Between turnover and comeback: a Czech case-study on the complexities of agency and context in teacher attrition and retention
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In an attempt to reduce the high turnover rates, research has been focusing on identifying characteristics of teachers which make them more resilient as well as on the working conditions in the school as an organisation that contribute to the risk of turnover (Guarino et al., 2006). This approach suggests that teachers are retained or pushed out of the profession by a particular and static set of of factors, either internal in the individual or external in the working conditions. In our study we take a different approach, conceiving of turnover (or retention) as the outcome of a decisionmaking process that reflects the meaningful interactions between individual and context. While not denying the possible relevance of personal characteristics or formal working conditions, we assume that a proper understanding of teacher turnover requires the acknowledgement of ECTs‘ discretionary agentic competences of decision making. The paper starts by building the case for this conceptualisation of attrition/retention through a critical discussion of the research from the deficit approach as well as drawing on the concept of interpretative negotiation that was developed in recent research on school development and educational innovation (Kelchtermans, 2007, 2017; Vermeir & Kelchtermans, 2021). Next we present the findings of a longitudinal single case study of a Czech primary school teacher, who first decided to leave the profession, later reconsidered her choice and returned to the job, yet eventually left again over the time span of three years. Since we know of no other research that actually captures these dynamics over time, we purposefully selected this case study from a larger study, which reconstructs career trajectories of Czech primary school teachers who decided to quit teaching. The data for the case were collected in line with the narrative-biographical research tradition, drawing on multiple semi-structured interviews (Seidman, 2013), complemented by an interpretative analysis of relevant documents (teacher portfolio and school documentation). The data analysis consisted of reconstructing the career story around its key moments and phases, and subsequently elaborating the story through the lens of Kelchtermans’ personal interpretive framework (2009). In this specific case, an interplay between the task perception and self-esteem was found to create a vicious cycle of doubts, subsequently lowering the teacher’s job motivation. Negotiation between this teacher and the work conditions led to dissonance, and to an ambiguous relationship to the profession, causing her to quit and return repeatedly. In the discussion we address the consequences of these findings for future research and theory development on teacher attrition and retention during the inducation phase, as well as for the necessary rethinking and redesign of effective support to prevent teacher attrition. |