Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education

Advisor

Gloria J. Kieley

Committee Member

Carole Trueman

Committee Member

Sarah Harris

Committee Member

Camile Coke

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Keywords

administrative support, new teacher, self-efficacy, teacher mentoring, teacher retention, title 1 schools

Abstract

Information Security Policy (ISP) compliance is crucial to the success of healthcare organizations due to security threats and the potential for security breaches. UNIX Administrators (UXAs) in healthcare Information Technology (IT) maintain critical servers that house Protected Health Information (PHI). Their compliance with ISP is crucial to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI data housed or accessed by their servers. The use of cognitive heuristics and biases may negatively influence threat appraisal, coping appraisal, and ultimately ISP compliance behavior. These failures may result in insufficiently protected servers and put organizations at greater risk of data breaches and financial loss. The goal was to empirically assess the effect of a focused Security Education, Training, and Awareness (SETA) workshop, an Interactive Security Challenge (ISC), and periodic security update emails on UXAs knowledge sharing, use of cognitive heuristics and biases, and ISP compliance behavior. This quantitative study employed a pretest and posttest experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of a SETA workshop and an ISC on the ISP compliance of UXAs. The survey instrument was developed based on prior validated instrument questions and augmented with newly designed questions related to the use of cognitive heuristics and biases. Forty-two participants completed the survey prior to and following the SETA, ISC, and security update emails. Actual compliance (AC) behavior was assessed by comparing the results of security scans on administrator’s servers prior to and 90 days following the SETA workshop and ISC. SmartPLS was used to analyze the pre-workshop data, post-workshop data, and combined data to evaluate the proposed structural and measurement models. The results indicated that Confirmation Bias (CB) and the Availability Heuristic (AH) were significantly influenced by the Information Security Knowledge Sharing (ISKS). Optimism Bias (OB) did not reach statistically significant levels relating to ISKS. OB did, however, significantly influence on perceived severity (TA-PS), perceived vulnerability (TA-PV), response-efficacy (CA-RE), and self-efficacy (CA-SE). Also, it was noted that all five security implementation data points collected to assess pre- and post-workshop compliance showed statistically significant change. A total of eight hypotheses were accepted and nine hypotheses were rejected.

Comments

The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of new teachers in Title 1 schools to discern if the intervention areas of new teacher mentoring and administrative support affect teacher retention. This study used a qualitative research methodology to provide gather data from new teachers working at Title 1 schools, and teacher training programs were analyzed in relation to the self-efficacy they provide as new educators are immersed in the field of education. The following research questions were addressed in this study:

  1. What is the impact of in-school mentoring programs on the retention of teachers new to the profession within Title 1 schools at the elementary level?
  2. What is the impact of self-efficacy on the retention of teachers new to the profession within Title 1 schools at the elementary level?
  3. What are the aspects of support provided by the administrator(s) which provide effective support for teachers new to the profession within Title 1 schools at the elementary level?

A phenomenology approach was used for this study, as it allowed participants to share their personal experiences during each semi-structured one-on-one interview. Interviews took place on an online platform and were conducted to gather data from new teachers working at Title 1 schools. Research questions were designed to provide the researcher with data that could be analyzed addressing research questions in each focus area centered on interview data.

A qualitative analysis of the data revealed shortcomings within the areas of new teacher mentoring and administrative support, which can correlate with lower numbers of teacher retention. Analysis of the data also revealed high levels of self-efficacy, which is most impactful on new teacher retention. Shortcomings for this study include small sample size and the use of an online platform for data collection as a result of a national pandemic at the time of this study.

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