- Year 2019
- NSF Noyce Award # 1660621
- First Name Chrissy
- Last Name Cross
- Institution Stephen F. Austin State University
- Role/Position Assistant Professor, Co-PI Noyce
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Other: Education
- Target Audience Evaluators/Education Researchers, Higher Education Institution Administrators, Project PIs / Co-PIs / Other Faculty/Staff
- Topics Recruiting with Retention in Mind
- Session Length 30 minutes
- Additional Presenter(s)
Keith Hubbard;
Dennis Gravatt;
Jonathan Mitchell;
Lesa Beverly;
Ray Darville
Goals
1. The participants will be able to use the recruitment model to design their own recruitment model for their institution.
2. The participants will be able to use similar research methodology to design their own research about recruitment and retention.
3. The participants will be able to synthesize research findings about early field experience, recruitment and retention to impact their own program.
Evidence
Trustworthy qualitative research methodology based on 4 years of data.
Theoretical framework based on research findings.
Actual research results from our successful recruitment and retention results.
Proposal
Recruiting of STEM teachers is a focus in the rural area of East Texas STEM where teachers are often difficult to recruit and retain and rarely stay in STEM teaching for more than 5 years. To help address the statewide and nationwide teacher shortage (Taie & Goldring, 2017) in STEM, the objective of this research was to investigate the impact of an early intensive field experience on the perceptions of potential STEM teachers. The research question framing this study was, “How does the Master Teacher Job Shadow (MTJS) as an early intensive field experience influence participant perception and desire to pursue a career in a STEM teaching field?” A qualitative research study based upon 4 years of data from an early intensive field experience included: pre-experience survey, pre-experience focus group, during experience prompted journals, post-experience survey, and post-experience focus group. Independent data analysis by 3 researchers yielded themes and results that could potentially be transferable to other university recruitment programs. The MTJS functioning as an early intense field experience and recruiting mechanism for future STEM teachers was very successful based on our findings that 94% (56/59) participants stated explicitly that the MTJS impacted their desire or lack of desire to teach and were able to form a more realistic view of a STEM teaching career.
