About This Episode

Season 8. Episode 6.

Teacher shortages are affecting schools across the country, from unfilled positions and larger class sizes to fewer course options and educators being stretched increasingly thin. But after decades of attempts to solve the problem, why does it continue?

Dr. Richard Ingersoll of the University of Pennsylvania joins Education Insight to challenge some conventional thinking about America’s teacher shortage. We explore why teachers leave, the role that working conditions and teacher voice may play in their decisions, and whether schools are paying enough attention to retaining the educators they already have. The conversation also looks at an alternative approach to how teachers collaborate that could offer clues about what needs to change.

Featured Guests

Dr. Richard Ingersoll

Professor of Education and Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

Biography

After teaching in both public and private schools for a number of years, Dr. Ingersoll obtained a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. From 1995 to 2000 he was a faculty member in the Sociology Department at the University of Georgia. In 2000 he came to the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and in 2012 was appointed Board of Overseers Professor of Education and Sociology. 
Dr. Ingersoll is a leading expert on America’s elementary and secondary teaching force. His research examines teaching as a job, teachers as employees, and schools as workplaces—from a teacher’s pre-employment training through their last day in the classroom. Dr. Ingersoll is widely published, nationally recognized, frequently quoted in the media, and has received numerous awards for his teaching, research and writing.  He has given hundreds of keynote addresses, speeches and presentations to diverse audiences, including teachers, researchers, educational leaders, and policy makers at the national, state, and local levels.

For more information visit: www.richardingersoll.com