The Overwhelming Need: How the Unequal Political Economy Shapes Urban Teachers’ Working Conditions

Although the literature on teacher working conditions often cites student- and school-level factors as contributors to teacher turnover in high-poverty urban schools, the larger context of social and economic inequality within which these factors are situated is often overlooked. This mixed-methods...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Urban education (Beverly Hills, Calif.) Calif.), 2020-09, Vol.55 (7), p.1045-1075
Main Authors: Mirra, Nicole, Rogers, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Case studies
Disadvantaged
Ecology
Economic factors
Equal Education
High School Teachers
Human ecology
Inequality
Learning
Low Income Students
Noninstructional Responsibility
Political economy
Political Influences
Poverty
Professional Autonomy
Public Schools
School Effectiveness
Secondary school students
Secondary schools
Social inequality
Socioeconomic Influences
Stress Variables
Student Needs
Students
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher Student Relationship
Teachers
Teaching Conditions
Time Factors (Learning)
Urban areas
Urban poverty
Urban Schools
Working conditions
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Summary:Although the literature on teacher working conditions often cites student- and school-level factors as contributors to teacher turnover in high-poverty urban schools, the larger context of social and economic inequality within which these factors are situated is often overlooked. This mixed-methods study draws upon a survey of nearly 800 California public high school teachers and case studies of two high-poverty urban high schools to highlight the ways that inequality structures teacher time and student learning in these schools. We highlight efforts teachers make to meet student needs and exert professional agency within the broader social ecology of inequality.
ISSN:0042-0859
1552-8340
DOI:10.1177/0042085916668952