Research Associate, Long-Serving Rural Teachers: Who Are They and What Influences the Decision to Stay?

Research Associates:

Under the general direction of, and in collaboration with researchers and faculty members, positions at this level apply extensive knowledge in their field to perform high-level, complex research activities, and will normally hold a Master's degree. Individuals with training beyond a Master's degree who have limited experience may also be appointed into this classification level.

Position Overview:

Rural and remote communities have, for many years, been concerned about teachers working in their schools for only short periods of time before moving to more urban locations. Exacerbating this systemic problem is a serious shortage of qualified teachers in many rural and remote areas of Manitoba, which appears to have reached a crisis level and has drawn much public and media attention. Given the substantial challenges faced in recruiting new teachers to meet these urgent needs – ideally teachers who will remain in the community for many years to follow – this project explores the career/life experiences of long-serving teachers in rural and remote areas of Manitoba using narrative and interpretive research approaches. This will lead to a better understanding of the factors influencing long-serving rural and remote teachers' decisions to stay, in contrast to most of the current literature that reports on why other teachers choose to leave.

The incumbent will have some field research experience and be knowledgeable about the sociology of education, personal and professional identity as it relates to teaching, rurality, and qualitative research methods. The successful candidate must be able to work independently on all aspects of the research project. There are approximately 100 hours of RA work available, to be carried out between Oct. 1, 2025 and Feb. 15, 2026.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Create an up to date literature review, including an annotated bibliography and a summary that would form part of a journal article or book chapter resulting from the research project.
• Review narrative and interpretive research approaches and create interview protocols.
• Recruit participants.
• Determine interview schedules, including both initial in-person and follow-up interviews (in- person or possibly through Zoom).
• Transcribe and analyze interviews, including participant checks.
• Co-create narratives with participants.
• Create an initial draft of the research results in journal article or book chapter format.

Qualifications:

• Experience conducting independent research
• Experience with qualitative research, including interviewing participants
• Experience writing research reports, including peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters
• Master's degree in Education or a related discipline
• Doctoral degree candidate preferred

Condition(s) of Employment:

• Must be legally entitled to work in Canada.

Note: This position is represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada - Research Capacity Unit.

Note: The work described in this posting will be conducted in-person.

The University of Winnipeg is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and recognizes that a diverse staff and faculty benefits and enriches the work, learning and research environments, and is essential to academic and institutional excellence. We welcome applications from all qualified individuals and encourage women, racialized persons, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQ+ persons to confidentially self-identify at time of application.

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