Leveraging the perspectives of rural educators to develop realistic job previews for rural teacher recruitment and retention

Henry Tran, Suzy Hardie, Simone Gause, Peter Moyi, Rose Ylimaki

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rurality is perceived by many to be a deficit or challenge when it comes to teacher recruitment and retention. However, recently, some have argued that moving away from a deficit model and treating rurality as an asset may hold promise for teacher staffing. Drawing on Person-Organization (P-O) fit theory, we extend this argument in our study by investigating the perceptions of teachers from the rural Lowcountry of South Carolina, a region with documented severe teacher shortages, concerning rural teaching advantages and challenges. These reflections provide the data necessary to develop realistic job previews (RJP) that can be highlighted in the teacher staffing process at their schools. To obtain the data, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 11 rural teachers and one principal (n=12). Several common themes emerged, which we used to develop a sample web-based RJP content for demonstration purposes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)31-46
Number of pages16
JournalRural Educator
Volume41
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Leveraging the perspectives of rural educators to develop realistic job previews for rural teacher recruitment and retention'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this