Where to Teach? A Study of Preservice Teachers' Occupational Purposes and Perceptions of the Social Organization of Urban Schools
Teacher shortages are a persistent and particular problem in predominantly minority, low-income urban schools. Important efforts have been made to address the issue by improving teachers' instructional preparation and/or providing financial incentives to attract new recruits, but such approaches remain only partially successful because they overlook the social contexts in which teachers define their occupational purposes and choices. Based on a mixed-method study of preservice teachers at two public universities, this dissertation presents a different understanding of urban teacher shortages by exploring how the socially constructed meaning teachers attach to their roles and work as well as their perceptions of the social organization of urban schools function together to affect their decisions about where to teach. Specifically, the study explores the following: What occupational purposes do preservice teachers associate with their aspirations to teach? How do preservice teachers perceive the nature and conditions of working in urban schools? Is there a relationship between preservice teachers' expressed occupational purposes and their perceptions of urban schools that indicates their openness to working in such schools? In order to address these questions, the theoretical frameworks used in this study are drawn primarily from sociological literature that recognizes teachers' shared membership in a unique occupation and the social organization of schools in which teachers conduct their daily work.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign