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Becoming High Turnover Rates Among Teachers

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Definition of the Problem Higher education has been experiencing high turnover rates among teachers. According to Gonzalez and Brown (2008), the NEA (National Education Association) reported that 20% of recently hired teachers will leave the profession within the first three years (Gonzalez & Brown, 2008). In urban areas, however, 50% of teachers will leave the classroom within the same timeframe (p. 2). This is due to low wages, personal dissatisfaction, and emotional/social factors (p.2). Such factors contribute to teacher burnout. Burnout is a syndrome comprised of the following risk factors: emotional exhaustion; depersonalization, and reduced sense of accomplishment. Bates (2012) stated that teacher burnout stems from increasing dependency on them by academic institutions. In fact, approximately 41% of contingent faculty (from both 2-year and 4-year institutions) believe that there is limited job security for them in academe (Bates, 2012). In addition to this, Bates (2012) also reported a scarcity of resources to augment the problem: no library access or privileges; limited access to telephones, mailboxes, and computers in the classrooms, and lack of office space for adjuncts (Bates, 2012). Personal characteristics are contingent upon demographic factors (i.e., relationships with different cultural/ethnic groups), lack of administrative and/or social support, and high job expectations (p. 53). Role conflict, role overload, role ambiguity, and unhealthy
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