Examining the Reasons Agricultural Education Teaching Graduates Choose to Enter, Leave, or Stay in the Teaching Profession

Abstract

With half of all school-based agricultural education teachers leaving the profession within their first six years, the need is greater than ever for post-secondary graduates to enter and stay in the profession. This study explored potential influencers on graduates' career decisions, focusing on identifying potential reasons they chose to not enter, leave, or stay in the profession. The target population was Montana State University Agricultural Education Teaching graduates who completed their degree program between May 2005 and May 2016 (N = 58). Respondents' post-graduation career paths fell into five predetermined groups, which were then narrowed into three broader groups: never entered, leavers, and currently teaching. Similar to previous research, competitive salaries outside education, being recruited for another position, and an inadequate work-life balance emerged as the largest factors in respondents' decisions to not enter the profession. Somewhat contradictory, adequate work-life balance; stable contracts with a competitive salary; and positive student, school, and community connections emerged as top reasons to remain in the profession. Since the most common reasons for not entering/leaving the profession revolved around careers outside of education, primarily the salaries of those positions, it is recommended that stakeholders explore alternative methods of providing supplemental funding for these salaried positions.

The Success Trap: A Case Study of Early Career Agricultural Education Teachers’ Conceptualizations of Work-Life Balance

“…Building on the work of Traini et al (2019), this study's purpose was two-fold: (1) examine how early career teachers in Louisiana co-constructed their conceptualizations of work-life balance as SBAE teachers, and (2) illuminate the contextual factors that shaped how the early career teachers negotiated meaning regarding their reified views on work-life balance. Because of the importance of work-life balance in addressing the discipline's teacher retention issue, this investigation's findings could help early career agricultural education teachers remain in the workforce (Igo & Perry, 2019;Lemons et al, 2015;Solomonson & Retallick, 2018). As a consequence, this study supported the American Association for Agricultural Education's (AAAE's) Research Priority 3: Sufficient Scientific and Professional Workforce that Addresses the Challenges of the 21st Century (Stripling & Ricketts, 2016).…”

“…To address the emergent concerns about work-life balance and the teacher shortage problem, scholars have recommended myriad strategies. These often involve increasing the quality and quantity of professional development offered to SBAE teachers about how to better balance work and non-work responsibilities (Blackburn et al, 2017;Igo & Perry, 2019;Solomonson & Retallick, 2018;Sorensen & McKim, 2014) or to better manage their time (Murray et al, 2011). These recommendations align with the aforementioned sentiments espoused in The Magazine that framed balance as a personal choice or a factor that individuals can control.…”

“…Although no salient themes in the literature point to the (in)abilities of SBAE teachers to balance their work and non-work responsibilities, the conversation regarding work-life balance is critical for the profession, especially in light of teacher shortage trends (Smith, et al, 2019). Research has shown connections between the struggle to balance work and non-work obligations and the decision to leave the profession before retirement (Igo & Perry, 2019;Lemons et al, 2015;Solomonson & Retallick, 2018) as well as the decision not to enter the profession due to the inability to balance work and life while fulfilling the obligations of the job (Igo & Perry, 2019). To address the emergent concerns about work-life balance and the teacher shortage problem, scholars have recommended myriad strategies.…”

“…Although previous research (Blackburn, et al, 2017;Murray, et al, 2011;Solomonson & Retallick, 2018;Sorensen & McKim, 2014;Sorensen, et al, 2016;Traini, et al, 2019) has advanced the utility of work-life balance as a construct, so far, inconclusive evidence exists regarding the ways in which SBAE teachers can achieve this feat. Further, although existing research has illuminated how a lack of work-life balance may influence teacher attrition (Igo & Perry, 2019;Lemons et al, 2015;Solomonson & Retallick, 2018), little is known about SBAE teachers' conceptualizations of work-life balance and how such operates as a master narrative in SBAE -and as a result, may conceal critical dimensions of influence. Exploring this deficiency in knowledge, particularly from a social learning perspective, may allow agricultural education to paint a more granular picture of how SBAE teachers' conceptualizations of work-life balance manifest as a result of the discipline's unique context, expectations, and perspective.…”

Measuring mobility: A quantitative description of SBAE teacher mobility in Minnesota

“…At the school level, instability may take the form of teacher attrition, evidenced by teachers leaving the profession, or teacher mobility, manifested by teachers moving to a different school (Palma-Vasquez et al, 2022). leave (Igo & Perry, 2019;Lemons et al, 2015;Solomonson & Retallick, 2018;Solomonson et al, 2019;Solomonson et al, 2021;Solomonson et al, 2022;Sorensen et al, 2016). Within SBAE, licensed teachers made up approximately 85% of 1680 new hires nationwide in 2021 (Smith et al, 2022).…”