The Impact of Dual Enrollment Teachers for Tomorrow Programs on Participants' Intentions to Enter the Teaching Profession

Impending teacher shortages are a major concern in K-12 education. One potential way to grow the pipeline of new teachers is dual enrollment (DE) Teachers for Tomorrow (TfT) programs, which expose students to teaching careers and allow them to earn high school and college credits simultaneously. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the impact of TfT programs on participants' attitudes toward the teaching profession, which in turn could influence their later career choices. The findings are contextualized through Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB), which posits that attitudes toward a behavior are a major determinant of the decision to engage in that behavior. A time-series design was employed to measure the attitudes of a sample of 27 enrollees three times over the course a school year, using similar forms of a survey designed for the South Carolina Center for Teacher Recruitment and Retention. The findings of the study indicated there were small, statistically nonsignificant improvements in student attitudes toward entering the teaching profession, their beliefs in their ability to earn a degree in education, and many specific facets of teaching. Supplemental findings included evidence that students' decisions to enroll in the course were only slightly influenced by either the influence of people close to them or the ability to earn college credit, and none of the specific aspects of teaching surveyed contributed significantly to their overall attitudes toward becoming teachers. Although the study did not provide convincing evidence of the value of DE TfT programs, a number of recommendations for further research and actions for practitioners and policymakers are suggested based on the findings. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]