Identifying high-quality educators at the point of hire can reduce future recruitment costs and minimize the impact of attrition on school organizations and student learning. One low-cost way to screen applicants and learn about their beliefs, values, and pedagogy is through their short-essay writing samples. However, there is limited research…

Background: People who have a stutter are often viewed negatively by others. Acknowledgement--defined as notifying others up front about characteristics that might lead one to be evaluated negatively--might be an effective impression management strategy for people stigmatized by stuttering. Past research testing this hypothesis, however, has…

Professional references are widely used in hiring decisions, yet their effectiveness remains largely understudied. We analyze structured ratings collected from the professional references of teacher applicants and conduct an experiment to see whether the ratings influence hiring managers' assessments of applicants and hiring decisions. We find…

While the practice of collecting information from applicants' professional references is widespread, there is a paucity of research linking references' assessments of applicants to subsequent performance. In this paper, we examine the predictive validity of a specific type of reference-provided information: categorical ratings of teacher…

Requests by education and workforce-related technologies to reveal intimate aspects of adult learners' identities have become a common practice in a platform society, where personal information is monetized for "free" products and services. This article uses a sociomaterial lens to investigate how an older job seeker in a community…

This field research was designed to establish what components contribute to the construct of job-seeking self-efficacy (JSSE). 430 active job seekers (219 males, 204 females, 7 non-disclosed) in Ireland volunteered to participate in a survey compiled from previously published sources. A 15-item scale for JSSE was reduced to 8 items (2 factors)…

Ageism in today's workplace can have a range of detrimental emotional, psychological, and economic effects on older job seekers. This article highlights types of ageism in the workplace and the most common age-related stereotypes in the hiring process and on the job. We explore how ageism negatively affects the emotional and psychological,…

When education leaders and others discuss staffing challenges in K-12 schools, they often focus on teacher shortages. In response, policymakers across the country have launched a range of initiatives to increase the supply of teachers. These kinds of initiatives may help attract more people to teaching. But they address only part of the problem.…

Job interviews require applicants to demonstrate two things: experience with direct value to the company and a fit with the team and company culture. A technique is detailed demonstrating how to develop this argument based on aligning credentials with corporate interests, developing advocacy-based themes, and synthesizing material into a…

Purpose: Urban school districts often face challenges in filling principal vacancies with effective leaders, especially in high-needs schools. Prospective principals' engagement with the job application process may contribute to these challenges. The goal of this study is to better understand the job search strategies and behaviors of prospective…

Purpose: Urban school districts often face challenges in filling principal vacancies with effective leaders, especially in high-needs schools. Prospective principals' engagement with the job application process may contribute to these challenges. The goal of this study is to better understand the job search strategies and behaviors of prospective…

Individuals with a high school education represent the largest subset of the U.S. workforce. However, little is known about the employer expectations of these individuals, particularly in the area of soft skills--also known as 21st-century skills. Online job advertisements offer useful data for examining these expectations, as they may supplement…

While the choice to move to a new school is personal, many play a role in justifying that choice for the mobile teacher. These justifiers--or "influencers"--make up the socializing network for teachers (in this case, SBAE teachers) in new settings. Our study outlined how mobile SBAE teachers rationalize the choice to change schools and…

Job applicants should not be required as a condition of employment to profess their loyalty to partisan statements or beliefs. Yet universities that solicit statements of commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion from job applicants do precisely that. Both practitioners and critics of "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) know…

The present study examined how the personal importance of work and family were associated with job search behavior, and whether there were any gender differences in those associations. A sample of 284 career-interrupted women and men participated in the study. Accordingly, job search behavior and antecedent variables--including personal importance…