The Role of Social Networks and Self-Efficacy in the Retention of Noyce Teachers
An exploratory study that investigate the role of Noyce teachers’ personal networks and self-efficacy on teacher retention in high-needs school settings.
Goals of the Study:
Goal 1: To explore the relationship among Noyce project characteristics, school culture, teacher personal network, self-efficacy and retention.
Goal 2: To develop a validated Teacher Personal Network survey that can be adapted by Noyce projects to guide their induction programs.
Goal 3: To update the existing Noyce Teacher fellow database that will be publicly available through the study website.
Study Questions:
- How do teacher personal networks and self-efficacy affect early career teacher retention in high-needs schools?
- What is the relationship among early career Noyce teachers’ self-efficacy, personal network structure, and retention in high-needs schools?
- To what extent and in what ways are Noyce project characteristics associated with early career teachers self-efficacy beliefs, the structure of their personal networks, and retention in high-needs schools?
- What are the sources of self-efficacy identified by early career Noyce teachers?
- To what extent do sources of self-efficacy identified by early career Noyce teachers vary depending on project and school characteristics, and teachers’ personal network structure?
Study Population:
This study is interested in the effect of the Noyce program on retention and effectiveness for teachers that have taught full-time for five years or less. Study participants will include all Noyce Teacher Fellows who graduated with a Masters in Teaching between May 2011 and May 2016.
Recruitment:
Recruitment will proceed in two phases with different recruitment strategies planned for the qualitative and quantitative study phases. For both phases a $50 stipend per person for at least the first 300 study participants will be provided.
Phase 1 Recruitment: The NSF Robert Noyce Scholarship Program website will be used to locate current Noyce Programs, Principal Investigators, and Teaching Fellows. The study team will attend the Noyce Annual Meeting to further recruit current participants who qualify for the study. Online keyword searches will be used to locate participants that do not have readily available contact information. Recruitment will continue until an adequate sample is met to complete the qualitative study.
Phase 2 Recruitment: Recruitment will extend strategies from Phase 1. The study team will contact the scholars via e-mail and phone who meet the inclusion criteria to participate in the study. A comprehensive database of current and past Noyce Scholars will be created for researchers and the public interested in program level data for Noyce Scholars.
