Identifying Indicators of Mid-Career Teacher Quality: A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

The under-researched area of mid-career teacher quality in K–12 school settings is examined in this study. Even though a lot of research has been done on ‘teaching quality’, a common understanding of ‘teacher quality’ is still elusive. Moreover, where there is a multitude of literature on early career teachers, there is a gap in identifying and understanding the indicators of mid-career teacher quality. A common understanding of mid-career teacher quality is essential for research, supporting teacher professional development, retention, and maintaining teacher quality. To address this gap, this study employed sequential mixed-methods design. During the first phase, a systematic review of literature was conducted which resulted in identification of 140 indicators of mid-career teacher quality. Expanding on this basis, semi-structured interviews were carried out with educational stakeholders to investigate mid-career teacher quality based on participants’ perceptions. The interviews resulted in the identification of 794 indicators. This research study then performed an integrated synthesis of the systematic review and semi-structured interview findings, presenting a holistic set of indicators for mid-career teacher quality. The original contribution to knowledge is the identification of evidence-informed indicators of mid-career teacher quality through employing a sequential mixed-methods design. While further research is necessary to validate these findings and to develop measures for the identified indicators, this study lays the groundwork for future investigations into mid-career teacher quality.