The CTE Teacher Selection and Hiring Decision: Practices and Perceptions from Select Pennsylvania Directors
Open Access
- Author:
- Haas, Beth Ann
- Graduate Program:
- Workforce Education and Development
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 20, 2012
- Committee Members:
- Judith Ann Kolb, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Judith Ann Kolb, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Robert Clark, Committee Member
Richard Allen Walter, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member - Keywords:
- CTE Teacher
Structured Interview
Education
Career and Technical Education
Hiring and CTE Teacher
Structured Interview
Education
Career and Technical Education
Hiring and Selection - Abstract:
- Unlike the academic teacher who has years of teacher training that leads to the acquisition of teaching credentials, a career and technical education (CTE) teacher typically is hired with no pre-service experience or training. Career and technical administrators are faced with hiring CTE teachers who subsequently are placed into alternative preparation and certification routes that recognizes their years of trade experience in place of teacher preparation (Walter & Gray, 2002). Administrators hiring the typical academic teacher use behavioral description interview questions to inform their selection decision (Clement, 2009; Hindman & Stronge, 2009; Stronge & Hindman, 2006). The CTE administrator may ask behavioral description questions to applicants, but linking interview questions to prior teaching knowledge is often not applicable due to a lack of prior classroom experience. Administrators must rely on other question types and strategies to determine an applicant’s fit within the school. One hundred years of research supports conducting a selection interview using a structured approach as an accurate predictor of future job success (Buckley, Norris, & Wiese, 2000). The research of Campion, Palmer, and Campion (1997) resulted in a blueprint of 15 components of interview structure recommended for today’s organizations. This blueprint served as the theoretical framework for this study. This qualitative study explored the interview practices of six CTE administrators to determine the degree to which structure was adopted and sought to identify specific interview questions that were perceived as most influential in the selection decision. The analysis of the data revealed that participants adopted several components of interview structure, yet the findings indicated a gap between knowing about structured interview practices and using these practices. This study also discovered that no one question asked during the interview informed and influenced the selection outcome. Instead, a number of candidate characteristics and look-for’s influenced the decision.