Date of Award

Fall 11-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PHD - Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Doctoral Program

First Advisor

John H. Ciesluk

Abstract

The United States is witnessing an overwhelming teacher shortage that shows no signs of slowing down. With a tarnished profession of being underpaid and overworked, districts are lowering requirements to hire teaching faculty. Research has shown that lack of training significantly predicts a teaching career’s longevity. With White female teachers continuing to dominate the field, schools seek not only to increase teacher retention but also to diversify faculty to match the increasing diversity of the student population. There is a growing interest in high school teacher cadet programs as a potential method to recruit, train, hire, and retain teachers who return to their home districts. The purpose of this study was to examine high school teacher cadet programs as a mechanism to alleviate teacher attrition and increase teacher diversity. The qualitative study employed a multisite collective case study with three means of data collection across multiple states. Four administrators who oversaw aspects of a teacher cadet program implementation in their respective states participated in the study. Data were collected through interviews, document collection, and a survey. The study produced the following seven findings: (a) Specialized recruitment initiatives designed to diversify teacher cadet programs’ population are underutilized, sidelined, or nonexistent. (b) Both formal and informal approaches to cadet recruitment contribute to students of color’s participation in teacher cadet programs. (c) Upon entering the teaching field, teacher cadets greatly benefit from structured supports to assist in accomplishing pathway requirements. (d) Because assistance for those who matriculated to different teacher cadet programs is inconsistent, increased awareness about candidates is needed to develop more supportive measures. (e) Specialized factors, intended to benefit teacher cadet candidates, serve to attract students and add value to teacher cadet programs. (f) Teacher cadet programs are often tasked with discrediting reputed negative aspects of the teaching profession. (g) Formalized systems to collect data and track teacher cadet graduates who enter the teaching field do not exist. Building on this study, researchers could investigate different ways to measure the success of teacher cadet programs. The study proffered that the educational community cannot ignore the immense potential teacher cadet programs have to alleviate the teacher shortage and diversify the profession by creating a homegrown pipeline of teachers.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Language

English

Number of Pages

235

Embargo Period

12-6-2023

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