Chapter 3: Teacher Retention: Understanding Why They Stay

Research into the reasons why teachers choose to enter, stay in or leave the teaching profession identifies a complex, multidimensional range of factors that frame and influence their career decisions. The factors identified include, for example, the teachers’ passion for teaching (Day, 2004); their emotional ties to their schools (McIntyre, 2010); and the nature of the settings in which they work (Gu & Day, 2013). In this chapter, I consider the literature associated with teacher longevity in the profession under the headings: (i) teacher motivation and job satisfaction, (ii) institutional factors and (iii) teacher compliance.

Where recruitment and retention are considered, the focus often tends to be on job satisfaction and the nature of teachers’ motivation, with motivation being characterised as either intrinsic/altruistic, or extrinsic (e.g., Chiong, Menzies, & Parameshwaran, 2017; Han & Yin, 2016). Relatively little attention is given to extrinsic forms of motivation, although Chiong et al. (2017) note that instrumental incentives, such as holidays and pay, can help to retain experienced teachers. For the most part, intrinsic/altruistic forms of motivation are seen to predominate (see, e.g., Chiong et al., 2017; Perrachione, Rosser, & Petersen, 2008; Six, 2021), and include love of subject, caring and wanting to make a difference to students and society (Hobbs, 2012; Kyriacou & Coulthard, 2000).