Exploring the Model of Everyday Life Information Behavior of Early- Retiring Teachers
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Hsu, Chen- Yun
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
More and more teachers in Taiwan are choosing to take early retirement from their jobs because of the influence of government policies: the pressure of Education Reform, and the attractiveness of pension policy. Due to these two reasons, senior teachers often decide to retire immediately upon reaching retirement age, resulting in a previously unseen “retiring boom” in Taiwan. Statistics show that the number of early-retiring teachers has increased substantially since 2000; meanwhile, the average age of retirement has decreased, falling between 50 and 55 years old.
In the literature that investigates the everyday life of retiring teachers, most researchers have focused their analysis in the areas of psychology, sociology, and education. Rarely have they considered early-retiring teachers in terms of information science. This study explores information behaviors in the early- retiring teachers’ everyday life.
Research framework of this study was guided from the model of Everyday Life Information Seeking（ELIS）proposed by Savolainen in 1995, and the purposes are 1) to explore how early-retiring teachers construct their everyday lives; 2) to understand the information behaviors of everyday life displayed by early-retiring teachers and how it relates to their everyday lives; and 3) to establish an empirical model that illustrates everyday life information behaviors.
This study used questionnaire, in-depth interview, and participant observing methods to collect data. We organized the raw materials by the unit of event and came up with dimensions that construct everyday life and information behaviors. Then we did analysis by comparing cases, focusing on the common phenomenon, which were later conceptualized and modelized.
In this study, we found that the daily life of a retiring teacher is made up of four dimensions: Activities, Interests, Consumption models and Attitudes, and six meanings: Seeking a Sense of Belonging, Maintaining Supportive Relationships with Friends, Pursuing Actualization of Dreams, Facing the Necessities of Life, Enjoying the Feeling of Being Needed, and Appreciating the Sense of “Loving Yourself”.
In addition, we found that early-retiring teacher’s information behaviors are comprised of the following six aspects: Contexts, Attempts to Access Information, Actions to Access Information, Information Sources, the Information Itself, and Information Use. Two information behaviors flow-charts were found, including information behaviors in purposeful contexts and information behaviors in un-purposeful contexts with six action routes. Finally, we found the relationships between the everyday life information behaviors of early- retiring teachers and their everyday lives, including 1) information behaviors occur in order to maintain a consistency of life that is in response to specific situations in a person’s life; 2) information behaviors and everyday life are mutually dependent on each other; and 3) people create their own meanings for information. A model of information behaviors was thus built.
This study suggests that information behaviors researchers pay more attention on the methodologies of researches on everyday life information behaviors and test the model built from this study in other related researches. This study also suggests that information providers carefully design the information environment in order to assist retirees in interacting with such an environment, adequately manage and take advantage of human resources of the elders, and improve the elders’ technical skills and information literacy to deal with their life efficiently.
Subjects
日常生活
提早退休教師
質性研究
ELIS模式
模式
everyday life
information behaviors
everyday life information behaviors
early- retiring teachers
qualitative research
ELIS model
models
SDGs
Type
thesis
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