Elementary School Teachers' Reasons for Staying in Their Current Schools: A Comparison Study

<p>This study examines elementary school teachers' reasons for staying in their current schools, specifically, comparing two schools, one from a low-income district and one from a high-income district. The researcher assesses similarities and differences among teacher's perceptions of these factors in these two schools.</p><p>The researcher reviews literature on factors that explain teacher turnover and retention. Furthermore, literature on theories of motivation, such as Herzberg's two-factor theory and Vroom's expectancy theory to motivation was reviewed and also used as a methodological approach to analyze the data.</p><p>To examine elementary school teachers' reasons for staying in their current schools a quantitative and qualitative design is conducted. A self- administered survey is used to gather data from 20 teachers per school. Additionally, participants volunteered to participate in focus groups.</p><p>The findings suggest that most teachers are motivated to stay in their school by the <italics>work itself</italics>. Additionally, although important, satisfiers such as<italics> recognition</italics> and <italics>advancement</italics> are not a motivation for teachers in the high-income school to their decision to stay in their school contrary to the low-income teachers.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Theology

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Adrianzen, Luzmila Beanira

• job satisfaction
• motivation
• teacher mobility
• teacher retention
• Educational Administration and Supervision

Repository record dc:identifier

https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/324

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.luc.edu:luc_diss-1323