| Popis: |
As teacher shortages sweep across the United States, increasing attention has been paid to strategies for improving teacher retention. While a large body of research has focused on the dispositions and conditions that lead to teacher attrition, little attention has been paid to warning signs of teacher exits, leaving many building-level leaders without a chance to properly address the issue. In response, we aim to demonstrate how teachers behave in response to specific sources of workplace dissatisfaction, so that leaders may recognize traits of teachers who may be entering a withdrawal or exit phase. Through a mixed methods approach combining interviews with a state-representative survey of over 500 Alabama teachers, we use the Exit-V oice-Loyalty-Neglect framework to look for dissatisfaction behaviors along the ‘unfolding’ process of teacher withdrawal. We ask (1) what workplace behaviors are expressed when feeling dissatisfied in teaching, and (2) which behaviors are most closely aligned with actual intent to leave? Results demonstrate that (1) teachers mainly respond to dissatisfaction by burrowing into their work, becoming rigid to change, and limiting communication; (2) they do this most often when they feel they are stuck with conflicting expectations of their jobs; and (3) more than half actively consider leaving when bothered. This paper offers school leaders an opportunity to identify pre-exit behaviors and redirect teacher dissatisfaction towards positive retention techniques. |
