An investigation of mid-career teachers who enter non-educational fields /

Abstract

The population studied consisted of Oklahoma public school teachers with ten years or more of service who left education in the school years 1978-1979 and 1979-1980. The population was limited to those employees who withdrew their accumulated deposits plus interest from the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System. Ninety-seven people who were currently employed in fields outside of education responded to a questionnaire developed by the researcher. From the respondents, a sample of ten individuals was selected for interviews.

The purpose of the study was to determine if persons defined as career teachers can make a successful transition to a non-education related field. The conditions leading to the decision to change careers and the assimilation of the former teachers into a new career field were among the factors analyzed.

The majority of the population consisted of married individuals in the thirty to forty age range. Men composed sixty-four percent of the study group. These date indicated: (1) Most respondents rated current job satisfaction high. (2) The majority indicated that they would not return to public school teaching. (3) After adjustment for state mandated pay raises, salaries in the current job averaged about $5,000 higher than teaching. (4) Inadequate salary and lack of administrative support were major reasons given by the respondents for leaving teaching. Using Student's t-test, a significant difference was found to exist between teaching and current job in three areas: salary, opportunity for advancement, and decision making opportunities. A chi square test which analyzed the relationship between current job satisfaction and the desire to return to public school teaching indicated that these two variables were independent of one another. Given these findings, major conclusions included: (1) The interview sample experienced mid-life transitional problems similar to those outlined by adult development theorists. (2) The feeling of self-esteem of the individual in his current job had a higher relationship to job satisfaction than did increased salary. (3) The reasons for leaving teaching had a greater impact upon the study population's decision to remain out of teaching than did current job satisfaction. (4) The majority of the former teachers made a successful transition to new careers.