Veteran Teacher Commitment: Veteran Teachers in Their Own Words

Abstract

The commitment of veteran teachers is vitally important to schools. Their commitment to public education can be used in leadership roles to identify challenges and remove barriers of public education. The current literature is clear that teacher commitment is related to many positive outcomes, and there is a great deal about the commitment of novice and mid-career teachers. Yet, there is little available information about veteran teacher commitment. This qualitative, interview-based study addressed this deficit by using veteran teacher descriptions to illuminate the nature of veteran teacher commitment. This study finds veteran teachers in this study are very positive and their commitment has generative qualities.