Pathways into Teaching

This dissertation is about teacher education and employment in Russia, with a particular focus on correspondence teacher education programs. Correspondence education is the focus of the study because it is typically excluded from research on teachers in Russia, and thus little empirical knowledge exists for the evaluation and comparison of correspondence program outcomes among teacher education graduates. The two major types of higher education programs in Russia are daytime (students acquire content by attending lectures) and correspondence (students acquire content through independent reading). The research questions in the dissertation are: (a) how does recruitment into teaching differ for daytime and correspondence educated teachers (including who applies to the two different types of study programs)?, and (b) how does the type of study program (daytime or correspondence) impact employment at school level? Primary data were gathered in Russia from school records (quantitative) and interviews (qualitative) with schoolteachers, directors, teacher education program students and faculty, and education policy makers. The qualitative analysis include the development of two typologies of students, the daytime and correspondence groups, with special attention to their decisions in choosing institutions of higher education, enrolling in programs of study, and career networking after graduation. The cycle of recruitment into teaching describes the real work and life circumstances for prospective and current teachers in Russia. The quantitative analysis includes ordinary least squares regression to test relationships between teacher variables, such as rate of pay and years of experience, across the daytime and correspondence program groups. The quantitative findings indicate some differences between daytime and correspondence educated teachers in employment at the school level, although the type of education program was not a very influential factor. The study contributes to research on teachers in Russia by substantiating and deepening knowledge about university enrollment, in particular into correspondence education, and about professional programs for current and future teachers in Russia.