Retention of Accomplished Veteran Social Studies Teachers

RETENTION OF ACCOMPLISHED VETERAN SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS by Russell Brett Hardin Almost 30 percent of new teachers flee the profession after just three years, and more than 40 percent leave after 5 years (Allen, 2005). Studies conducted by Borman and Dowling (2008), Guarino et al. (2006) and Ingersoll and Smith (2003) indicate that teacher attrition rates are also high in the later years of teaching careers. While these rates of attrition reflect both public and private school teachers, numerous studies have found that private schools see higher attrition rates, potentially damaging an independent school’s ability to fulfill its stated mission (Ingersoll, 2002; O’Keefe, 2001; Provasnik & Dorfman, 2005). While research exists about teacher attrition and retention issues in the early years (Borman & Dowling, 2008), limited research exists about the factors that impact retention of veteran teachers. The purpose of this study is to examine a specific school context in which many successful, veteran, social studies teachers have remained in the same school setting while teaching the same age groups and to determine why those teachers have returned to their classrooms each year. The focus of this study is: What are the factors that keep veteran social studies teachers engaged and excited about teaching and learning? To examine why veteran teachers have stayed in a specific school context teaching the same age groups, I used interviews, informal conversations, and document analysis to build narratives that reflect on the career paths of six teachers. Each of the six teachers who participated in this study taught at the same institution for over 15 years and has at least 20 years as a full-time instructor in the classroom. The qualitative research methodology of grounded theory provided the most appropriate guidelines and tools to examine this group of veteran teachers. The results of this study indicate that to retain veteran teachers, schools may want to consider providing teachers with substantial autonomy over curricula and actively support teachers in discerning and pursuing their own goals for professional development. Schools that are able to build a learning rich environment for their veteran teachers may be more likely to retain an engaged and successful faculty

Meeting the need for regenerative therapies I: Target-based incidence and its relationship to U.S spending, productivity, and innovation

Regenerative therapies possess high theoretical potential for medical advance yet their success as commercial therapeutics is still open to debate. Appropriate data on target opportunities that provide perspective and enable strategic decision making is necessary for both efficient and effective translation. Up until now, this data have been out of reach to research scientists and many start-up companies—the very groups currently looked to for the critical advance of these therapies. The target-based estimate of opportunity presented in this report demonstrates its importance in evaluating medical need and technology feasibility. In addition, analysis of U.S. research spending, productivity, and innovation reveals that U.S. basic research in this field would benefit from greater interdisciplinarity. Overcoming the barriers that currently prevent translation into high value therapies that are quickly clinically adopted requires simultaneous integration of engineering, science, business, and clinical practice. Achieving this integration is nontrivial

After Mazibuko: exploring the responses of communities excluded from South Africa’s water experiment

Despite a constitutional right to water, challenges remain for access to sufficient water in South Africa. This article considers the degree to which current legal provisions perpetuate approaches, which are antithetical to genuinely eco-socio-sustainable water access. Water in South Africa has largely been re-cast as a commodity, exposed to market rules, proving problematic for many and giving rise to various responses, including litigation. In the seminal case of Mazibuko the Constitutional Court failed to provide robust protection to the right to water, providing impetus for the formation of “commons” strategies for water allocation. Indeed “commoning” is beginning to represent not only an emerging conceptual strand in urban resource allocation, but also a dynamic, contemporary, eco-sensitive, socio-cultural phenomenon, driving innovative, interactive and inclusive forms of planning and social engagement. Against the backdrop of unequal water access, commoning offers glimpses of an empowering and enfranchising subaltern paradigm

Teaching Ethnographic Methods for Cultural Anthropology: Current Practices and Needed Innovation

Historically, ethnographic methods were learned by cultural anthropology students in individual research projects. This approach creates challenges for teaching in ways that respond to the next generation’s calls to decenter anthropology’s White, heteropatriarchal voices and engage in collaborative community-based research. Analyzing syllabi from 107 ethnographic methods training courses from the United States, we find the tradition of the “lone researcher” persists and is the basis of ethnographic training for the next generation. There is little evidence of either active reflection or team-based pedagogy, both identified as necessary to meet career opportunities and diversification goals for the wider field of cultural anthropology. However, we also find that, by centering the completion of largely individual research projects, most ethnographic methods courses otherwise adhere to best practices in regard to experiential and active learning. Based on the analysis of syllabi in combination with current pedagogical literature, we suggest how cultural anthropologists can revise their ethnographic methods courses to incorporate pedagogy that promotes methodologies and skills to align with the needs of today’s students and communities