnover, and most greatly impacts urban and rural schools serving low income students of color. This turnover leaves students with long term substitutes, uncredentialed teachers, or first year teachers and leads to lowered social and academic outcomes for impacted students.</p> <p>Operating on a theory that a sense of belonging would improve teacher retention rates, and thus student outcomes, this research used a qualitative approach to examine relationships and a sense of belonging in traditionally high turnover elementary schools. Culturally Responsive Teaching emerged as a central focus of this project due to the heavy emphasis on relationships in this style of instruction. Teacher and student participants were interviewed to find out what barriers exist to creating meaningful relationships and community in these settings. The findings from this research indicate that a shift in school values to prioritize relationships, belonging and collaboration can significantly improve job satisfaction and teacher desire to remain connected to school communities. By implementing these key changes, schools and districts can improve teacher retention rates, and ultimately lower the effects of the opportunity gap.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Fingado, Sarah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jennifer Lucko, PhD
• Katherine Lewis, PhD

• Teacher Turnover
• Teacher Retention
• Culturally Responsive Teaching
• Opportunity Gap
• Urban Elementary Schools
• Sense of Belonging
• Education
• Elementary Education and Teaching

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.dominican.edu/education-masters-theses/23

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.dominican.edu:education-masters-theses-1019