Purpose: School leaders are central to the development of work-related ties among school staff. Although prior work has examined the predictors of the presence of work-related ties, little is known about the breakup or dissolution of ties among school staff. This study examines the extent of tie dissolution among school staff, as well as both the…

The paper starts from the observation that teacher attrition/retention seems to be a wicked issue: it seems to have strong face validity and a commonsense meaning, but the literature doesn't provide a clear and distinctive definition. In the first section, the author analyzes the different ways in which the issue of teacher attrition and retention…

The aim of this study is to detect the perceptions of public primary school teachers regarding organizational alienation behaviors in terms of some variables (gender, marital status and seniority). Survey model was used in this study. The research sample consists of randomly selected 346 teachers from 40 schools in the central district of Mardin,…

This article describes the challenges encountered by a teacher educator and self-study practitioner as he attempted to facilitate a group of colleagues in learning about and engaging in self-study over a two year period. While competent in conducting self-study for himself, the author had never before tried to teach it to others. This led to…

Students from schools with greater levels of trust have higher levels of academic achievement. This study specifically examined the levels of trust that teachers have in each other, their principals, their students, and their students' families. Teachers from four school districts in which the superintendent won the state superintendent of the…

This study examined the relationship between the strength of Professional Learning Community dimensions and the level of Self-Direction in Learning as perceived by California State certificated elementary teachers. The Professional Learning Community Assessment-Revised recorded teacher perceptions of the strength of five PLC dimensions.…

This paper examines how school-based practitioners supporting children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) use particular social capital relations. Social capital theory together with selected 'Productive Pedagogies' items, are applied to re-frame and understand the co/production of support for such children. Empirical data from…

Context: Study abroad programs are a key educational opportunity for athletic training students to grow in cultural competence. Yet, there are few faculty-led, study abroad programs specifically designed for athletic training community engagement in low-income nations. Objective: To describe the process of developing and implementing a short-term…

The challenge of low performing schools continues to rear its ugly head in many countries, including South Africa. The responses to low performance differ from country to country, but none of these have included the enhancement of collective teacher efficacy in their repertoire. Research shows that collective teacher efficacy is positively related…

The highly complex demands of the profession often overwhelm new teachers. Burnout and attrition are known consequences of inadequate preparation, burdening the education system with costly turnover and schools with disproportionate numbers of inexperienced teachers, including special educators. Many teacher preparation programs embed field…

This dissertation is intended to complement the conversation in the social sciences about the challenging role of campus principals and the influence they have on teacher retention and job satisfaction. School principals are held accountable for creating positive change within the campus, therefore they supervise the operational and instructional…

This study examined the effects of meeting frequency, structured meeting times, annual agreements, and demographic variables on school counselor perceptions of their relationship with their building principal. Results of a regression analysis indicated that meeting frequency accounted for 26.7% of the variance in school counselor-reported…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are collaborative teacher groups that focus on learning and continual improvement. Establishing PLCs can be a challenging endeavor, especially in smaller schools. Smaller schools employ fewer staff members, limiting opportunities for collaboration. This dissertation examined the implementation of PLCs in…

The purpose of this study was to explore elementary second-stage teachers' (4-10 years experience) career decisions and the teaching and working conditions associated with those decisions. Retaining teachers is of extreme importance to public schools because chronic turnover is financially, organizationally, and instructionally costly. The study…

Social network analysis brings new perspectives to the study of social phenomena. Traditional sociological analysis is usually focused on the categorization of data. By contrast, social network analysis is focused on relations, aiming to describe the structure of relational ties. This case study will provide an example of the use of social network…