Reducing Teacher Turnover in Struggling Schools: Five Inquiry Methods
This paper examines how five distinct forms of academic inquiry illuminate the problem of persistent teacher turnover and stagnant academic achievement in low-income public schools receiving Title I and Title II funding. Drawing on Caldwell's Marxist critical inquiry, Fryer's randomized field experiment, Giles et al.'s phenomenological study, Johnson et al.'s ethnographic analysis, and Quinn's theoretical exploration, the paper builds a multidimensional understanding of why these schools continue to struggle despite increased funding. Each form of inquiry reveals a different layer of the problem—from class dynamics and best-practice adoption to teacher-student relationships, working conditions, and globalization—offering a richer framework for school leaders seeking effective, evidence-informed solutions.
- Introduction: The Problem of Funding and Teacher Turnover: Context for funding, turnover, and five inquiry types
- Critical Inquiry: Class, Community, and School Funding: Marxist lens on class, community, and school failure
- Scientific Inquiry: Charter School Best Practices in Public Schools: Field experiments testing charter best practices
- Hermeneutic and Phenomenological Inquiry: Relationships in Education: Teacher-student relationships and lived classroom experience
- Ethnographic Inquiry: Teacher Working Conditions and Retention: Work environment factors driving teacher attrition
- Theoretical Inquiry: Globalization, Citizenship, and Education: Theoretical frameworks linking globalization and teaching
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What makes this paper effective
- Each section is organized around a distinct form of inquiry, creating a clear and logical parallel structure that makes it easy for readers to compare methodological approaches.
- The paper consistently connects each academic study back to the real-world problem being investigated—teacher turnover and funding allocation in struggling schools—keeping the analysis grounded and purposeful.
- The author acknowledges the complementary nature of the five inquiry modes, noting, for example, how phenomenological and scientific approaches can be combined into a mixed-methods design.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied literature review methodology: rather than summarizing sources in isolation, the author evaluates each study through the lens of how its specific form of inquiry contributes to understanding a shared problem. This moves the analysis beyond description toward genuine methodological reasoning.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a problem statement establishing the educational and institutional context, then devotes one section to each of the five inquiry types—critical, scientific, hermeneutic/phenomenological, ethnographic, and theoretical. Each section introduces the relevant study, explains its methodology, and then applies the findings to the overarching research problem. A references list closes the paper.
Introduction: The Problem of Funding and Teacher Turnover
The problem identified in this study is that a public school district receives Title I and Title II funding designated to support five low-income schools that are struggling to show academic improvement. The funding has mostly gone toward teacher compensation, though some has also been used to support summer programs, data-driven professional development opportunities, and similar initiatives. Regardless of how the funds are spent, the five schools have not improved. In fact, these schools have the highest rates of attrition and teacher burnout in the district. The result is that new educators are constantly being hired and trained in these schools—the majority of them new and inexperienced. The expected outcomes of allocating funds to these schools have not been achieved: the district has seen no measurable improvement, and these schools remain struggling institutions where teacher turnover is the highest and student academic progress the lowest.
The following five articles were chosen because each approaches the subject of education from a unique form of inquiry, allowing the researcher to develop a broader perspective on the problem at hand. The five forms of inquiry identified among these studies are: Critical Inquiry, Scientific Inquiry, Hermeneutic/Phenomenological Inquiry, Ethnographic Inquiry, and Theoretical Inquiry. Each study is described and discussed in terms of how its form of inquiry uniquely illuminates an aspect of the problem described above.
References
Caldwell, P. (2012). Marxist Criticism of Public Education Funding and Social Reproduction. Colgate Academic Review, 2(10): 54–58.
Fryer, R. (2014). Injecting charter school best practices into traditional public schools: Evidence from field experiments. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(3): 1355–1407.
Giles, D., Smythe, E., & Spence, D. (2012). Exploring relationships in education: A phenomenological inquiry. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 52(2): 214–235.
Johnson, S., Kraft, M., & Papay, J. (2012). How context matters in high-need schools: The effects of teachers' working conditions on their professional satisfaction and their students' achievement. Teachers College Record, 114(10): 1–39.
Quinn, M. (2011). On natality in our roots, routes, and relations: Reconceiving the "3 R's" at the rendezvous of education, citizenship, and globalization. Teachers College Record, 113(6): 1214–1236.
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