When discussing teacher shortages, we often focus on the reasons people leave the education profession. So let’s approach the issue from a different angle in this post by asking: why do teachers stay? This is the focus of a qualitative study by Wanyue Chen and colleagues. Qualitative research does not allow for causal claims and is never based on large representative samples of the entire teacher population. But it is very well suited to understanding the ‘why’. And the interviews with English teachers reveal a few striking elements.

The researchers interviewed 21 teachers who already had quite a few years under their belt in education. Fourteen had between six and 22 years of experience. Seven had been teaching for at least 23 years. The central question was not only why they had stayed. Chen and colleagues also examined what had happened to their professional identity along the way.

And this is where it gets interesting. Someone who stays in education for a long time does not necessarily remain the same teacher. Based on their analyses, the researchers distinguish three broad trajectories: retained, reclaimed and reconceived. In other words, a professional identity can remain relatively stable, be recovered, or be reshaped.

Among the teachers in the first group, the core of who they wanted to be as a teacher remained relatively stable. This does not mean, by the way, that these teachers never knew difficult periods. Sometimes the gap between the teacher they wanted to be and the work they actually had to do became quite large. One teacher describes it well. He still loved teaching, but liked what the profession was becoming much less. I have to admit that I have heard variations of that sentence quite a few times in education over the past few years.

The case was different for the second group, as something else was happening for them. Something had affected their confidence and professional identity to such an extent that, at one point, some of them considered leaving altogether. On top of that, some had even left their permanent jobs to work as supply teachers. That said, it wasn’t an indication that their teaching career was over. Working somewhere else might give them a chance to rediscover why they were in the teaching profession in the first place.

Six of the seven teachers in this group, for example, had worked as supply teachers as a kind of break. This allowed them to distance themselves from a difficult school context without immediately having to distance themselves from teaching itself.

Then there is the largest category, with 10 of 21 teachers. This group has remained in the profession through a partial reconstruction or rethinking of their professional identity. This involved, among other things, reducing their working hours, assuming new duties, stepping down from leadership positions, or combining teaching with another occupation. In some cases, the meaning of success among this group of teachers also changed. Instead of climbing up the corporate ladder, it became about spending more time with the students.

Shorter working hours, transferring from one school to another, or leaving a position of responsibility are all examples of behaviours that can easily be seen as indicators of reduced commitment. However, this research shows that in certain cases, these actions are how individuals in education try to maintain their commitment. The researchers use the concept of values-informed agency. This means that teachers actively try to align their work with what they consider important in education, and that is often… teaching.

These results will maybe influence how we think about retention. This study teaches us that retaining a teacher does not necessarily mean that everything is to remain set in stone. Sometimes it can be a good thing to change. Maybe you help a teacher by offering a position at another school within the same district. Or change that person’s role, working hours, or responsibilities. And sometimes in the process, teachers might even change their perceptions of themselves as teachers, which is, of course, more difficult to organise.

Once again, based on 21 interviews, one cannot say that (changing) identity is, by definition, the main reason teachers stay. But I can imagine it can play an important role. Do note that in this study, the authors conducted interviews only with retained teachers. They didn’t speak with those who left, an inherent weakness in their work, as they mentioned.