| dc.description.abstract | The purposes of this study were to determine whether variables reported in
previous research on teacher turnover could be reduced to a number of factors, and to
determine how those resulting factors affected career longevity in band directors. Career
longevity was defined as the total number of years teaching. Literature on teacher
turnover was reviewed, a list of variables from previous research was created, and an
online questionnaire that collected demographic information and data to address the
research questions was developed. Over 3,200 middle-school and high-school band
directors in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee were
invited to participate. Of the 270 directors who completed the online questionnaire, 226
responses were usable in analysis (N = 226). Mean number of years teaching was 16 (SD
= 10.23) and median years at current position was 5 (SD = 7.36), suggesting that most
directors had held more than one teaching position. Data for total teaching experience and
time at current position were heavily skewed toward less time teaching. Factor analysis
confirmed that data reduction to 3 factors which qualitatively resembled Environmental,
Personal, and Educational categories from the review of literature was the best fit, but
only accounted for 24.7% of variance in career longevity due to a high amount of shared
variance. It was also suggested that perhaps the Environmental factor in this study was
really a measure of the construct known as job satisfaction, which appears frequently in
turnover literature. Multiple regression analysis with career longevity as criterion variable
and Environmental, Personal, and Educational as predictors accounted for only 12.0% of
variance in career longevity, R2 = .120, F(3, 191) = 8.647, p < .001. Environmental made
the strongest unique contribution to variance, b = .346, t(200) = 4.713, p < .001.
Educational made a smaller but significant contribution, and the contribution of Personal
was not significant. Again a high amount of shared variance between variables was
observed. Band directors in positions where their Environmental compatibility is low
may be at greatest risk to leave or move. Those directors in positions where their
compatibility with the environment is highest may be the most likely to stay, regardless
of other variables. This view of Environment as a factor of career longevity places critical
importance on the compatibility of the band director with the environment in which they
will be teaching for optimal career longevity. | en |
