Foreword: Telling Their Stories

Note: I referred to both my field notes (f.n.) and video interviews (v.t.) in the body of the chapters. All the videos and field notes are available either from a link on the Resources box for each individual or in Scholar Works of Grand Valley State University. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/do/search/?q=author%3A%22Richard%20Cooley%22&start=0&context=455552&facet=

I made a basic assumption in committing my efforts to this work; that it was important to me, and all teachers, what happened to students after they left our classrooms and schools.  In my 28 years as a public school teacher, I was privy to countless conversations between teachers where they shared information about their past students’ careers and lives.  The teachers’ interest was obvious; did they make a difference in those students’ lives and how might the teachers improve what they were doing in their careers in order that future students might benefit?

Upon arriving at Grand Valley State University State University in 2001 I soon became involved in a joint committee formed by members of the College of Education and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  Both colleges are involved in the teacher preparation program at the university.  Both colleges require teaching methods classes and oversee teacher candidates during the two semesters in their field placements.  Early on in my involvement in the committee I asked if the colleges or university did follow-up studies on our graduates.  There were some references to anecdotal evidence but no clear attempt in investigating the outcome of our students’ education and training.

My purpose for this study was adding to the research on teacher preparation, retention and induction strategies. Teacher retention and teacher success in the classroom has received worldwide attention (Ashiedu, et.al, 2012; Kleickmann, et. al., 2013). Multiple factors concerning success in the classroom include content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, (Kleickmann, et.al., 2013, Westhoff, 2007), stress factors, teacher outcome efficacy (Swackhamer, et.al., 2009) and teacher resiliency (Doney, 2013).

I have been involved in oral history projects since the 1990’s, beginning with research into the impact of the Dust Bowl on persons living in the South Central Kansas area that witnessed the impact of that environmental catastrophe, tied to the impact of the Great Depression.  A video record was archived within the Circle High School library.  I followed this project with recorded interviews of Korean War veterans. A further project created recorded interviews of veterans that was part of an anniversary celebration of the end of World War Two.  At GVSU I was involved in work with the Veteran’s Oral History Project directed by Dr. James Smither of the History Department.  Under Dr. Smither’s direction this digital history project, in conjunction with the National Archives, has recorded over 1,000 interviews with veterans ranging from War World I continuing to more recent conflicts.  My involvement in this project was serving on an educational liaison committee that helped find volunteers for the project as well as locating veterans and veteran groups in Michigan.

Regarding the study of teacher retention, through my own teaching experience and the comments in several works concerning teacher retention, it is obvious that teacher retention is an issue in high stress environments, mostly associated with poverty issues in both urban and rural areas.  One of the subjects in my study was in his third school within an economically depressed area of rural South Carolina. The district continues to lose population and his first school closed in the first few years of his time there.  Shifts in student population led to shifts in his teaching assignment and location and provided him the further challenge of adjusting to a new environment, new building administration and new colleagues.  How has he weathered these changes? This teacher has since left South Carolina for a teaching position in Central Florida in a more affluent school district.  Another subject, now out of education, started his brief career in a high poverty area outside of Charleston, South Carolina.  Two subjects are located in economically challenged areas of rural eastern Michigan.  I have multiple subjects teaching in suburban/urban areas with high levels of cultural and economic diversity.  How are these teachers beating the odds in terms of staying in their profession?  What factors led the Charleston area teacher leaving the profession?  Will they identify factors within their education at Grand Valley that led to their success or failure and how might GVSU, or any other teacher preparation institution, use these experiences for future changes to their programs?  Were there induction or mentoring programs that provided for the success of these teachers?

I used the same basic questions in the interviews and gathered information in the same way.  I arrived at the subjects’ schools before the school day started and then observed the entire school day with the teacher.  After the students left for the day, I interviewed the teacher about the events of the day as well as asking questions about their preparation at GVSU.  I was most interested in how the subjects answered the first few questions; defining success in teaching and how they viewed themselves as successful.  Did those definitions and views change over time?  Most of these teachers were in at least one, if not several of the classes I taught at GVSU and I visited their classrooms twice, once in 2008 and 2015, as well as keeping up ongoing correspondence with most of them. With both visits I asked each teacher the same questions, except for those few who had left the classroom. The questions are appended at the end of this work.

My hope is that this book provides some positive lessons by revealing the thoughts of these teachers in regards to their preparation, induction to their careers, relationships with their students, schools and communities and their motivations for staying, or leaving, the profession.