Investigating Factors Influencing Engineering and Computer Science Teachers’ Professional Identity, Support Networks, Effectiveness, and Retention

This project aims to serve the national need for recruiting and retaining effective engineering and computer science (CS) teachers. As engineering and CS have emerged as priorities in K-12 education, there is a pressing need to increase understanding of the experiences of engineering and CS teachers and factors that influence their retention and effectiveness. Although there is a strong research base on the retention of mathematics and science teachers, little research has examined factors impacting the retention and effectiveness of engineering or CS teachers. The purpose of this research is to investigate how engineering and CS teachers’ professional identity and support networks impact their retention and effectiveness in high-need schools. Additionally, the research aims to explore how school or school district-level characteristics might be associated with teachers’ professional identity, support networks, effectiveness, and retention. Further, the research aims to understand the influence of teacher education programs on engineering and CS teachers’ effectiveness and retention. Ultimately, this work will contribute to our understanding of how best to support and retain effective engineering and CS teachers in high-need K-12 schools. This project at the Georgia Institute of Technology includes partnerships with the Georgia Department of Education, Georgia College and State University, and Piedmont University. Three project goals guide the work of the principal investigators. First is to analyze state-level engineering and CS teacher mobility, attrition, and effectiveness data. Second is to develop and administer a national survey around professional identity, self-efficacy, support networks, effectiveness, and retention. Third, and finally, is to conduct case studies to develop deep, contextualized understandings of engineering and CS teachers’ experiences. Employing a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, the project will investigate an array of research questions aligned with these three study goals. Research questions include: What factors influence engineering and CS teachers’ persistence in high-need schools? What are the relationships among professional identity, self-efficacy, and retention for engineering and CS teachers? And what experiences influence the professional identities, self-efficacy, effectiveness, retention, and persistence of engineering and CS teachers? The broader impacts of this research will be at the national level. Identifying factors that influence engineering and CS teachers’ effectiveness and retention, specifically among teachers in high-need schools, has the potential to support teacher education programs in preparing engineering and CS teachers in the future. The project also has the potential to contribute to STEM education literature by generating new insights about the interconnections among teacher professional identity, personal networks, support structures, self-efficacy, teacher effectiveness, and teacher retention. This Track 4: Noyce Research project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the effectiveness and retention of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.