There Has to Be a Better Way: Lessons from Former Urban Teachers

By Lynnette Mawhinney, Carol R. Rinke and Christopher Day

Winner of the 2020 American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Book Award​

Teacher attrition has long been a significant challenge within the field of education. It is a commonly-cited statistic that almost fifty percent of beginning teachers leave the field within their first five years, to the detriment of schools, students, and their own career development. There Has to be a Better Way offers an essential voice in understanding the dynamics of teacher attrition from the perspective of the teachers themselves. Drawing upon in-depth qualitative research with former teachers from urban schools in multiple regions of the United States, Lynnette Mawhinney and Carol R. Rinke identify several themes that uncover the rarely-spoken reasons why teachers so often willingly leave the classroom. The authors go further to provide concrete recommendations for how school administrators can better support their practicing teachers, as well as how teacher educators might enhance preparation for the next generation of educators. Complete with suggested readings and discussion questions, this book serves as an indispensable resource in understanding and building an effective and productive educational workforce for our nation’s students. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Release date: Jan 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9780813595290

Book preview

There Has to Be a Better Way

There Has to Be a Better Way

Lessons from Former Urban Teachers

LYNNETTE MAWHINNEY AND CAROL R. RINKE

Foreword by Christopher Day

Rutgers University Press

New Brunswick, Camden, and Newark, New Jersey, and London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mawhinney, Lynnette, 1979- author. | Rinke, Carol R., author.

Title: There has to be a better way : lessons from former urban teachers / Lynnette Mawhinney and Carol R. Rinke.

Description: New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018010041 | ISBN 9780813595283 (cloth) | ISBN 9780813595276 (pbk.)Subjects: LCSH: Education, Urban—United States. | Urban schools—United States. | Teaching—Social aspects—United States.

Classification: LCC LC5131 .M355 2018 | DDC 370.9173/2—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010041

A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.

Copyright © 2019 by Lynnette Mawhinney and Carol R. Rinke

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition is fair use as defined by U.S. copyright law.

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

www.rutgersuniversitypress.org

Manufactured in the United States of America

To Michele The Rainmaker Louis Simelane. Sending you all the claw love to heaven.

Contents

Foreword by Christopher Day

Introduction: Walking in through the Out Door: Professional Trajectories of Urban Teachers

Part I The Dynamics of Teacher Attrition

1 Push and Pull in Career Development

Part II Structural Factors in Teacher Attrition

2 The Struggle Is Real: Administrators, Teachers, and the System

3 Wading through the Waters: Exhaustion, Stress, and Disillusionment with Teaching

4 Where Has All the Job Security Gone?

Part III The Personal and the Professional in Teacher Attrition

5 You Don’t Fit Here: Teachers of Color Coping with Racial Microaggressions in Schools

6 Negotiating Gendered and Cultural Expectations on a Teacher’s Salary: The Mediating Role of Identity

7 I Just Feel So Guilty: The Role of Emotions in Leaving

Part IV Addressing Teacher Attrition

8 Closing the Revolving Door: Teacher Leavers’ Final Lesson for the Profession

Acknowledgments

References

Index

Foreword

Michael Huberman (1993) was the first to bring a large scale, conceptually sound, empirically robust, and nuanced analysis of secondary teachers’ lives by charting the different influences upon Swiss secondary school teachers during each of five phases of their professional lives. In doing so, he challenged the linear career stage orthodoxy that had led to the erroneous belief about the development of expertise that teachers begin as novices, and, as experience grows, sooner or later they become experts. Inexplicably, this linear conception continues to dominate the design of many policy-driven systems of professional development. International scholars have for many years noted that there are critical phases in teachers’ lives (Sikes, Measor, and Woods 1983) and that these are influenced by psychological, life course, and work contexts (Leithwood 1990). A more recent four-year national, longitudinal, mixed methods research project in the United Kingdom (Day, Sammons, and Stobart 2007) investigated variations within and between primary and secondary teachers’ lives and work during early-, middle-, and later-career phases. It found associations within and between these and their perceived and relative effectiveness in terms of students’ measured progress and attainment, thus providing a more nuanced evidence-based perspective on influences on teachers’ effectiveness.

Among the key quantitative and qualitative findings of that research were that there were statistically significant associations between levels of teacher commitment and student attainment; that more experienced teachers were more likely to be less committed, perhaps unsurprisingly, given the exacting nature of classroom teaching; and that teachers who taught in schools serving socioeconomically disadvantaged communities were more likely to experience health problems, more likely (particularly in secondary schools) to have to manage poor student motivation, emotions, learning engagement, and behavior on a daily basis than those in schools serving more socioeconomically advantaged communities; and that they thus required a greater capacity for emotional resilience than others. Indeed, a later reanalysis of interview data by one of the research teams found, also, a statistically significant correlation between teachers’ levels of resilience and students’ levels of measured attainment, in other words, the less resilient the teacher, the more likely that the students’ measured progress and attainment would be below expectation, and the more resilient the teacher, the more likely that students’ measured progress and attainment would be at or above expectations (Day and Gu 2013).

The contents of Lynnette Mawhinney and Carol R. Rinke’s richly crafted book add to this and other research-generated knowledge of teachers’ work in schools serving socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, and of the challenges they face, especially perhaps if—as with the teachers in this book—teaching is not their first-choice profession. Each chapter of the book combines academic research about teachers and teaching with knowledge of teachers and teaching through the self-reported narratives of teachers themselves who have left classroom teaching, though not always the education sector.

After a scene-setting introduction, which includes autobiographical thumbnails about the reasons why the authors themselves left classroom teaching, the book is organized thematically into four sections: the first two focus on dynamic and structural influences on teacher attrition, and the third on personal and professional issues. In the fourth section, the lessons on attrition raised in the first three are drawn together to form a series of recommendations for improving rates of teacher retention. Each chapter begins with a short overview, connecting the theme with relevant extant literature. This is followed by accounts of, for example, the reasons for choosing to become a teacher. Each chapter ends with reflective questions and recommendations for further reading. The chapters extend and deepen knowledge of key themes derived from the reported experiences of the teachers about what it is like for teachers in schools in the United States who face a range of diverse challenges associated with social and economic disadvantage by virtue of their student and community populations.

Written out of the storied experiences of twenty-five former secondary science and English urban teachers—who began as highly committed teachers but who left tired, burned out, and disenchanted with their abilities to make a difference (most before six years in the job)—each page provides live evidence of the highs and lows, the personal and professional trials and tribulations of these teachers. As the authors observe, many of them did not leave education but, like them, transited to a different, perhaps less emotionally hazardous, sector.

Lynnette and Carol skillfully and with great care and respect unpack the teachers’ stories, revealing not only the variety of challenges that they experienced as a result, often, of policies which challenged their deepest educational ideals and values and practices, but also unsupportive colleagues and administrators, and the individual and collective effects of these on their personal lives. This makes for powerful reading, and it also serves as a powerful reminder that parents, policymakers, and school leaders alike should be concerned when teachers choose, or feel that they have no other option but to choose, to leave the place where education matters the most—the classroom.

In their selections and reframing of the stories, the authors show that teacher attrition—a theme that has become an ongoing concern for policymakers in many countries and jurisdictions—is not a simple or hasty act based upon singular factors, but instead constitutes a long term, constructed, identity development process. This is an important finding for at least two reasons. First, it suggests that attrition as defined only as physical departure from the classroom is not a matter that affects only teachers in their early years. Second, it may suggest that there are likely to be teachers who, while remaining in schools, are surviving and coping rather than thriving and managing their work successfully, and so they may not be teaching to their best and well (Day 2017).

The authors’ notion of teachers’ lives as a part of a career unfolding is important also, because it places teachers as active agents who construct their own coherent understandings of their personal and professional experiences and use those understandings to mediate career decisions—though the book does not address the relative strength of the inner and external forces upon their professional identities.

By chance, some of the teacher participants in the study were those for whom teaching had been a second choice, and this may be seen to limit the claims that they make. However, while this may have resulted in less commitment to stay, the text does not suggest this. Indeed, although we cannot know what proportion of first choice teachers choose to leave teaching, for similar reasons, it is not unreasonable to suppose that some of them are also likely to have done so. The authors’ choice of a snowball selection of science and English secondary teachers might also be seen to limit the wider authority of the reported findings. The results may have been different if the teachers were from elementary schools or teachers of other subjects. However, Lynnette and Carol do not claim that their twenty-five teachers are representative of the total population of teachers, nor even of the second choice teachers. Rather they use the testimonies of these teachers as a means of understanding and underlining that attrition is not an event but a developing process, leading to a decision to withdraw, that it is somehow associated with teachers’ loss of a positive, stable sense of professional identity; and that it is the result of multiple influences that together combine to the point at which teachers make a decision to stay or leave the school and/or the profession.

Many of these teachers, like those in many other countries, cited poor administrators, disillusion with the system, constant high workloads, exhaustion, stress, contractual instabilities, and/or microaggressions as key contributors to their decision to leave. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as most are second choice career teachers, a substantial minority felt the pull toward joining other professions. Yet, as much other literature continues to demonstrate, it is the school principals’ (administrators’) qualities, actions, and relationships that make a significant difference to teachers’ sense of job satisfaction, well-being, commitment, resilience, and individual and collective loyalty to the school and teaching profession: for example, in supporting creativity and freedom, providing constructive feedback and communication, being a cheerleader … buffering teachers from external pressures. Sadly, as others before them have noted, the authors point to teachers’ experiences of the revolving door of principal turnover, particularly in schools serving high-need communities, resulting in discontinuities and fragmentation of values, policies, relationships, and sense of community, not to mention the progress and achievements of many of the students in those schools.

The stories in this book have two fundamental truths about the demands of teaching on those who endeavor to teach to their best and well. First, it is well-nigh impossible if we care about the well-being and intellectual and social health of the students we teach, then it is either possible nor desirable to separate the personal and the professional. Second, commitment to teaching which is also effective requires both the head (knowledge), the hand (pedagogically and behavioral-management knowledge and skills), and the heart (emotions).

The emotional toll of being a teacher underpins almost everything that the authors report about these teachers’ experiences of teaching. The authors cite Hochschild’s (2012) work on emotional labor, and draw a parallel with teaching in which, they claim, a part of the work is to hide or produce emotions according to the expectations of others … students, administrators, colleagues and parents. They are right to point out that such emotional labor is unsustainable and almost certain to lead to stress, emotional exhaustion, and a fractured sense of (inauthentic) identity. That for these teachers their work became emotional labor, which led to withdrawal and eventual exit, is deeply regrettable for the future students who now they will never directly influence.

It should never be forgotten that teachers are the only professionals who spend most of their working lives interacting intensively with the motivations, attitudes, and abilities of individuals and groups of learners, not all of whom may want to learn, attend school, or be taught by them. They interact with them, not only face-to-face but also indirectly, when they plan, monitor, record, and evaluate. In short, they bring their work home with them. As many of these stories demonstrate, this did not always have positive results on their personal lives.

The worry is that there are many more first and second choice teachers who are experiencing overload and stress, who are also in danger of losing their passion for teaching, yet who remain because they have no other paths to follow, do not have the courage to leave, or have, because of their deep sense of commitment, their relationships with students and colleagues, or supportive leaders, decided to stay, still determined to teach to their best and well every day with every student. It is these teachers who need the continuing support. The words of the former teachers whose experiences populate this wonderfully assembled book are relevant to both.

Christopher Day

University of Nottingham

October 2017

There Has to Be a Better Way

Introduction

Walking in through the Out Door: Professional Trajectories of Urban Teachers

Monica’s passion, which could be easily mistaken for rage, made her speak so loudly and quickly on the phone that other people in the vicinity could hear her voice coming through the receiver. The most glaring of her statements was After this school year, I’m done! But how did Monica, a secondary science teacher for six years who had been committed to supporting her students, reach a level of frustration that made her want to walk away from it all?

It wasn’t always like this. Growing up on the East Coast, Monica loved science and knew she wanted to pursue it as a career. In fact, when Monica went to college, she earned premed and secondary education/science credentials. Both programs were so intense that it took Monica five and a half years to finish her undergraduate degrees. She even took the time to get teaching certificates in multiple areas of science: biology, chemistry, and earth science.

After earning her undergraduate degrees, Monica found herself at a crossroads. She could either use her premed degree to go to medical school, or she could use her education degree to go to the classroom. Because Monica graduated around the time when the U.S. economy was facing a significant downturn, she decided teaching would be a more practical route for paying off her student debts before adding more with medical school. She accepted a student-teaching position in a large, urban district on the East Coast and fell in love. She exclaimed, I liked the kids, I loved that they earned your respect. The people I worked with were great, so it was a good experience that left me saying okay, you know what? I can do this. I really like teaching. It’s a lot of fun. After student teaching, Monica decided to continue teaching within the same urban district—this was the beginning of her career as an urban teacher.

Monica pursued teaching as if it were her mission. She really wanted her students to realize science isn’t terrible since they have preconceived ‘this is going to be’ terrible notions. She accomplished her goal and created lasting personal relationships with her students. Early on in her career, Monica was faced with a challenging student. Often slumped in his chair and unwilling to participate in class, Sameer just sat there. He mentally checked out of school, but Sameer still showed up every day. Although discouraged with Sameer’s progress all year, Monica was determined to engage him even though it was the very last science test.

For the last test, Monica decided to create cooperative groups based on the students’ class averages, so they could work together and support one another in studying for the test. She found that her students learned more by talking about the test material and engaging with it. During this group work, as Sameer kept saying, What’s the point, I was going to fail? Monica decided to do a class lecture on the importance of trying. After the class pep talk, Sameer went to work and decided to put effort into the test. He did so well that he earned a B on his last test. At this point, Monica called Sameer out of another class to personally talk with him. She recalled, I asked him if he knew what he thought he got, and he was like a D. I told him he got a B, and this tough kid, his eyes filled up with tears, and he gave me a hug.

The relationships she built with students like Sameer propelled Monica forward in her teaching career, keeping her on course through challenges that emerged, such as a colleague and science partner trying to sabotage her science laboratory by charging her unnecessarily for lab chemicals. Through these ups and downs, Monica just stuck it out. And she stated, I’ll always stay in public schools because I can’t handle how prissy private school is. Urban schools were where she wanted to be. But life changed.

Monica found a man and fell in love. He was from the southern part of the United States, when Monica was from the north. Eventually, Monica made the decision to move so they could be together and get married. Her husband is a teacher in a public school, but with the move, the only available position Monica found was teaching biology and physiology at a private school. Begrudgingly, she took the position, along with a significant pay cut, transitioning her from an urban teacher to a school for privileged children. This was a big change from having students on probation to ones who drove fancy cars and had parents paying $20,000 for high school tuition.

Six years into her career, Monica reached her saturation point. First were the financial strains from the low wages she took from the pay cut. Her inability to save any money or buy a home at her age really started to wear her down. The added frustrations of dealing with chronic work overload, coupled with the entitled attitudes of the privileged students she taught, made for a perfect storm. Monica was planning her exit, but she was not the first to leave. She explained: Another friend of mine quit two years ago. She’s been working on her PhD in education for a year. People that are really good teachers and intelligent are getting out of it to either change the policies, or they just love it so much that they can bypass the ones that don’t see the value in education.

Monica left without a clear transition plan. She decided to pursue two new career directions at the same time. Monica applied to a two-year, full-time medical program in order to become a physician’s assistant, with the hope of working toward surgery. Like teaching, surgery is different every day, which was appealing, as Monica hates monotony. But if this plan did not work out, Monica was also determined to change the educational system. She shared, If I don’t go to PA school I’m going to go to graduate school for either education policy or advancement because so much needs to change. But even if I don’t get to pursue science further I’m going to do something higher up in education that involves policy. And with that decision, Monica (a pseudonym) started to slowly pack up her high school classroom; she was itching to get out of the teaching profession.

The Effects of Teacher Attrition

Monica’s story is a common one. In many countries around the world, teachers are closing the classroom door, never to return. High rates of teacher attrition pose a pressing problem, resulting in decreased achievement for students, high financial costs for schools, and deprofessionalization for teachers (Grissmer et al. 2000; Ingersoll and Merrill 2012; Carroll 2007). In the United States, estimates vary, but analyses of the National Schools and Staffing Survey show that between 17 and 46 percent of new teachers leave the classroom within their first five years (Gray and Taie 2015; Ingersoll 2003), and this is more complicated within urban school districts, where 50 percent of teachers, on average, leave within three years (Ingersoll 2003).

Not only are these rates of attrition far higher than in equivalent professions such as nursing (Ingersoll and Merrill 2012), but they also negatively impact students, schools, and teachers. Teacher expertise increases over time; thus teacher attrition results in a