Initial Post
Since the pandemic, there has been an increase in teacher attrition. My topic of research interest is centered around effective school leadership. I had the opportunity to serve as a campus principal in a charter school setting for seven years. I am interested in researching the leadership practices of charter school principals and their effects on teacher attrition.
A philosophical orientation that best describes my worldview is the constructivist perspective. Constructivism posits that meaning and knowledge are constructed through interactions of individuals and it is through these interactions that shared meanings and truths are cocreated (Ponterotto, 2005 as cited in Burkholder et al., 2020).
I believe my ontological belief is relativism. My ontological assumption is that there are possibly many reasons for teacher attrition. Relativists subscribe to the belief that knowledge is determined by contextual circumstances, including historical, subjective, cultural or institutional (Kim, 1999 as cited in Burkholder et al., 2020). Epistemology is the study of knowledge and guides us to ask questions about what we know and how we can know it. (Burkholder et al., 2020). Because of this belief, my epistemological position is based on a modified objectivity position.
To determine the effects, if any, that principal leadership practices have on teacher attrition, I will need to collect data through interviews and interactions. So, a qualitative approach will be used for my research topic.
References
Babbie, E. (2017).
Basics of social research
(7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Burkholder, G. J., Cox, K. A., Crawford, L. M., & Hitchcock, J. H. (2020).
Research designs and methods: An applied guide for the
scholar-practitioner.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
