Is teacher attrition a poor estimate of the value of teacher education? A Swedish case

Abstract

Far from all who complete teacher education end up working as teachers throughout their entire career. At first sight the value of teacher education, in terms of efficiency, seems to be a failure. In the present article we argue that teacher attrition, when defined as whether one is working as teacher or not, is a too blunt measure to gauge whether teacher education has been valuable. With a unique dataset, where we have detailed information on 87 Swedish teacher graduates' working life across 23 years, we can consider whether activities and/or experiences point to an apparent use of teacher education. In conclusion, we find that in order to get informative estimates of its value it is important to consider it from different perspectives and to consider attrition related to the total working time spent in educational settings across a career rather than percentage leaving teaching after a set of years ARTICLE HISTORY

Teacher Confidence in Professional Training: The Predictive Roles of Engagement and Burnout

“…Coherently with our hypothesis, in the current sample of Italian teachers, work engagement was negatively associated with burnout. It is an expected result in line with abundant international findings that have shown that the more workers are engaged, the less burnout symptoms they experience during their career (e.g., [26][27][28][43][44][45][46][47]). Furthermore, our findings have shown that engaged teachers express high confidence towards professional training.…”

“…Both work engagement and burnout have an impact on teachers' attitudes towards their job: while engaged teachers are motivated to improve their professional competence, burned-out teachers are more likely to reject professional learning opportunities [26][27][28].…”

Resolving School Staffing Problems in Greece: A Strategic Management Approach

“…On the other hand, during the adjustment period of new teaching staff, it is likely that this might fuel certain problems in the school units' climate (Saiti and Saitis, 2012). As regards attracting teachers, relevant research has proven that, despite the requirement for recruiting a sizeable number of new teachers in the years to come, it is expected to be a hard and demanding issue (Luekens in: Robertson and Smith, 2001;Carless, 2007;Aragon, 2016;UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2016;Carlsson et al, 2019). This is due to the fact that in countries where young people have the opportunity to choose among a plethora of various job positions, they are reluctant to work in schools, opting for other more attractive occupations (in terms of wages, benefits, working conditions, social recognition, and personal satisfaction).…”

Teacher attrition: Human capital and terms of employment – Do they matter?

“…This is mostly due to schools' needs (Arviv Elyashiv et al, 2019). Thus, while it has been documented that many teachers are drawn to the teaching profession due to intrinsic motivations (Arviv Elyashiv & Gal, 2017;Carlsson et al, 2019;Watt, & Richardson, 2008), external rewards seem to matter too in decision making; the absence of appropriate rewards may lead to dissatisfaction and eventually to attrition (e.g. Borman & Dowling, 2008;Dupriez et al, 2016;Johnson & Kardos, 2008;Newberry & Allsop, 2017).…”

“…These studies mention various features of teachers' work environment that increase the likelihood of leaving teaching, such as: heavy workload; lack of autonomy; lack of opportunities to participate in decision making; difficulties in managing relationships with colleagues, students, and their parents; lack of collegial or principal support; and, lack of opportunities for professional development (e.g. : Borman & Dawling, 2008;Boyd et al, 2011;Carlsson et al, 2019;Geiger & Pivovarova, 2018;Newberry & Allsop 2017).…”