Development among Teacher Graduates - Case Study Example

Qualitative Article Review Name Institution Abstract This paper presents a critical review of a qualitative research article. The purpose of the article was to assess the issue of career development among teacher graduates and their commitment to using career development for urban or high-priority placements. The aim of the study was to determine the factors that affected the workplace conditions, preparation experiences, career entry, and the plans of 15 early-career graduate teachers from Center X at Los Angeles. Findings of interviews and observations of the teachers revealed three categories of teachers: stayers, uncertain and leavers (shifters). The review shows that the methodological options were adequate for the study. The review shows that the use of an inductive approach was relevant to the qualitative data and generation of findings. The article demonstrates procedural rigor but does not explain the ethical rigor of the participants. Upon review, the conclusion meets the requirement of placing the results in context while the reference list provides a good source of journal articles and books for further reading. However, the study did not seek any generalization but provided multiple truths to the research problem. The article meets the requirements for qualitative research by generating multiple truths, focusing on discovery, using inductive approach, selecting a small sample, eliciting soft data (words) and remaining within the education context Keywords: qualitative research, education, career development, teachers Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Research Questions or Objectives 4 Purpose of the Study and Context 4 Population and Sample 5 Research Design 6 Data Collection and Data Analysis 8 Data Presentation 9 Philosophical Framework 11 Critique of Methodological Options 11 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction Qualitative research is one of two major research methodologies used in education research. This research methodology is important because it helps scholars to understand a social phenomenon and provides detailed descriptions of participants and contexts (Book). The paper provides a review of a qualitative paper titled, ‘Courses of action: A qualitative investigation into urban teacher retention and career development’ by Brad Olsen and Lauren Anderson. The review examines the research questions, purpose, population, sampling, data collection, data analysis, data presentation, philosophical framework and methodological approach used in the study. This examination will reveal the quality of the research article and confirm whether the findings validate the research objectives. Furthermore, the review will confirm the objectivity and the relevance of the approaches used in the study to achieve the research objective. Research Questions or Objectives The research questions were clear and concise. According to the Olsen and Anderson (2007), the research questions were relevant because they provided a guiding frame for the study. Who entered the teaching profession? Why, how long and where did they enter this profession? What compelled the teachers to leave or stay with a school or in the profession? What circumstances caused highly qualified teachers to stay in particular schools? Purpose of the Study and Context The purpose of the study was to assess the issue of career development among teacher graduates and their commitment to using career development to prepare for urban or high-priority placements. The aim of the study was to determine the factors that affected the workplace conditions, preparation experiences, career entry and the future plans of fifteen early-career graduate teachers in Los Angeles. This purpose guides the research article’s inductive approach where the description of the career development phenomenon can be used to generate theory. The context of the study was the challenge in staffing public schools with qualified teachers. According to Olsen and Anderson (2007), public national classrooms in the United States (US) have been facing a staffing challenge since 2003. This shortage is due to simultaneous growth in student enrollment and retirement or high turnover. Twenty percent of the teachers left their jobs within the first three years while 46 percent left within the first five years of employment. The article posits that the highest turnover and migration of teachers occurred in low-income (or high poverty) urban public schools. Consequently, the country tried to remedy this crisis by hiring more teachers. However, this strategy did not resolve career attrition and migration of teachers from high poverty schools. These schools still experienced high staffing shortage. The article thus sought to determine what factors compelled teachers to leave or stay at a school or retire from the profession. The study explored these factors in the context of career development in graduate teachers with special training for high-priority and urban placement (Olsen & Anderson, 2007). Population and Sample The population was selected from students at Center X at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The center provided two-year master’s preparation program for teachers and statewide support for professional development among teachers. The population at Center X comprises of 1,000 graduates of the master’s program. The population for the study was relevant because the students at the Center X were prepared to teach as social justice educators within the urban communities. This preparation ignored technical or self-efficacy teaching models in favor of pedagogy that was culturally relevant, adopted socio-cultural learning and promoted moral-political teaching aspects (Olsen & Anderson, 2007). The sample comprised of 15 graduate students from Center X. This sample was a subset of the student population that had graduated from the center and had been employed in urban elementary schools in Los Angeles. The fifteen participants were selected from four elementary schools, which had partnered with Center X. The schools were selected from each Unified School District subdistrict. Thereafter, the authors applied stratified random sampling to select four teachers from every school. This sampling method was adequate because it helped the study to select a sample that reflected the larger population at Center X in terms of ethnicity, commitment to teaching, race, gender and satisfaction with the master’s preparation program (Olsen & Anderson, 2007). The article stated that population constraints hindered the study and the selection of 15 teachers. Nevertheless, the selection of the sample seems adequate. The authors confirmed that the sample was evenly distributed with regards to satisfaction with the master’s program and demographic distributions (ethnicity, gender and race). Research Design The research design comprised of three sets of semi-structured interviews that lasted for two hours. The interviews were conducted on the participants between 2003 and 2004. One interview was conducted in fall, another during winter and another during spring. The research design also incorporated classroom observations to help the researchers to understand the research problem (Olsen & Anderson, 2007). The key characteristics of the design was that it was exploratory, subjective, sought to understand teachers from the master’s program, involved a small sample and involved an in-depth study of the research problem. It can be inferred from the articles that the research study used phenomenology research design. Phenomenology is concerned with studying the lived experiences of a group of subjects. The purpose of this design approach is to help researchers to understand how the subjects experience a problem or situation. Phenomenology design approach is inferred because the article is concerned with examining the teaching experiences of graduate teachers from Center X working at high-priority and urban elementary schools in Los Angeles. Collecting these experiences helps the investigator to understand the feelings and thoughts of the subject (Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen & Walker, 2013). Furthermore, the design approach is inferred because the study used interview as the main tool for data collection. Ethnography research design can also be inferred because the investigators sought to understand the perspective of the teachers in their natural setting in urban and high-priority schools. Ethnography can be inferred because this research design provides an in-depth study of a behavior within a social or cultural group (Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen & Walker, 2013). In the context of the research article, ethnography could have been used to help the authors to understand the turnover or retirement behaviors of teachers that had received preparation training from Center X. Furthermore, the use of observation method supports ethnography since the authors had the opportunity to observe the teachers in their natural setting and to interpret their findings in the context of the observations. Data Collection and Data Analysis The article used interview method for data collection. The interviews comprised of semi-structured questions administered over two hours. Three interviews were administered between 2003 and 2004. The first interview was conducted in fall, the second interview in winter and the third interview in spring. Each teacher from the sample participated in the interview. The authors also collected data using the observation method. The participants were observed for 90 minutes within the classroom environment. The observations accompanied another round of interviews. Interview and observation methods were relevant to the study because these are common data collection techniques used in qualitative research. Literature confirms that qualitative researchers collect data using participant observation, in-depth interviews and document analysis. These data gathering techniques are distinguished from quantitative research which uses questionnaires, test and scales (Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen & Walker, 2013). Interview and observation techniques influenced the choice of data analysis methods. Since the article used these data collection methods, the researchers had to use qualitative approaches to data analysis. This is because qualitative data is presented in the form of descriptions, recordings and observations. These data forms are then organized and categorized or coded to help the investigator to describe and interpret large volumes of data. The use of words also limited the use of quantitative data that is numerical in nature and requires statistical analysis methods (Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen & Walker, 2013). According to the research article, the authors organized the interview responses and observations, and coded the data to help establish analytical relationships between the codes. In addition, the authors developed and explored themes based on the relationships among codes and categorization of the collected data. Key themes were stayers, leavers and uncertains. Stayers represented participants that were committed to teaching indefinitely while leavers represented participants that were keen on leaving the classroom but remaining in the teaching profession. Uncertains represented participants that could not plan their future or their intention to leave teaching or remain in the profession (Olsen & Anderson, 2007). Observation data was used to support and corroborate the interview responses. This approach was useful to the study because it validated the primary data (interviews) and improved the quality of the research findings. The use of coding was sufficient for the article. The authors used labels (sentences and words) from the responses to create a list of codes during the analysis process. This is an inductive approach since the authors do not state whether they used pre-existing (prior) codes. Studies show that coding could be performed manually or through computer qualitative software for analyzing qualitative data. Data Presentation The format of qualitative data presentation normally varies. It could involve a report on the data (through themes, cases or topics), narratives, tables, figures and quotes for illustrative purposes. The presentation of data was adequate because the findings were presented in paragraph and tabular form. Olsen and Anderson (2007) provided a report on the data in the form of themes. These themes represented three categories of the career status, which were stayers, uncertain and leavers (shifters). The authors provided in-depth descriptions of each theme by explaining the responses from the respondents and demonstrating how each respondent’s behavior corresponded with any of the three themes. For instance, the article identified six participants as stayers and explained that this theme represented teachers who had planned to continue teaching for an indefinite period. The six participants shared characteristics such as having plans for their future, desire to pursue advanced studies, desire to pursue professional certification and desire to move to different schools in the future due to professional or personal reasons (such as starting a family). This section described the responses of two participants that exhibited stayer behavior. The report also incorporated topics to help the reader understand the relationships between the themes. There was a topic on the teachers’ thoughts towards shifting. The article provided in-depth information to distinguish the attitudes towards shifting schools or career for the stayers, shifters (leavers) and uncertain. This explanation provided adequate information on the factors that influenced the decision to change careers or schools among the graduate teachers at high priority urban schools in Los Angeles (Olsen & Anderson, 2007). The use of tables in the article was also useful because it helped the reader to understand the themes and concepts from the findings much easily. The tables summarized useful data that would have been lengthy in paragraph format. For instance, table 1 provided a valuable summary of the demographic characteristics of each participant. This summary helps a reader to identify the common characteristics of the participants at first glance without reading paragraphs of text. Table 2 was also insightful because it provided summarized data on the categories of participants and the allocation of each participant to the categories (stayers, uncertain and leavers) (Olsen & Anderson, 2007). The presentation of the entire report was also adequate because the authors used topics and sub-topics to reveal the sections in the report. The topic guided the reader in navigating the report and revealing key aspects of the report such as the introduction, population/sample, data collection, data analysis and the conclusion. Philosophical Framework The article did not provide a clear description of the philosophical framework used in the study. The study did not identify a philosophical approach or explain why the philosophical underpinnings were not provided. Philosophical perspectives include participatory (advocacy), social constructivism or pragmatism. It could be inferred from the study that participatory philosophical underpinnings guided the qualitative study. This is because the participatory framework is associated with a qualitative research study (Nordgren, 2012). Critique of Methodological Options The methodological options were adequate for the study. Firstly, the study did not seek any generalization but provided multiple truths to the problem of career planning and development among graduate master’s teachers posted to high priority urban schools. Secondly, the purpose and research objectives were in line with the topic. They also guided the discovery of the research problem through descriptions. Thirdly, the use of an inductive approach was relevant to the qualitative data and generation of findings (Ryan, Coughlan & Cronin, 2007). The use of a small sample also aligns with the characteristics of a qualitative study. Qualitative research often relies on a small sample that comprises of people who are willing and able to describe their experience. The data collection method was relevant to the study because it guided the collection of qualitative data. The use of observation and interview methods was relevant because major data gathering techniques in qualitative research are participant observation, document analysis and interviewing (Ryan, Coughlan & Cronin, 2007). The qualitative approach to data analysis was relevant because it enabled the researchers to provide findings in narrative form. The article demonstrates procedural rigor in the precise use of data collection techniques. However, it does not explain the ethical rigor of the participants. The authors do not describe how they dealt with the participants’ rights or issues of data confidentiality in the research process. The conclusion meets the requirement of placing the results in context that shows implications for teaching practice. Lastly, the reference list provides a good source of journal articles and books for further reading. Conclusion The qualitative article satisfies the characteristics of a qualitative study. The assessment of each step of the study shows that the authors have met the basic criteria for qualitative data collection, philosophical framework, data analysis and data presentation. Furthermore, the article meets the requirements for qualitative research by generating multiple truths, focusing on discovery, using inductive approach, selecting a small sample, eliciting soft data (words) and remaining within the education context. References Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., Sorensen, C., & Walker, D. A. (2013). Introduction to research in education (9th edn). Mason, OH: Cengage. Nordgren, R. D. (2012). A case study regarding the purpose and process of public schooling and possible indoctrination of education students. Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching, 5(1), 14-24. Olsen, B., & Anderson, L. (2007). Courses of action: A qualitative investigation into urban teacher retention and career development. Urban Education, 42(1), 5-29. Ryan, F., Coughlan, M., & Cronin, P. (2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 2: Qualitative research. British Journal of Nursing, 16(12), 738-744. Read More