Conference Agenda
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99 ERC SES 04 K: Teaching and learning with purpose
Paper Session
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| Presentations | ||
99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Paper Exploring Teachers’ Professional Purposes: Developing a New Measurement Instrument 1: Tampere University, Finland; 2: Tampere Institute for Advanced Study Presenting Author:Teaching is inherently goal-oriented, and teachers’ professional ethics emphasize the committed nature of the teaching profession. Teachers set professional purposes for their work; in this study, these refer to long-term and personally meaningful goals that teachers are committed to pursuing as part of their professional practice (Damon et al., 2003, p. 121; Tirri & Kuusisto 2019, p. 62). As educational systems face multiple societal challenges, there is a need for a better understanding of teachers’ professional civic purposes. Professional civic purposes can be defined as motivated and sustained intentions to contribute through work to the world beyond the self, engaging with civic issues in concrete and practical ways. We examine the applicability of the Professional Purposes in Teaching -scale (PPT) for investigating pre- and in-service teachers’ professional purposes through three sub-studies. The scale was developed based on an analysis of qualitative survey data on student teachers’ professional purposes (Kuusisto & Rissanen, 2023). It measures student teacher’s professional purposes across three dimensions: pedagogical purposes (subscales: growth & learning; care & wellbeing), self-oriented purposes (subscales: self-actualization; stability & security), and civic purposes. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used Data for the sub-studies were collected from Finnish in-service teachers in lower secondary schools (Study 1, spring 2024, n = 575), Finnish student teacher (study 2, spring 2025, n = 203) and Finnish and German student teachers (study 3, fall 2025). For the data collection, an electronic self-report questionnaire was created using the LimeSurvey platform. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The data were collected in spring 2025 in collaboration with teacher educators. The psychometric properties of the scale were assessed using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. In Study 1, the PPT scale consisted of 22 items, whereas in Study 2 it included 29 items. In both studies, respondents rated the items on a 9‑point Likert scale (0 = not at all important, 8 = extremely important). In Study 1, the civic purposes dimension comprised three subcategories: making the world a better place, social sustainability, and ecological sustainability. In Study 2, the latter two were combined into a single dimension named ecological and social sustainability. In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with principal axis factoring and Direct oblimin rotation was conducted to identify the underlying factor structure among in-service teachers. Based on the factor solution, seven dimensions of professional purposes could be identified. For each factor, a sum variable was created, and their internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. To examine the professional purposes among teachers and student teachers, group comparisons were conducted between different teacher groups. Independent samples t‑tests and one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used in these comparisons, for variables that did not meet the assumption of normality, group comparisons were conducted using non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis or Mann–Whitney U tests. We present the factor structure of the PPT-scale, the manifestation of different professional purposes among teachers and student teachers and discuss the significance of our findings for the development of teacher education. Data collection for the third sub-study is still ongoing at the time of the submission. The analysis will include testing measurement invariance to ensure the validity and reliability of the PPT across Finnish and German contexts. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The first sub-study showed that Finnish in-service teachers scored highest in social sustainability (M = 6.57, SD = 1.33) and lowest in ecological sustainability (M = 5.57, SD = 1.57). Women reported significantly higher self-assessed professional civic purpose than men across all subdimensions. Significant differences were also found across age groups in social sustainability, F(2, 508) = 4.156, p < .016, and ecological sustainability, F(2, 508) = 12.231, p < .001, as well as across teaching experience in ecological sustainability, F(3, 507) = 5.785, p < .001. The second sub-study showed Finnish student teachers rated highest in care & wellbeing (M = 6.80, SD = 1.11) and lowest in stability & security (M = 5.40, SD = 1.61). Student teachers’ self-assessments of their professional civic purposes showed significant gender differences only in the social and ecological sustainability subcategory, t(35.048) = 3.207, p <.003. Women reported higher scores across all subdimensions compared to men. No significant differences were found across age groups, duration of studies, or teacher education programs. Study 1 provided an initial assessment of the scale among in-service teachers, illustrating how professional purposes manifest in practice. Study 2 focused on student teachers, enabling examination of the factor structure, at an early stage of professional purpose development. Study 3 will further strengthen validity evidence by assessing cross-cultural comparability. Differences in professional civic purposes among student teachers were observed only between genders. However, among in-service teachers, the highest ratings for professional civic purposes were found among those with the most teaching experience. Teacher education should aim to deepen understanding of the importance of promoting sustainability and strengthen student teachers’ ability to integrate it across subjects. For in-service teachers, differences in professional civic purposes should be addressed through training that supports teachers in enhancing sustainability in their teaching and school community. References Damon, W., Menon, J. & Bronk, K. C. (2003). The development of purpose during adolescence. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 119–128. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532480XADS0703_2 Kuusisto, E., & Rissanen, I. (2023). Kohti päämäärätietoista yhteiskunnallista opettajuutta? Opettajaopiskelijoiden tulevalle työlleen asettamat päämäärät. Kasvatus, 54(4), 385–398. https://doi.org/10.33348/kvt.138074 Tirri, K., & Kuusisto, E. (2019). Opettajan ammattietiikkaa oppimassa. Gaudeamus. 99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Paper The Rising Tide of School Avoidance, Educator Perspectives. Maynooth University, Ireland Presenting Author:School is a central context for development (Heyne et al., 2019), and regular school attendance is a foundational competency for children and adolescents. School absenteeism has been linked to both short-term and long-term negative consequences. (Kearney et. al, 2019, p. 1). Absence from school jeopardises children’s and adolescents’ education, social and emotional development, age-appropriate socialisation, and peer relationships. (Melvin et. al, 2019; Thambirajah, Grandison, and De-Heyes, 2008). School attendance and completion are important benchmarks of successful development; unfortunately, school absenteeism and dropout remain prevalent and devastating among young people. (Kearney, C. and Graczyk, P., 2020, p.316). The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption to education from Early Years settings to post-16 years of education (Bowyer-Crane, 2021). Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicate that the COVID-19 crisis caused school closures in 188 countries and resulted in disruption to the learning process of more than 1.7 billion children and youth. (OECD, Education Working Papers, 2020). In terms of the Irish context, to safeguard human life and curb human casualties, the Irish government took swift action on the 13th of March 2020, to close all schools, amongst other things, and move to remote learning. Remote learning had not been part of the Irish education landscape. Schools were forced to close and remained closed until their reopening in September 2020. Absenteeism from school is not a new phenomenon. The issue of absenteeism, however, is multifaceted and difficult to determine. Many factors may contribute to student absenteeism, necessitating interventions and approaches tailored to the specific needs of individual students. This study is informed by critical realism as a primary framework, with a supporting framework of Ecological Systems Theory. This is a hierarchical pairing of frameworks, where critical realism will be used to analyse education professionals' accounts as situated knowledge, not as transparent truth. This study is concerned with how Irish post-primary educators interpret and respond professionally to student school avoidance. Given the multifaceted nature of school attendance difficulties, which are shaped by individual, relational, institutional, and policy-related factors, a theoretical framework was required that could account for the complexity of educators’ professional experiences and decision-making. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979, 2005) serves as a supporting framework for critical realism, as it enables an exploration of educators’ responses to school avoidance within the broader systems that influence educational practice in Ireland. Adolescent years are formative, and during the restrictive measures of the pandemic, adolescents missed out on social events crucial for building relationships, identity formation, and socialisation. These effects are still fully unknown, but the pandemic has brought into sharp focus a school attendance crisis in many countries. (Connolly, S., Constable, H., and Mullaly, S., 2023, p.1). Current research suggests that chronic absenteeism, and school avoidance, which “is frequently described as having trouble going to school, staying home with parents’ knowledge of nonattendance” (Yan, 2023, p.627) or school phobia refers to “a situation where there is a fearful inability to attend school” (Sinha, 2021, p.485), and partial attendance has increased among adolescents and has resulted in learning loss and widening attainments gaps among students. On May 19th, 2025, the Irish Minister for Education and Youth announced the escalating issue of school absenteeism in Ireland. The alarming statistics from the 2022/2023 academic year, where over 110,000 primary and 65,000 post-primary students missed 20 or more school days, indicate a rising issue with school attendance. A comprehensive suite of targeted and universal actions aimed at improving attendance in Irish Primary and Post-Primary schools was announced. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used It was important to understand education professionals' interpretations of school avoidance and how they contextualise it in relation to their professional working lives. A methodology that allowed participants to explore their understandings of school avoidance, that allowed them to discover meanings, and captured rich, complex information in what they chose to share was crucial. The research design employed for this project was a sequential mixed methods design. A mixed-methods design was used to provide a deeper understanding of this phenomenon, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data to provide background knowledge and scope out the lay of the land. A survey of post-primary educators was first used to gather data. Surveys allowed data to be gathered from a wide geographic reach through anonymous responses. This allowed a broad insight into educators’ perspectives on school avoidance. A link to an expression of interest to participate in an interview was included in the survey. Surveys were emailed to schools’ email addresses contained on the Department of Education and Youth website, asking that it be shared internally with all educators in the schools. The link in the email directed the participants to a Microsoft Form questionnaire. The form provided information and consent that had to be completed before continuing the survey. The survey also contained an embedded link to an expression of interest in participating in an interview. The social media platform LinkedIn was also used to share the link to the survey to attract more responses. This was sent out in a post on my LinkedIn account, requesting educators in post-primary schools to take part. It was estimated that 150-200 responses would be gathered from the survey, and 10-15 interviews with education professionals would be conducted. Integrating quantitative and qualitative findings in this mixed-methods approach informs practice, illuminating education professionals’ insights, interpretations, and contextual constraints that shape their responses to student school avoidance. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings I hope this study will contribute to the existing literature and help address a gap in the research. This study will offer a lens concerning Irish post-primary education professionals’ voices, and what they said will inform how they understand and interpret school avoidance. This study aims to contribute to the field by hearing first-hand perspectives on educators' experiences with school avoidance and the challenges they face in their professional lives that hinder their abilities and stand in the way of providing adequate support for these students. Hearing these perspectives may offer a valuable insight into better professional training and support resources, increasing knowledge and awareness, better networked approaches among education partners, improved collaboration, and a reduction in barriers to help education professionals better support students with school avoidance. This topic concerns education professionals and their experiences with school avoidance relating to students. Teaching and educational policy have seen rapid transformations and new constructivist theories, and theories in learning, life-long learning, as well as the impact of neo-liberal policies that shift responsibilities from governments and the state to individuals. (Biesta, 2015). Researching how school avoidance impacts the workload, capacity, reputation, and emotional toil of educators is worth understanding. References 1.Heyne, D., Gren-Landell, M., Melvin, G. and Gentle-Genitty, C., 2019. Differentiation between school attendance problems: Why and how?. Cognitive and behavioral practice, 26(1), pp.8-34. 2.Kearney, C.A., Gonzálvez, C., Graczyk, P.A. and Fornander, M.J., 2019. Reconciling contemporary approaches to school attendance and school absenteeism: Toward promotion and nimble response, global policy review and implementation, and future adaptability (Part 1). Frontiers in psychology, 10, p.2222. 3.Melvin, G.A., Heyne, D., Gray, K.M., Hastings, R.P., Totsika, V., Tonge, B.J. and Freeman, M.M., 2019, June. The Kids and Teens at School (KiTeS) framework: An inclusive bioecological systems approach to understanding school absenteeism and school attendance problems. In Frontiers in education (Vol. 4, p. 61). Frontiers Media SA. 4.Kearney, C.A. and Graczyk, P.A., 2020. A multidimensional, multi-tiered system of supports model to promote school attendance and address school absenteeism. Clinical child and family psychology review, 23(3), pp.316-337. 5.Bowyer-Crane, C., 2022. The Impact of Covid-19 on Early Years and Beyond. Covid-19 and Productivity, p.106. 6.OECD, Education Working Papers, 2020 7. Thambirajah, M.S., Grandison, K.J. and De-Hayes, L., 2008. Understanding school refusal: A handbook for professionals in education, health and social care. Jessica Kingsley Publishers 8.Thorn, W and Vincent-Lancrin, S, (2022) “Education in the time of COVID-19 in France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States: the Nature and Impact of Remote Learning”, in Reimers, F.M., 2022. Primary and secondary education during COVID-19: Disruptions to educational opportunity during a pandemic (pp. 383-411). Springer Nature. 9. Bennett, P.W., 2023. Pandemic Fallout. 10.Connolly, S.E., Constable, H.L. and Mullally, S.L., 2023. School distress and the school attendance crisis: a story dominated by neurodivergence and unmet need. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, p.1237052. 11.Devenney, R. and O'Toole, C., 2021. 'What kind of education system are we offering’: The views of education professionals on school refusal. International Journal of Educational Psychology: IJEP, 10(1), pp.27-47. 12. Yan, M., 2023. School Refusal: Conceptualisation, Leading Factors, and Intervention. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 8, pp.627-633. 13. Sinha, S., 2021. School Refusal: A Psychological Analysis. Indian Journal of Health & Wellbeing, 12(4). 14.Biesta, G., 2015. What is education for? On good education, teacher judgement, and educational professionalism. European Journal of education, 50(1), pp.75-87. Electronic Sources 1.Minister McEntee Unveils Comprehensive Measures to Combat School Absenteeism. Minister McEntee Unveils Comprehensive Measures to Combat School Absenteeism - Schooldays.ie 99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Paper Are Teachers Getting Smarter? International Evidence on Changes in Teacher Cognitive Skills and Student Achievement 1: Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH), Germany; 2: Stanford University; 3: OECD; 4: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg Presenting Author:Teacher cognitive skills shifted notably over the last decade. Using PIAAC Cycles 1-–2 for 25 countries, we document how the level, dispersion, and relative standing of teachers’ numeracy and literacy evolved within countries. The descriptive evidence reveals large heterogeneity: some countries saw teacher-skill declines of about one standard deviation, while others improved; and teachers’ position within the tertiary-educated workforce moved by 15+ percentile ranks in several countries— consistent with substantial changes in selection into teaching. We then ask which policies and labor-market conditions (e.g., relative teacher wages, outside options for high-skilled women, and teacher status) are associated with these shifts. In a second step, we relate these country-level changes in teacher skills to changes in student achievement using rich PISA microdata in mathematics and reading. For identification, we exploit within-country variation across subjects and over time, testing whether students in countries where teachers gained in numeracy relative to literacy also improved more in math relative to reading. Data on subject-specific skills in PIAAC for the overall population and for detailed occupations enables a set of robustness checks and placebo tests that help separate changes in teacher skills from broader skill changes within countries. Understanding how and why teacher skills evolve internationally–—and whether these changes translate into student achievement–—matters for policies aimed at strengthening teacher quality and improving educational outcomes. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used This study combines two OECD datasets to examine how changes in teacher cognitive skills relate to changes in student achievement. We use PIAAC Cycle 1 (2012, 2015) and Cycle 2 (2022, 2023) to construct country-level measures of teacher numeracy and literacy skills across 25 countries (~9,500 teachers). These are linked to PISA microdata (2009, 2012, 2018, 2022) covering approximately 860,000 students. We implement two complementary identification strategies. First, a baseline panel model exploits within-country variation over time: Aicwk = β Tc,s(w),k + X'icw γ + αc + λw + εicwk where student achievement depends on teacher skills, with country and wave fixed effects eliminating time-invariant confounders and global shocks. Second, a within-country, across-subject, over-time design tests whether countries where teachers gained in numeracy relative to literacy also improved more in mathematics relative to reading: (Aicw,math − Aicw,read) = β (Tc,s(w),num − Tc,s(w),lit) + X'gapicw γ + αc + λw + uicw This triple-difference approach (country × time × subject) eliminates all time-invariant country factors and reforms affecting both subjects equally. Controls include student/family characteristics, school resources, instructional time gaps, and parental skill gaps. Robustness checks include placebo tests using other occupations and empirical Bayes shrinkage for measurement error. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings Our descriptive analysis reveals substantial cross-country heterogeneity in how teacher cognitive skills evolved between PIAAC cycles. While pooled averages show minimal change (−1 point numeracy, −2 points literacy), individual countries experienced dramatic shifts: Lithuania declined by 30 points in numeracy and 25 in literacy, while Japan and the Netherlands gained 19-20 points in numeracy. Teachers' relative position within the tertiary-educated workforce shifted by over 15 percentile points in multiple countries, indicating meaningful changes in selection into teaching. These shifts occurred against widespread student achievement declines, particularly in mathematics, motivating our core research question: do changes in teacher skills translate into changes in student performance in a subject-specific manner? Based on prior cross-sectional evidence (Hanushek et al., 2019) and our identification strategy, we expect to find positive relationships between teacher skill changes and student achievement changes. The within-country, across-subject, over-time design should reveal whether countries with relative gains in teacher numeracy versus literacy show corresponding improvements in mathematics versus reading performance. Additionally, we expect that changes in labor market conditions—particularly women's access to high-skill occupations and relative teacher wages—correlate with changes in teacher cognitive skills, providing insights into policy levers for strengthening teacher quality. Note: All results will be available by conference presentation in August 2026. References Hanushek, E. A., Piopiunik, M., & Wiederhold, S. (2019). The value of smarter teachers: International evidence on teacher cognitive skills and student performance. Journal of Human Resources, 54(4), 857-899. Teacher Quality & Student Achievement: Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., & Rockoff, J. E. (2014). Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2633-2679. Hanushek, E. A., & Rivkin, S. G. (2012). The distribution of teacher quality and implications for policy. Annual Review of Economics, 4(1), 131-157. Jackson, C. K., Rockoff, J. E., & Staiger, D. O. (2014). Teacher effects and teacher-related policies. Annual Review of Economics, 6(1), 801-825. Teacher Subject Knowledge: Bietenbeck, J., Piopiunik, M., & Wiederhold, S. (2018). Africa's skill tragedy: Does teachers' lack of knowledge lead to low student performance? Journal of Human Resources, 53(3), 553-578. Teacher Labor Markets: Bacolod, M. P. (2007). Do alternative opportunities matter? The role of female labor markets in the decline of teacher quality. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 89(4), 737-751. Corcoran, S. P., Evans, W. N., & Schwab, R. M. (2004). Women, the labor market, and the declining relative quality of teachers. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 23(3), 449-470. Nagler, M., Piopiunik, M., & West, M. R. (2020). Weak markets, strong teachers: Recession at career start and teacher effectiveness. Journal of Labor Economics, 38(2), 453-500. International Comparisons: Dolton, P., & Marcenaro-Gutierrez, O. D. (2011). If you pay peanuts do you get monkeys? A cross-country analysis of teacher pay and pupil performance. Economic Policy, 26(65), 5-55. Hanushek, E. A., & Woessmann, L. (2011). The economics of international differences in educational achievement. Handbook of the Economics of Education, 3, 89-200. | ||