1. How This Impacts a Teacher’s Professional Identity
Southwest BT/Charter/IHE Meeting
Martha Anderson- Sandhills Regional Education Facilitator
Principal Engagement
Who Am I?
How This Impacts a
Teacher’s Professional Identity

2. Do You Agree?
Pre-service teachers tend to have a naïve and idealistic perception of teaching.
Beginning teachers experience many different phases and can easily become consumed with survival.
Teachers who leave the classroom show the most emotional burnout.
Teaching and Teacher Education: International Journal of Research and Studies
Research article by Ji Y. Hong

3. Did You Know?
Nationwide, within the next ten years, 2 million teachers will be needed to fill classrooms.
The Teacher Turnover Report data indicates North Carolina is experiencing a 15% turnover rate.
The number one reason teachers are leaving the classroom is for “personal reasons.”
The number one factor why teachers remain in the classroom is directly linked to the PRINCIPAL’s perception of the quality of their performance.

4. Professional Identity
Professional identity is a major contributor as to why teachers leave the profession. There are six factors to professional identity.
Value
Efficacy
Commitment
Emotions
Knowledge and Beliefs
Micro-politics
Teaching and Teacher Education International
Journal of Research and Studies

5. Value What does it mean to be valued?
Why does this impact a beginning teacher’s decision to remain in the classroom or leave the school?
How can a principal let beginning teachers know they are valued members of the school’s staff?

6. Efficacy What is efficacy? (self-efficacy)
How can a principal help a beginning teacher develop a sense of self-efficacy?
What can a principal do to help build a beginning teacher’s confidence in his/her ability to positively impact student achievement?
How can a principal create school-wide efficacy?

7. Commitment
How does a principal promote the importance of commitment to students and the school to beginning teachers?
How does a principal demonstrate his/her own commitment to the staff and students?
Why is commitment important and a factor in retaining beginning teachers?

8. Emotions For new teachers, teaching can be an emotional rollercoaster.
How can a principal identify the emotions of his/her beginning teachers?
What strategies can a principal utilize to help a beginning teacher understand, acknowledge, and control his/her emotions?
Why do emotions play such a large role in a teacher’s decision to leave a school or the teaching profession?

9. Knowledge and Beliefs
Why is it important for a principal to understand where his/her teachers stand with regards to their knowledge and beliefs about education?
What strategies can a principal use to identify a teacher’s knowledge and beliefs about students, parents, instructional practices, and working with a diverse population of students?
How does this information impact how a principal interacts with his/her teachers?
Why is this a factor in a teacher’s decision to remain in the classroom or leave the school or his/her career?

10. Micro-politics What does micro-politics mean?
Is this prevalent in schools? Education as a whole?
How can a principal help a beginning teacher navigate through this within the school building, at the district level, and outside of the classroom?
Why would this be a contributing factor as to why beginning teachers leave the classroom?

11. Principal Engagement
How will you encourage principals to be more engaged with their beginning teachers?
What ideas or strategies will you share with colleagues?
How can IHEs utilize this information in their education degree and masters programs?

12. Contact Information
Created by Martha Anderson Sandhills Regional Education Facilitator North Carolina Department of Public Instruction