How to stop teachers leaving the profession
Staff
attrition and retention continues to be a problem for education systems around
the world, so understanding the factors that influence a teacher’s decision to
leave the profession and, conversely, the kind of support that might make them
stay is a hot topic for researchers.
Two
studies published this month in Australia and the UK shed further light on the
issue, providing some interesting insights and recommendations at both a school
and systems level.
Writing in the Australian
Journal of Education (AJE), Terence Bowles and Jessica Arnup say
resilience – how we cope with stress and bounce back from adversity – could be
the key to understanding why teachers choose to quit, and job satisfaction
should also be a focus. Meanwhile, UK charity NFER (National Foundation
for Educational Research) found a strong relationship between teacher
engagement and intention to leave the profession.
Findings from the Australian study
‘Teacher attrition is a current issue in
Australia and other economically developed countries, with up to 50 per cent of
teachers resigning from teaching within the first five years,’ Bowles and Arnup
note in their AJE paper, adding it’s widely considered to have a negative
impact on student achievement.
The researchers, from the Melbourne Graduate
School of Education, University of Melbourne, surveyed 160 Australian primary
and secondary teachers who had all been in the profession for up to 10 years.
The questionnaire measured resilience and job satisfaction. The participants
were asked about their intention to leave the profession (the three options
were ‘I think about quitting the teaching profession’, ‘I intend to quit the
teaching profession’ and ‘I intend to move into another
profession/occupation’). They were also asked how long they planned to remain
in the profession (seven options from less than one year to until retirement).
The majority, 53 per cent, said they intended
to stay for another 10 years and 23 per cent said they planned to stay until
retirement. Around one-third (32 per cent) intended to leave teaching. Bowles
and Arnup report that ‘lower resilience and poor job satisfaction were found to
significantly predict intention to leave the teaching profession,’ adding
‘Importantly, resilience was found to explain additional variation in intention
to leave teaching over and above job satisfaction and teacher demographics.’
The study – which gathered data in mid-2014 –
didn’t measure teacher effectiveness, so there’s no exploration of those who
are seen as ‘performing well’ or ‘underperforming’ in their role. The
researchers also suggest that in some cases there could be individual factors
at play that weren’t broached in the survey, such as leaving to start a family
or returning to full-time study. However, they say the evidence is clear in
relation to resilience and job satisfaction.
Resilience and job satisfaction
Previous research into teacher stress has
highlighted issues such as teaching unmotivated students, dealing with
difficult student behaviour, coping with change, maintaining working
relationships, and doing administration and management tasks. Having strong
family support and, particularly in the case of early career teachers, a
supportive culture at school (including mentoring) are seen a factors influence
individual resilience.
In terms of being satisfied with the job,
influencing factors include having supportive colleagues and an approachable
and supportive principal, positive school relationships and a collaborative
working environment. Bowles and Arnup also highlight data from the OECD’s Teaching
and Learning International Survey (TALIS) – focusing on lower secondary school
teachers and their principals – suggesting ‘the majority of teachers are
satisfied with their jobs, but teaching classrooms with a high proportion of
challenging students is associated with lower levels of job satisfaction (OECD,
2014)’.
‘Researchers have known for years that
teachers are often dissatisfied with aspects of their job but little appears to
have changed, often due to lack of time and financial resources,’ Bowles and
Arnup comment. ‘Instead, schools may be able to help teachers increase their
resilience through increased school support and stress/resilience programmes. …
Developing higher levels of resilience will allow teachers to bounce back
quickly from set-backs, have more confidence in their ability, reduce impact of
stress and hopefully work to improve teachers’ job satisfaction.’
In a 2013 New South Wales study, researchers
at the University of Technology, Sydney investigated early career
teachers' intentions to stay in or leave the profession (Buchanan,
2013). Participants identified several areas where they wanted support,
including: collegiality (help from senior staff and sharing of resources),
managing student behaviour, working conditions (coping with the demands of a
busy environment), professional development, and isolation (professional,
emotional and geographical).
In an episode of Teacher’s Research Files
podcast series, Associate Professor John Buchanan said despite these
issues beginner teachers decided they’d probably stay in the profession. ‘… We
couldn't really quantify what made some teachers decide to stay and some leave
in similar circumstances. It may be just personal resilience … [and that
emerging question] might warrant further research.’
Insights from the UK
The NFER has carried out previous studies
looking at attrition and retention. This follow-up – using survey data from
2015 and 2016 and 21 in-depth interviews with teachers who’d recently left the
profession or who were considering leaving – explored how engagement and
support influences intentions.
As with the Bowles and Arnup study, the NFER
research found the majority of teachers aren’t considering leaving the
profession. ‘The proportion of teachers considering leaving has, however,
increased significantly in the last year, from 17 to 23 per cent,’ a report on
the findings says.
And, like the Australian research, this study
found no link between satisfaction with salary and intention to leave the
profession. ‘While receiving appropriate pay for their level of responsibility
is a protective factor for teachers, other evidence suggests that pay is not
the main motivating factor. … Teachers are not leaving for higher-paid jobs, at
least not in the short term. On average they experience a ten per cent fall in
wages compared to similar teachers who remain in teaching.’
Teacher engagement – role and gender
What it did find is a strong link between
teacher engagement and retention – nine out of 10 ‘engaged’ teachers weren’t
considering leaving, compared to 26 per cent of disengaged teachers. Of course,
there were still 10 per cent of engaged teachers who were considering leaving.
Exploring this in more detail, engagement was
also found to be an important factor for different types of teacher. ‘Maths
teachers and senior leaders have high levels of engagement and are less likely
to be considering leaving. Conversely, science teachers and experienced male
teachers [more than five years’ experience] have a heightened risk of leaving,
especially after controlling for their level of engagement.’
As with the Australian study, job
satisfaction was an important factor – indeed, it was the strongest factor
associated with an intention to stay in the profession. Others included pride
in working at the school, adequate resources, good support from and feeling
valued by school management, having an effective governing body and getting
paid appropriately according to level of responsibility.
There were also a list of engagement factors
found not to play a significant part in the decision to leave or stay but
researchers say they’re useful to consider in that they could be related to job
satisfaction or simply be things that all staff are content with. These
included appropriate professional development, feeling informed about what’s
happening at the school and knowing how to contribute to the goals of the
school.
One of the recommendations of the NFER report
is a call for a greater focus on staff wellbeing. ‘This could include schools
having a governor or trustee responsible for staff welfare, or a member of the
management team with specific time and responsibilities in this area. Mentoring
and/or mental health provision could be beneficial for some staff.’
References
and further reading
Bowles,
T., & Arnup, J. (2016). Should I stay or should I go? Resilience as a
protective factor for teachers’ intention to leave the teaching profession. Australian Journal of Education.
DOI: 10.1177/0004944116667620
Buchanan,
J.D., Prescott, A.E., Schuck, S.R., Aubusson, P.J., Burke, P.F. & Louviere,
J.J. (2013), Teacher retention and attrition: Views of early career teachers, The Australian Journal of Teacher
education, 38(3), pp. 112-129
Lynch,
S., Worth, J., Bamford, S. and Wespieser, K. (2016). Engaging Teachers: NFER Analysis of Teacher Retention
Slough: NFER.
Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2014). Teaching in focus brief number 5 –
What helps teachers feel valued and satisfied with their jobs?
Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/edu/school/TIF5.pdf
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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