NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ1428662
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-May
Pages: 28
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0195-6744
EISSN: EISSN-1549-6511
"Love the One You're With": The Logic(s) of School Leaders' Approaches to Human Capital Management
Naomi L. Blaushild; Jennifer L. Seelig
American Journal of Education, v130 n3 p427-454 2024
Purpose: Research shows that school leadership and working conditions strongly predict teacher turnover, but less empirical work has explored how school leaders grapple with this aspect of their work. This article investigates how school leaders across diverse geographic and institutional contexts understand human capital challenges and construct approaches to improve adult culture and teacher retention. Research Methods/Approach: This cross-case analysis includes interviews with 23 school leaders from four different public school systems (charter, suburban, rural, urban). Using both inductive and deductive coding approaches, we analyze how school leaders understand and approach human capital challenges and the logics they invoke in doing so. Findings: Perceiving teacher supply and dismissal challenges as outside of their control, leaders primarily focused on managing the adult culture of their schools to improve teacher retention. This focus raised additional challenges for school leaders around generating teacher buy-in and attending to teacher well-being. Whereas school leaders across different contexts named similar strategies for generating teacher buy-in around school or system-wide goals, some leaders framed focusing on teacher well-being as being in tension with their responsibilities to student outcomes. Implications: This work contributes to the literature on school leadership and teacher retention, which highlights school leadership as a point of intervention for stemming teacher attrition. Understanding how school leaders locate challenges, construct priorities, and manage the human capital side of their work is paramount to improving school leader preparation and support, teacher retention, and student outcomes.
University of Chicago Press. Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005, Chicago, IL 60637. Tel: 877-705-1878; Tel: 773-753-3347; Fax: 877-705-1879; Fax: 773-753-0811; e-mail: subscriptions@press.uchicago.edu; Web site: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/aje/about
Related Records: ED661608
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A