This chapter presents the conclusions based on the previous analysis of the data studied.
It also includes research implications, practical implications, limitations and future research suggestions.
Conclusions
The aim of this study was to examine some possible factors such as personal (appraisal of meaningfulness, family/work conflict, and financial constraint), task (pressure of work), and work environment (management support and collegial support) that could be influencing either positively or negatively, teachers’ participation in teacher certification education in Belize. These variables have been proven in literature as having an impact on teachers’
decision to participate in learning activities.
As highlighted in Kwakman’s (2003) framework these factors had an effect on her previous study and this study adopted those variables that were significant in her study.
However, the findings of this research when applied to a different population and area prove differently compared to her outcomes. Only three of these variables, one from each personal and contextual factor had an effect on teachers’ participation in certification education in Belize.
Firstly, appraisal of meaningfulness had the most significant value within the teaching force. It seems that teachers value their profession and are willing to continue studying for their benefit, financially and knowledge-wise, and also to improve students’ performance.
Secondly, pressure of work had significant effect on teachers but in a positive direction contrary to what was hypothesized. This scenario is possibly due to the reinforcement of the education policy for teachers to become certified and trained or to be enrolled in a program towards certification education before the end of June 2014; this is a requirement for them to remain in the teaching force. Thirdly, management support had a significant effect on teachers. This implies that having principals that are more supportive to their staff, it is more likely that their teachers will participate in certification education.
Similarly findings from Yeh and Tun’s (2014) qualitative study held in Belize about factors influencing government primary school teachers’ participation in CPD revealed that appraisal of meaningfulness and management support positively influences teachers’ decision to participate in certification education. However, contrary to the findings of this study, pressure of work was found to negatively influence their decision.
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With regards to the demographic variables – age, gender, and tenure in current job position – which were used as controlled variables, it was found that age had a strong negative influence on teachers’ PTCE. This can be explained that in Belize there are a number of young teachers that are working with only content knowledge education. Perhaps considering their profession to be meaningful and causing an urge in them to become prepared in certification education to enable their work to be more effective and efficient will produce positive results in children’s performance as is expected.
The findings also highlighted that gender had a significant positive influence on female teacher’s participation in certification education. The population of teachers is not only young in age but also is significantly represented by females. Based on the researcher’s personal experience as a teacher, females tend to be more tolerant to the pressure generated by the day to day activities at school. Even so, many of the female teachers were enrolled in a certification education program rather than male teachers. Nonetheless, due to the implementation of the reinforcement of the education policy, this situation is causing a higher impact on younger teachers both females and males. These teachers will become part of the new generation of certified and trained professional within the educational field.
Finally, this study found no significant effect of tenure in current job position on teachers’ participation in certification education.
An interesting finding of this research is that teachers with an associate’s degree from the demographic variable, highest educational qualification level which was not controlled for, had a higher intention of upgrading their education in pedagogy than the group of teachers with a master’s degree.
Research Implications
This study highlights that existing personal and contextual factors are important in teachers’ participation in certification education. As previously researched, personal factors appear to be more significant in teachers’ participation in learning activities than task and work environment factors. Likewise, this study found that in Belize, teachers appraised the meaningfulness of continuing professional development to add to their well-being as a teacher. Over the years it has been noted that once a teacher enters the profession, they learn as they gain experience and tend to remain in the profession.
Similarly, contextual factors such as task and work environment also had significant effect on teachers’ participation in certification education as shown in the results of the correlation and the regression analysis. This concurs with the previous study of Kwakman
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(2003), which found that task and work environment factors to an extent affect teachers’
participation in an indirect manner and in accordance with the existing personal factor.
Pressure of work appeared to be positively significant to PTCE in a different direction reaffirming that the implementation of the reinforcement of the education policy has been a success in motivating teachers to further their education in pedagogical content knowledge despite a hectic work schedule. As reported previously, management support had a significant effect on PTCE as stated in a previous study of Stockard and Lehman (2004) that teacher’s school management with more effective principals influences their participation and satisfaction, based on the school settings that they are employed in. As a result they can have greater time control, participation in decision making, and a sense of inclusion and ownership than those that are not.
After an extended analysis of the demographics, only age, gender and highest educational qualification level had a significant effect on PTCE. Mainly young female teachers are interested in participating in a formal CPD, majoring in pedagogy. For the variable highest educational qualification level, the significant differences between associate’s degree and master’s degree teachers reveal that, there is the need for the establishment of more educational institutions across the country, especially, to offer pedagogical studies or an Associate’s Degree in Primary Education as being required as an upgrade for all those teachers that only possess an associate’s degree in other disciplines.
Practical Implications
In Belize the percentages of uncertified and untrained teachers are 43.6% and 71% at primary and secondary level respectively, with non-existing data at tertiary level education.
This is an alarming indication for the Ministry of Education (MoE) and school principals to be concerned with. As the findings of this study reveals, only three of the six personal and contextual factors and three demographics: age, gender and highest educational qualification level studied, significantly affects teachers’ decision on their participation in certification education.
In addition, this study is among the first of its kind when it comes to studying teachers and factors affecting them, to answer the question proposed by the MoE of why teachers do not feel the urge to uplift themselves from a content knowledge to a pedagogical content knowledge prospective.
Furthermore, these teachers appraised their profession as meaningful are more likely to continue studying. This may be a turning point for the MoE to find measures to assist these
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teachers to uplift their education level. Pressure of work in the sense of daily workload at school was shown to have a positive influence on teachers’ participation in certification education, despite the workload they face. This response could also be due to the implementation of the reinforcement of the education policy in reference to proper teachers’
certification. However, if the government formulates an incentive plan or schedule a time during the normal school year allowing teachers to participate in certification education then, this reinforcement of the policy will become productive. In addition, the support of the school management concerning principals set a communication channel between themselves and teachers and MoE and teachers. Encouraging dialogue facilitates the route to certification since all parties will be working towards the same goal.
Moreover, the indication of the results of the influence that the demographics: age, gender and highest educational qualification level have on PTCE, certainly indicates to the MoE to work on making policies that will suffice their needs of young female teachers that are not fully equipped in the profession. By doing so it is likely that the percentage of uncertified teachers will decrease and there will be an influx of vibrant professionals.
Extended from the aforementioned, additional suggestions include the following. Firstly, it would be beneficial for the MoE through the government to establish a unit for professional development to combat the problem of uncertified and untrained teachers. Secondly, it can create a link between professional growth and development through a quality assurance mechanism for those teachers with content knowledge education. Thirdly, it can provide time for teachers to participate in professional development activities. Fourthly, it can allocate more financial and material resources for professional development at schools. Lastly, as this is a continuous problem the MoE is facing, standardizing the entrance of teachers within the profession would decrease this situation to a more suitable expectation.
This accountability of actions to a certain extent will reap the benefits of a lower percentage of uncertified and untrained teachers throughout the country, with well prepared and satisfied teachers and a growth of expected performance level of students.
Limitations
Firstly, the use of online survey as one of the methods of collection was somewhat not effective since internet access was not available as predicted by the researcher. Secondly, the researcher faced limitation with the distance between her location (Taiwan) and the country of origin of the sample (Belize). Thirdly, the availability of literature on Belize’s education
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both on writing and on the internet was limited causing the study to become a challenge. Due to lack of the above mentioned, the sample size of the population was limited since not all uncertified teachers throughout the country have been reached as expected by the researcher.
Therefore, the findings of this research may not be generalized to all teachers in Belize.
Lastly, using data from a self-report survey may cause a common method variance problem but through the Harmon’s one-factor test which showed that the largest factor in the EFA has only accounted for 25. 4% of the variance, CMV was minimized.
Suggestions for Future Research
The independent variables selected by this study only represented 42% of the effects on the dependent variable, which means that there may be other personal and contextual factors affecting teachers’ decision on participating in certification education. Therefore, future studies on teachers’ participation should be explored with different factors besides the ones in this study and previous studies. The research method should use a paper and pencil survey adapting to the Belizean culture. Due to the lack of studies conducted in the Central American Region considering the problem of factors influencing teachers’ participation in certification education, it would be interesting to make a comparison within countries in this region.
After knowing which factors are affecting teachers’ participation in certification education in Belize, further research could be conducted on how to formulate better strategies and plans to master this problem from a teachers’ perspective.
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