Assessing Differences Between Ethnic Groups on Teaching Interests, Self-Efficacy, and Outcome Expectations for Ninth Grade Students

• Main Author: Udosenata, Iton-Etok
• Other Authors: Martinez, Charles
• Language: en_US
• Published: University of Oregon 2018
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/23781

Minority teacher representation is disproportionately low in the state of Oregon, especially for African-American, Hispanic/Latino and Native American students. To date, the Oregon State Department of Education has unsuccessfully invested in addressing the Achievement Gap by investing in minority teacher recruitment and retention: as a result, recent initiatives to increase minority teacher recruitment and retention have generated low outcomes. Many minority teacher recruitment initiatives target college age minority students to increase ethnic diversity in the teaching field. Extant research employed theories, such as Critical Race Theory, and Social Cognitive Career Theory, to explain environmental and psychological factors that influence minorities in various aspects of society. However, there is a gap in research that utilizes said theories to explore minority student aspirations as it pertains to the teaching profession. This manuscript uses a quantitative method to analyze relationships and differences between ethnic groups on teaching interests, self-efficacy for teaching, and outcome expectations for ninth grade students. The results of this study can be used to better understand teaching interests. The results can also be used for to make recommendations for statewide strategies to diversify teacher pathway programs.