Abstract

1,127 U.S. high school senior and college undergraduate perceptions of teaching’s prestige, status, and esteem were explored in this study. The population consisted of 302 high school seniors and 825 college undergraduates from the Midwestern region of the United States. The study included 51 statements where participants rated their perceptions of teaching’s prestige, status, and esteem on an 8-point Likert scale. The data was factor analyzed, and the results identified that the perceptions of teaching’s prestige consisted of financial and image perceptions. A descriptive analysis found that U.S. high school senior and college undergraduate perceptions of teaching’s financial component of prestige (M = 9.99, SD = 2.90) and esteem (M = 10.42, SD = 3.05) were more negative in comparison to status (M = 13.38, SD = 2.74).

Bivariate correlation, Univariate, and hierarchal linear regression techniques measured the effects that the perceptions of teaching’s prestige, status, and esteem had on U.S. high school seniors and college undergraduate teaching considerations. The results indicated that the perceptions of teaching’s status may encourage U.S. high school seniors and college undergraduates to consider careers in teaching, but the perceptions of esteem may produce opposite effects. The results demonstrated that the perceptions of teaching’s esteem may discourage U.S. high school seniors and college undergraduates scoring in the upper deciles of the ACT (American College Testing) from considering teaching in the United States. The results indicated that the perceptions of esteem may also discourage U.S. urban female high school seniors and college undergraduates from considering the career. Finally, the results demonstrated the perceptions of teaching’s esteem and its interaction with the financial perceptions of teaching’s prestige may discourage U.S. aspiring teachers from the career. This result raises questions as to the “roots” of the early teacher attrition problem in the United States.

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