Rural remote school district hiring processes and principals’ preferences for teacher characteristics

Schools located in rural areas can have unique challenges that impact a district’s ability to successfully carry-out the teacher hiring process. The geographic location of the school has been found to influence applicant numbers, sought candidate qualifications, and retention. While most of the existing research on teacher hiring focuses largely on non-rural districts in large urban cities, this study focuses on school districts in rural remote areas. This dissertation furthers the current research by investigating teacher hiring procedures, application materials and screening, and candidate qualifications and characteristics important to principals in rural remote public school districts. To investigate the research topic, a qualitative design is used to conduct semi-structured interviews with 14 rural remote school district principals across five Midwestern states. The hiring structures in the districts appear decentralized with building principals determining and carrying out the processes. Application screening, interviews, and candidate selection are primarily the responsibility of the building principal, with salary negotiations, where applicable, involving the district office. Most participants appear to prefer candidates familiar with rural environments over other areas of fit. Participants also note the dwindling candidate pool over recent years, with some describing the pool as a "puddle." To counteract teacher candidate shortages, some participants describe proactive recruitment strategies.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Neighbors, Brian E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bruno, Paul
• Roegman, Rachel
• Li, Jessica
• Weinstein, Russell

• Decentralized Hiring
• Teacher Recruitment
• Rural Remote
• Teacher Hiring
• Person-environment Fit
• Person-job Fit
• Person-organization Fit
• Strategic Human Resource Management
• Rural
• Teacher Shortage
• Centralized Hiring

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Brian Neighbors

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127221

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F127221