Rural music teacher job satisfaction, retention, and music education's career ladder
Date
2020
Authors
Padron, Casey Lee, author
Johnson, Erik, advisor
Sebald, Ann, committee member
Shupe, Abigail, committee member
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Abstract
In order to provide an equitable music education to all students, rural schools need to retain experienced, job-satisfied music teachers. Teacher job satisfaction is determined by working conditions, student interactions, goal progress, and self-efficacy (Badri et al. 2006; Lent & Brown, 2006; Williams, 2015). Additionally, rural teacher satisfaction is concerned with community identity (Bumgartner, 2013; Huysman, 2007; McCoy-Wilson, 2011; Richardson, 2017), while music teachers emphasize a strong support system within the school (Howard, 2006; Siebert, 2008; Scheib, 2004). Music teachers and teachers in rural schools have different priorities in determining their job satisfaction, which suggests that rural music teachers have a unique set of values in job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is an important predictor of teacher retention (Stockard & Lehman, 2004; Thibodeaux, 2015; Williams 2015), along with years of experience and preparation for entering the teaching field (Darling-Hammond, 2003; Ingersoll, 2001; Stockard & Lehman, 2004; Strunk & Robinson, 2006). These predictors pose major concerns for rural schools who often employ young, inexperienced teachers (Monk, 2007). Music teachers are especially challenging for rural school districts to retain (Hancock, 2009), which has negative effects on student performance (Barnes, Crowe, & Schaefer, 2007; Kloss, 2012; Russell, 2012; Terry & Kristonis, 2008; Rockoff, 2004) and perpetuates a "rural to urban" career ladder for the music education profession (Bates, 2011; Brossette, 2015; Howard, 2006; Kuntzelman, 2016). This mixed-method study investigated how working conditions, school support systems, teacher characteristics, and community belonging relate to rural music teachers' senses of job satisfaction and the relationship that their job satisfaction has with their decision to retain or leave their current teaching assignment. Quantitative data were collected via questionnaire (Duffy & Lent, 2009) and qualitative data were gathered through multiple-case-study methodology (Stake, 2006) to illustrate both broad job satisfaction considerations across a population of rural music teachers in Colorado as well as specific context-dependent job satisfaction and retention considerations. Questionnaire respondents demonstrated strong relationships between positive affect as a teacher characteristic, organizational support, and perceived fit as a working condition and overall job satisfaction. Case study participants further color these findings by specifying autonomy, participation in a musical community, support from the school community, and by their own strides in making progress toward student-centered goals as factors that contribute positively to their job satisfaction. Detractors from job satisfaction include a low value of music in the school community, dissonance between professional goals and community values, and isolation as an impediment to student-centered goals.
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Subject
rural education
music education