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1. Faculty perception insights obtained from faculty interviews during the development of the Perceptions of Teaching as a Profession in Higher Education (PTaP.HE) instrument

   https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2020.pr.Pearson_III  

   Pearson III, Richard L.; Logan, Savannah L.; Adams, Wendy K. (September 2020, 2020 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings)

   Wolf, Steven F.; Bennett, Michael B.; Frank, Brian W. (Ed.)

   Results from the Perceptions of Teaching as a Profession (PTaP) instrument--which measures views students have of the grade 7-12 teaching career--prompted the development of a parallel instrument to measure the perceptions of the grade 7-12 teaching profession in the eyes of those advising and influencing student opinions of the profession: the faculty. Thirty faculty interviews were conducted across four different institutions of higher education as part of the development of the Perceptions of Teaching as a Profession in Higher Education (PTaP.HE) instrument, which investigates faculty opinions, accuracy of information, and thoughts regarding grade 7-12 teaching. The instrument measures the perceived supportive (or unsupportive) nature of a department towards the teaching profession, guide teacher preparation organizations on how to approach faculty, and correlate students' perceptions with their influencers. Faculty interviews verified statement interpretation consistency, while also providing anecdotal insights into faculty views. 

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2. College faculty support for grade 7-12 teaching careers: survey results and comparisons to student perceptions

   https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2020.pr.Logan  

   Logan, Savannah L.; Breakall, Jared B.; Pearson, Richard L.; Adams, Wendy K. (September 2020, 2020 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings)

   Wolf, Steven F.; Bennett, Michael B.; Frank, Brian W. (Ed.)

   The United States is facing a critical shortage of grade 7-12 teachers in the STEM disciplines, particularly in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Faculty members play a major role in their students' career choices, and faculty members' perceptions of the profession may determine whether students choose to pursue teaching. To this end, we developed two surveys to measure student and faculty perceptions of grade 7-12 teaching. We found that both groups hold many incorrect beliefs about teaching careers. Furthermore, we found that faculty members believe they are quite supportive of future teachers, while students perceive that they are less supportive. Our findings highlight the need for both faculty members and students to be informed about the benefits of careers in grade 7-12 teaching. Additionally, our results suggest that faculty members should work to dispel their internal biases surrounding the teaching profession, which may inadvertently drive students away from grade 7-12 teaching. 

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3. Professional Decision Making: Reframing Teachers’ Work Using Epistemic Frame Theory

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67788-6_18  

   Phillips, Michael; Siebert-Evenstone, Amanda; Kessler, Aaron; Gasevic, Dragan; Shaffer, David W. (January 2021, Advances in Quantitative Ethnography: Second International Conference, ICQE 2020, Malibu, CA, USA, February 1-3, 2021, Proceedings)

   Ruis, Andrew R.; Lee, Seung B. (Ed.)

   For many outside the profession, teaching looks simple and straightforward; however, for those working in classrooms, it can be a challenging task. In this paper we argue that teaching is a complex profession that requires both novice and expert educators alike to engage students in sets of activities aimed at transforming their understanding of a subject area. This work requires complex planning, enacting instruction, and reflecting on outcomes. In a moment to moment basis teachers must make decisions and iterate on previously made decisions in order to provide effective opportunities for students to engage with the materials, skills or content to be learned. In this paper, we aim to highlight the complexity of the decision-making process and, in doing so we make the argument that individual teachers’ decisionmaking draws upon a personal epistemic frame which includes factors such as skills, knowledge, identity, values, and epistemology. We provide examples of previous research efforts that have attempted to explore such factors and the limitations, both philosophical and methodological shortcomings of such attempts. Finally, we propose that the use of Quantitative Ethnography and Epistemic Frame Theory provides new opportunities to interrogate teachers’ practices and decision-making as a way to better understand the complexity of teacher work. 

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4. A comparison of student perceptions of the teaching profession at minority-serving and non-minority-serving institutions

   https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2021.pr.logan  

   Logan, Savannah L.; Breakall, Jared B.; Adams, Wendy K. (October 2021, Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings)

   There is an ongoing shortage of STEM teachers in the United States, and the teaching profession consistently struggles to recruit a diverse body of teachers whose demographics match those of their students. The shortage of STEM teachers and the lack of diversity in the profession have negative implications for student success in STEM fields, particularly among underrepresented groups. We have developed a survey and collected data on student perceptions of the teaching profession at 46 Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) across the country, including several Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). We have analyzed these data with respect to institution type to determine whether perceptions of the profession may be a factor in recruiting and retaining a diverse body of teachers. We found that perceptions generally do not differ greatly between MSIs and non-MSIs and that students at MSIs tend to have slightly more positive views than those at non-MSIs. We also found that some variation exists for individual institution types, particularly Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). 

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5. Beginning teacher’s trajectory of identity formation in the figured worlds of reform and traditional instruction

   Ben-Dor, Naama; Buchbinder, Orly (January 2025, Proceedings of the 46th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME-NA))

   Kosko, K; Caniglia, J; Courtney, S; Zolfaghari, M; Morris, G (Ed.)

   Transitioning from a teacher education program to autonomous teaching is a complex process, fraught with challenges. This transition involves developing identities and teaching practices that allow novice teachers to reconcile the reformed teaching world of their teacher preparation program with the more traditional world of school teaching. In this paper, we follow the identity formation of one beginning teacher, Olive, by examining her narratives about her pedagogical actions as she transitions from being a pre-service teacher (PST) to being an intern (INT) to becoming a new teacher (NT). As PST, Olive’s narratives about her current and desired actions aligned with reform actions; as INT, a gap opened between her current traditional actions and desired reform actions; and as NT, the gap narrowed as she modified her desired narratives to more traditional ones. We discuss our findings and their scientific significance. 

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