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Second Presentation on EdD Thesis progress titled:Second Presentation on EdD Thesis progress titled:

Factors Influencing Retention in Factors Influencing Retention in Pre-service Primary Teacher Pre-service Primary Teacher

Education in Malawi Education in Malawi by by

Elvis SalagiElvis Salagi

1313thth February, 2015 February, 2015

Doctoral Supervisors: Dr Lee Graham and Dr Peter KahnDoctoral Supervisors: Dr Lee Graham and Dr Peter Kahn

PillarsPillars

• Why I did it!!

• What I did!!!

• What I found out!!!

Presentation overviewPresentation overview• Introduction

• Background context

• Purpose & questions

• Problem statement

• Methodology

• Findings

• Recommendations

• Further research

• Q&A

IntroductionIntroduction• Quality education provision

• Revolves around 4 thematic areas: access, equity, governance, mgt

• Hinges on resource availability

• Requires sound financial, human and material resources

• Need for staff and infrastructural devt

• Provision of quality teacher education

• Challenges of attrition, motivation & limited resource envelope

CCoonntteexxtt

MALAWI

Structure of primary teacher Structure of primary teacher education in Malawieducation in Malawi

Primary teacher

education

2 year IPTE certificate

(Conventional mode)

1 year college based phase 1 year rural

school based phase (TP)

2 year IPTE certificate

(ODL)

Term holiday face to face sessions

2 year rural school based phase (TP)

Module study4 year BEd

• Overcrowding• Work overload

Pre-service teaching in MalawiPre-service teaching in Malawi

• Rural TP

• Infrastructural challenges

• Low staffing

Pre-service teaching in MalawiPre-service teaching in Malawi

Background context cont’d

•Tuition-free training programme•Monthly stipend as a motivator•Long time attrition •Low retention •Affects plans to reduce current PQTR of 1:78 to 1:60 by 2017

•Frustrates efforts by govt & DPs investment•infrastructure, teaching & learning materials, staff capacity development

Leads to: •Low annual college output•Low school staffing levels•underutilized resources: infrastructure, financial, material

This researchThis research Purpose

To examine factors that influence retention of pre-service primary teachers in Malawi.

Question

What factors influence retention of pre-service primary teachers in Malawi?

Secondary questions:•To what extent do pre-service teachers’ primary dimensions of diversity and professional experiences relate to their intention to remain in teaching?•How can recruitment procedures influence retention of primary pre-service teachers?•What mentorship practices influence retention of primary pre-service teachers?•What strategies do primary teacher education institutions follow to promote retention?

What I did !What I did !

QuestionnairesQuestionnaires

Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male less than 20 years 14% 9% 0% 3% 1% 0% 0% 0% 20-25 years 14% 16% 19% 14% 0% 1% 1% 1% 26-30 years 0% 1% 0% 3% 0% 0% 0% 0% Over 30 years 0% 0% 3% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% Total by sex 28% 26% 21% 20% 1% 1% 1% 1%

Total by year Total by training mode Grand total 100%

54% 41% 3% 3%

95% 5%

Age

Primary Pre-service Teachers IPTE - CONVENTIONAL IPTE - ODL

First year Second year First year Second year

Statistical analysis and justificationQuantitative analysis•Use of SPSS version 20. •Preferred because it is modern, fast and simplifies process of analyzing quant. data•Coding of descriptive responses male & female; married & single coded as 1 & 2 respectively. 1st Yr ODL, 2nd Yr ODL, 1st Yr conventional & 2nd Yr Conventional were coded as 1, 2, 3 & 4 •SPSS analyzed data into descriptive statistics eg frequency counts and percentages. •.

• Data presentation in form of tables, bar graphs and pie charts

• To enhance proper understanding of results• Some instances, conducted Chi-square test • Obtains the Pearson correlation co-efficient• To determine statistical significance of

relationship between two categorical variables (Byers, Steinhorst, & Krausman, (1984)

• The limitation!!! data needs to be sufficient enough ie count of ≥ 5 per cell

Qualitative analysis•Qualitative data collected through interviews with teacher trainers, mentors and teaching practice coordinators•Responses were recorded and transcribed into a narrative form •Six-phase process of thematic analysis. •Aronson (1994) views thematic analysis as a focus on identifiable themes and patterns emerging from respondents’ ideas in an interview

Why thematic analysis?Why thematic analysis?

According to Alhojailan (2012)

•Allows a researcher to precisely determine the relationships between concepts.

•Allows linking the various concepts and opinions of interview respondents with data that has been gathered in different situations and at different times.

6-Phase Thematic Analysis

6-Phase Thematic Analysis

((Braun & Clarke, 2006)

Pre-service teacher retention Pre-service teacher retention has bearing on:has bearing on:

• Reasons for choosing teaching• Significance of a teacher training program• Satisfaction of pre-service teachers with training program• Relationship of primary dimensions of diversity and professional factors to retention• Relationship of recruitment factors to retention• Relationship of recruitment procedures to retention• Influence of mentorship• Strategies for retention

PreliminariesPreliminariesImportant reasons for choosing teaching

•desire to work with learners

•Advancing their career opportunities

•Love of subject matter

Less important reasons for choosing teaching

•lack of other career options

•parental influence

•Teachers’ influence

Significance of training programme towards retention in rural schools

• IPTE is significant in preparing pre-service teachers to stay in rural TP schools

• Adequately prepares pre-service teachers for hard-to-staff schools

• Does not adequately prepare them for high-risk schools

• Possibly, attributes of high-risk schools are not well covered and integrated in IPTE

• Consistent with this finding, Tamir, (2013) suggests that preparation can have some effect on teacher’s preparedness to teach in culturally diverse environments and adapt to challenging demands of hard-to-staff schools

Satisfaction with training Satisfaction with training programmeprogramme

• pre-service teachers are more satisfied regardless of mode of training

• male pre-service teachers are more satisfied than females

• both single and married pre-service teachers express their satisfaction

• some female pre-service teachers are dissatisfied.

What I found out !!What I found out !!

Question 1:

Relationship of primary dimensions of diversity and professional factors to retention

•Strong relationship between age and retention

•gender is related to pre-service teachers’ retention.

•male pre-service teachers are more likely to stay in teacher training than female pre-service teachers.

• Strong relationship between pre-service teachers’ interest and retention

• Marital status of pre-service teachers less likely to influence retention

Relationship of recruitment factors to retention

• include age of applicant, quality of entry certificate, applicants’ orientation, gender equity, performance in an entry aptitude test and residence of applicant.

• Age of pre-service teachers is related to retention

• Older ones are mature enough and settled in their minds and stay in training

• Younger ones are unstable/undecided and drop out

• Quality of entry certificate is related to retention

• Some candidates with better subject grades on entry certificate leave primary teacher training as compared to those with fairly not so good grades

• Performance in entry test is not related to retention

• high performing or low performing pre-service teachers in the entry aptitude test either stay or drop out of teacher training

• Residence of pre-service teachers is strongly related to retention

• are already acclimatized to such environments as such they stay in teacher training

• Induction of pre-service teachers contributes to retention

• Properly inducted pre-service teachers stay in training because they know expectations of teaching career

• relatedness of equity to retention is very limited

• more female pre-service teachers than males continue to drop out mainly on health grounds such as pregnancies

• Even those with SEN also drop

Recruitment factors influencing retention•Low entry qualifications•Clear job description, requirements and expectations in teacher training advertisement•Harmonized institutional recruitment schedules•Interest in teaching job•Tuition fees to attract serious minded ones•Written & oral interview

• Factors not influencing retention

• rural TP placement• entry aptitude test• high score-based intake• credit grade in English

at MSCE• bonding to teach in

rural areas• tuition-free course• age limit of 35 years• Un-harmonized

recruitment

Importance of factors Importance of factors influencing retentioninfluencing retention

• Factors that influence retention are accorded different levels of importance

• Include availability of resources, faculty support, clear professional career, community support, peer support, parental support, upkeep allowance and mentoring

• All are important in influencing retention but extent of importance differs

• clear professional career has highest influence on retention followed by parental support, faculty support, and mentoring

Research Q2: Research Q2: Influence of recruitment procedures Influence of recruitment procedures

to retentionto retention

• In Malawi, recruitment of pre-service primary teachers takes into consideration a number of procedures

• Scores in the aptitude test are for selection purposes but negatively correlate with certification scores

• Strong relationship between retention and the recruitment procedures

• Slight gender differences in perceptions on extent of relationships

• More female than male pre-service teachers feel the procedures are related to retention

• Why do they think so?

• Some who score highly in aptitude test fail training assessments and are withdrawn

• procedure of using entry aptitude test scores does not predict retention

• Hence retention of some pre-service teachers is not achieved

• I also found it necessary to consider extent of impact of recruitment procedures on retention

• Perceptions on the impact registered slight gender differences

• More male than females feel procedures exert a large impact on the retention

• More female than males feel procedures have some impact

• But procedures comprise various aspects that might exert their own share of extent of impact

Q3: What mentorship practices influence retention of pre-service

primary teachers?

How mentoring influences retention

• Skill transfer• Professional support• Guidance and counselling• Rapport

How mentoring fails to influence retention

• Lack of capacity building• Lack of incentives• Work overload

Mentoring practicesMentoring practices

• Most practices highly rated as useful for retention

• Varying extent of usefulness

• Professional meetings, mentor observing lessons and observing mentor’s lesson rated highly useful

• SEJ work viewed by some few participants as not useful

• Slight gender differences in perceptions on usefulness of mentoring on retention

• More females than males feel mentoring practices are useful for retention

• Fewer respondents feel SEJ work is not useful though males outnumber females

• Both male and female feel professional meetings and mentor observing lessons are useful for retention

What strategies do primary teacher education institutions follow to

promote retention?

• Upkeep allowances

• Tuition-free course

• Orientation

• Role modelling

• Community-TPS partnership

• Readmission

ConclusionConclusion• Pre-service teachers attribute various

reasons for choosing teaching career esp desire to work with children

• Reasons have a bearing on retention

• Various factors influence and impact on retention of pre-service teachers in Malawi

• primary dimensions of diversity and professional experiences have a positive correlation with retention

Recommendations Recommendations Implications for practiceImplications for practice

• Introduce tuition fees to attract committed applicants

• Regular payment of upkeep allowances to sustain motivation

• Harmonize recruitment of trainees for different professional training programmes

• Introduce oral interviews to ascertain commitment and interest for training

• Enhance the school experience journal work

Teacher retention model

Further researchFurther research

• Effect of mentors’ gender differences in respect of the mentoring practices for retention of pre-service teachers.

• Determine candidates’ commitment for primary teacher training during recruitment

• Establish impact of introducing a tuition fee- paying arrangement and non-financial incentives on retention

• Thanks to Dr Lee and Dr Peter for your commendable advice for the study

• Thanks to audience for your attention

Q & AQ & A