Multimedia Reporting (Fred-Musser)

Elementary and secondary schools face a well-documented teacher shortage, and now, KU research suggests universities are struggling to find professors to train those future teachers.

The mid-range salary and research expectations of being a professor at a research university can make these teacher education jobs unattractive, and candidates who apply often lack key qualifications.

Lisa Wolf-Wendel, professor of educational leadership and policy studies in the School of Education, worked on the research. She said that the school had trouble filling faculty positions for teacher education, and she said other universities around the country had similar problems.

“There’s not enough people,” Wolf-Wendel said, “and we think that if we look in a crystal ball and look to the future, there’s going to be more need.”

Participants surveyed as part of the research described the teacher education job market as “very tight,” “abysmal” and “in grave trouble.”

Marc Mahlios, chair of the education school’s curriculum and teaching department, said the school has struggled to hire for math and science education positions in the past. He said the school eventually abandoned efforts to fill one science position.

“The number of people applying is clearly down,” Mahlios said.

Wolf-Wendel said the two big qualifications for teacher educators at research universities are teaching experience and research ability.

This data from Susan Twombly and Lisa Wolf-Wendel's research shows the characteristics that were listed most often as required or preferred qualifications for teacher education positions advertised in the Chronicle of Higher Education during the 2001-2002 academic year.

“What search committees want is people who are sort of double threats,” Wolf-Wendel said. “They want someone who’s been a teacher, who has K-12 public school experience, and they want someone who’s a really good researcher.”

Susan Twombly, professor of educational leadership and policy studies who worked on the research with Wolf-Wendel, said research universities like KU rarely hire faculty who earned doctorates at universities where faculty research is emphasized less, like Emporia State University or Pittsburg State University.

This creates problems, she said, because more people are getting doctorates at these schools.

“The expectations would be a little bit different at a place like Emporia,” Twombly said. “Places like this are more difficult, because people who go into teacher education want to be teachers. They aren’t necessarily researchers. It’s not what they love doing.”

The shortage of good teacher education candidates also affects universities without a research emphasis, though.

Tes Mehring, dean of the Emporia State Teachers College, said Emporia State struggles to attract good teacher education faculty candidates. Mehring said people with doctorates in education are often attracted to careers outside of teacher education.

“I think there are many more options today for people who pursue higher education degrees than maybe existed even a decade ago,” Mehring said.

Twombly and Wolf-Wendel found in their research that only about 41 percent of people with doctorates show interest in becoming teacher educators.

This data from Susan Twombly and Lisa Wolf-Wendel's research shows the percentage of doctorate recipients in different areas of education who reported an interest in becoming a teacher educator in the 2000 Survey of Earned Doctorates.

“It takes a special kind of person,” Ginsberg said. “You’re asking people to get out of what it is that they love, and that’s teaching kids.”

Research universities value teaching experience in teacher educators, Wolf-Wendel said, but the most experienced teachers may be the most difficult to pull away from the world of K-12 schools.

“The older people, the people with the most experience, are not going to be in a financial position or in a position in their lives where they can just drop everything, go to the best school and quit their job,” Wolf-Wendel said.

And even for people who already have doctorates, a teacher education job may not make economic sense.

Mahlios said many people who would be qualified for faculty positions can make more in K-12 schools than the $50,000 beginning salary the education school might offer an assistant professor.

“I have a former student of mine who teaches in the area whose nine-month salary is more than that $50,000,” Mahlios said. “For her to come into the University would mean a pay cut.”

Less pay, combined with the pressures of conducting research and achieving tenure, make a professorship sound unattractive compared with other jobs in education, Mahlios said.

Lizette Peter, KU assistant professor of curriculum and instruction who was hired in fall 2005, said the high-pressure push to attain tenure at a research university makes her job stressful.

“There are a lot of smart people up here on this hill, and getting tenure means proving that you belong among them,” Peter said. “So, the years as an assistant professor are filled with with anxiety, self-doubt and pressure, at least for the junior faculty members that I know.”

The availability of grant money and research opportunities can also affect interest in teacher education positions from year to year, Mike Neal, assistant dean of the education school, said.

“If research money is strong in education, then people do not mind carrying the triple load of research, teaching and service,” Neal said. “But if they’re going to spend all their time writing grant after grant after grant and no money comes in, then they’re very discouraged going into higher education or teacher education.”

Neal said that when the federal government funded more educational research, interest in educational faculty positions increased.

Universities cannot control the help they receive from the government, but Twombly said they may need to make some adjustments of their own to compensate for the lack of qualified teacher educators.

Twombly said economic principles suggest universities need to either lower expectations for teacher educators or raise salaries.

“We have to not only raise wages for people going into the profession; we have to think about how we can get more people to want to get Ph.D.’s,” Twombly said.

She said universities did not tend to adjust requirements for faculty members. However, she said that after the education school failed to fill an English education position last year, the school broadened the requirements this year and had more applicants.

Ginsberg said that if the education school cannot fill a given faculty position, the school will often hire a non-tenure-track instructor who has no research requirements. The school did this with its English education position that was not filled last year.

Neal, a former superintendent and principal, called his new career at the University his “hobby.” He said he came into academia after he had achieved financial security because he wanted to contribute more to education.

He said many other principals and superintendents would be willing to begin academic careers as he did. He said this could be a new direction for universities to look for teacher education candidates.

“I think there are plenty of superintendents and principals out there in their 50s, who could afford to come to the University, who will have 15 solid years, who are hard workers, bright people, who have a strong work ethic, who know schools inside and out,” Neal said.

Peter said a career in academia can be fulfilling. She said being a professor provides a freedom beyond that of most other professions.

“The biggest advantage to working in academia is that you are, to some extent, in control of your schedule and the kind of work you do,” Peter said.

Mahlios said that the shortage of teacher education candidates is not yet an emergency and that the field of teacher education will continue no matter what happens. He said that, while the quality of teacher education faculty may not remain as high as it is now, universities would still fill positions.

And, he said, the shortage facing education schools is not as serious as the problems public elementary and secondary schools have.

“I think the shortage is greater in the K-12 arena than it is in higher ed,” Mahlios said. “But clearly, they’re related.”

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The start of the college basketball season at the University of Kansas means the start of a crucial period for many Lawrence retailers.

During this time, business owners may find that what happens in their stores is closely linked to what happens on the basketball court – whether or not they planned such a relationship with KU sports.

Ryan Owens, manager of the two Jock’s Nitch Sporting Goods stores in Lawrence, said the beginning of the basketball season signaled the beginning of a busy stretch for his stores.

“It is a great time of year,” Owens said. “Holidays are starting, football is still going on and, with the addition of a highly anticipated basketball season, we will be very busy.”

Owens estimated that 30 different stores in Lawrence sold KU merchandise.

Greg Guenther, owner of Palace Cards & Gifts at Eighth and Massachusetts Streets, is a less willing participant in the grab for KU gear.

Guenther said the demand for all things KU has sparked changes in his sales numbers and in his store’s product lineup since he opened the store 16 years ago.

Though Guenther originally envisioned his store as a novelty greeting card and gift shop offering products from outside-the-mainstream suppliers, he has watched as KU paraphernalia has accounted for bigger chunks of revenue each year.

“The collegiate business has really grown in the last 15 years – lots of people getting into it with lots of different stuff,” Guenther said.

Guenther said he at least tries to stock his shelves with some unique KU-related items. A window display facing Massachusetts Street features KU cutting boards, KU baby bibs and KU barbecue sauce, among other KU paraphernalia.

Guenther said he would go where the market would take him, though he’s less than enthusiastic about supplying more KU-related items and fewer novelty gifts.

“Maybe it’s a little snobbish for me to say this, but it’s a little mundane to do Wizard of Oz souvenirs and University of Kansas paraphernalia,” Guenther said. “It’s a blow to my ego that I wasn’t able to make it work as I had planned it.”

Guenther said KU-related items accounted for 13 percent of the store’s sales last year.

Numbers relating to the national and local licensed college and university products industries.

Janet Muggy, co-owner of the Jayhawk Bookstore, said, “We just found out from Time Warner: Sports Illustrated is ranking KU number one this year, and we’ll be on the cover.”

The bookstore doesn’t usually sell magazines, but it accepted Sports Illustrated’s offer to sell next week’s issue with the KU cover. Muggy said the store would try to use the promotion of the magazine to increase sales of other KU-related items.

Because of high expectations like Sports Ilustrated's, this year’s basketball season is especially significant for stores selling KU apparel, Owens said.

“Last year we were not sure who would start or who would be the leaders,” he said. “Now we do. People have favorites and in turn know whose jersey they want to wear.”

Owens said the two Lawrence Jock's Nitch stores will hold a major sale on hooded sweatshirts and other cold-weather items later this month to coincide with the changing weather as well as the current overlap of the football and basketball seasons.

The University and the athletics department generally have no problem with businesses that sell KU-related merchandise for big portions of their profits, said associate athletics director Jim Marchiony.

“We hope all legitimate businesses in Lawrence enjoy success because it makes our city stronger and more viable,” Marchiony said. “We’re sure that helps KU as well.”

However, Marchiony said the University does take issue when it feels that businesses use the University’s image improperly.

In fact, the University is suing one downtown store, Joe-College.com, for selling products it said infringed on the University’s license and degraded its image.

The store sells clothing that bears the words “Kansas” and “Hawks,” which Erin Adams, manager, said didn’t break any rules.

She said that, though the store’s sales tend to be related to the performance of the University’s sports teams, the store’s unlicensed shirts could easily be referring to the state, not the University.

“We do have a good selection of shirts that are just funny shirts and some shirts related to the state of Kansas, and it says that clearly on the sign,” Adams said, referring to a sign posted throughout the store stating that the clothes had nothing to do with the University or its sports teams.

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Danny Bristow, 2006 graduate, has spent much of his life around cows – and he’s spent more than a few frightening moments running from angry ones.

“Growing up on a farm, I’ve been rammed, stepped on,” Bristow said. “You have a 12-, 13-, 14-hundred-pound animal running at you at 20 miles an hour. I’ve had to jump many fences, and thankfully I haven’t had any major injuries, but I’ve had some pretty good minor ones.”

With those scrapes and bruises in mind, Bristow decided to conduct undergraduate research aimed at figuring out why some cows are more easily angered, and more dangerous, than others.
During a two-year research process that’s nearing completion, Bristow found evidence of a biological reason for differences in behavior among cattle. Some of the behavioral links he found may help farmers and ranchers predict which cows will react with anger, panic or fear in a stressful situation.

The key to Bristow’s research is the hormone cortisol. Mammals produce cortisol when they are under stress, Bristow said, and it provides blood sugar, or glucose, during times of stress.

Bristow’s findings suggested that cattle showing more symptoms of anxiety during a stressful situation produce more cortisol during times of stress. He also found that these cattle tended to show anxiety during non-stressful times.

The data from Danny Bristow's study show that cows with higher cortisol levels show more signs of anxiety when under stress and during normal situations. Cattle with higher cortisol chewed their cud less and stood closer to other cows while in the field and mooed more when constrained.

For example, the cattle that produced more cortisol chewed their cud less than other cattle. Bristow said cattle usually chew their cud when they are more relaxed. These cattle also were more likely to stand up than lie down.

“Humans release cortisol under stress,” Bristow said, “so we thought if aggressive cows have more cortisol, that could be an indicator that they’re stressed out, and if that’s the case, maybe stress can lead to aggression in cattle.”

Bristow’s research may suggest ways for farmers and ranchers to predict which cows will give them trouble when placed under stress.

For instance, a cow that chews its cud less often than other cows may be more likely to cause trouble when confined, because less chewing is related to higher cortisol levels.

“Everybody’s going to be able to spot a stressed cow when it’s stressed, when it’s under confinement,” Bristow said. “But can you spot one when it’s out just relaxing?”

Bristow’s findings may even contribute to the idea that emotional reactions are connected to biochemical responses in all mammals, including humans.

“If there’s going to be differences in people and there’s differences in animals then maybe if you find a link in animals you can find links in people,” Bristow said. “We’re all mammals, after all, so there’s got to be some kind of common ground.”

Bristow said he heard many stories of aggressive cattle while growing up on his family’s Leavenworth farm, and he wondered what made different cows behave in different ways.

“You notice everybody kind of has a few bad cows in the herd,” Bristow said, “and I thought maybe if you can find an objective, scientific way to quantify what a dangerous cow is, you can sort of eliminate the tales that the farmers tell and actually have a scientific basis for why they are this way.”

Bristow, a psychology major, wanted to do some undergraduate research in his field to help him get into medical school. David Holmes, professor of psychology, helped him design the research and write his report about the research.

Holmes said Bristow came to him based on the recommendation of other professors. Though he did not know Bristow previously, Holmes said he was impressed by his interest in his subject.

“He came in absolutely out of the cold,” Holmes said. “But he told me, ‘I’m just curious.’”

Bristow said Holmes helped him figure out how to conduct the experiment and helped him write a report that they submitted to a peer-reviewed academic journal, Physiology & Behavior.

“He was an adviser in the best sense of the word,” Bristow said. “He made it difficult for me, he made me justify my reasoning, and he was there with a lot of support.”

The Honors Program awarded Bristow a J. Michael Young Opportunity Award, a grant funding his research. He also got to present his research during the opening session of the Honors Research Symposium this spring. Only four people present during the opening session each year.

Bristow, now a first-year student at the School of Medicine, currently awaits a response from the journal Physiology & Behavior.

Holmes said he’s confident that Bristow’s report will be published.

“I think it’s a very solid piece of research,” Holmes said. “If I were giving it a grade, I’d say it’s a good, solid A-plus.”

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