A case study of former teachers

The teaching profession is losing some of the most talented and experienced teachers to other careers. Understanding why teachers leave the profession is important if one values students encountering teachers with talent and experience. Information from the review of related research indicated that individuals were motivated to enter teaching to serve mankind and because they love the interaction with children. However, with more career opportunities open to women and minorities than ever before, many choose other professions after teaching a few years. Identifying career patterns and combating stereotyped notions of career teachers may help reduce attrition in the teaching profession. The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the experiences of former teachers and compare their experiences with what was described in the literature for experienced teachers who are still in teaching positions. This study provided an examination of the factors associated with teacher turnover and the consequences for individual teachers who left the profession. The major emphasis of the study was on identifying the factors which motivated former teachers to teach and factors which influenced former teachers to resign from teaching. The population of the study consisted of former teachers employed by an urban school district in Nebraska during the period. of 1965-1985. A complete list of teachers who resigned was secured from a review of the minutes of school board meetings. From this population of sixty-one former teachers who were contacted, thirty-two former teachers agreed to participate. An interview schedule and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) were used for data collection. Data collected were analyzed to describe demographic characteristics of the sample. Percentages were used to compare demographic information. For the MSQ, scores of the subjects were used to compute group means and standard deviations. The data were reported in narrative and tabular form