Teachers for Teaching: The Role of Math and Science Teachers in the Effort to Recruit More Math and Science Teachers
The Math and Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (MSPGP) was comprised of 46 school districts and 13 colleges. The researchers were charged to support and coordinate recruitment efforts within this large partnership. Those experiences shaped three core beliefs: teachers know students best and have significant influence on them; recruitment efforts that involved teachers were most successful; and teacher-driven initiatives in schools stand the best chance at being successful and sustainable.
We suspected that teachers were an underutilized resource in school district recruitment efforts. To test our claim, we posed the following two research questions: To what extent do math and science teachers promote the math and science teaching career to students within their school setting? What motivates their actions or inaction?
We also believed that the mere pursuit of the research question could motivate teachers to create ways of promoting the math and science teaching career in their school or district. Accordingly, the third research question was pursued: will participating in this study effect the teachers' actions and attitudes about promoting the teaching career?
