The Boyer Model of Scholarship and Teacher Recruitment
Western Carolina University’s recent adoption of the Boyer Model of Scholarship provides unique opportunities for Teacher Recruitment to collaborate with the research agendas of our colleagues.
The programming in Teacher Recruitment provides a lab setting for research conducted by Western Carolina University students and faculty.
Current research settings include:
• Teacher Cadet High School Classes
• Teacher recruitment visits occur weekly in middle school, high school, and community college settings.
Research topics of interest in Teacher Recruitment:
• Teacher recruitment strategies for middle school students
• Teacher recruitment strategies for high school students
• Teacher recruitment strategies for community college students
• College access practices for high school students
• Strategies to increase high school graduation rates
The results of the study Teacher Recruitment, Rural Schools and Student Teachers’ Perceptions of Effective Teacher Recruitment Strategies for Rural North Carolina Schools (Elliott, 2008) contributed to the body of research on teacher recruitment strategies and the interpretation of this study’s findings have implications for further research. The following are suggestions for future research:
• Replicate the study with student teachers in adjoining states with similar rural to urban ratios.
• Expand the teacher recruitment strategies within the four categories of financial, media, interpersonal and technological and replicate the study in North Carolina.
• Replicate the study longitudinally to investigate changes in the student teachers’ perceptions.
• Expand this study to assess additional categories of recruitment strategies: financial, media, interpersonal and technological. Each category could serve as a stand alone empirical study.
• Replicate this study at each individual university to provide a profile of employment preferences and use the results to improve teacher preparation with regard to urban and rural strategies.
• Replicate the study with the support of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) and the University of North Carolina General Administration (UNC-GA) to increase the return rate and the number of participants.