Voices from the field: early career teacher attrition in rural government schools in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Aim: Early career teacher attrition is a global issue in different levels. In many countries, early career teacher attrition has affected the economy of the country as well as the education sector since teachers contribute to the academic success of the students and the development of the country by making all types of professionals. Scholarly literature on early career teacher attrition in Sri Lanka is scare even though the factors affecting teacher attrition is mostly common compared to the literature on other countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence early career teacher attrition in rural public schools in Sri Lanka and to what extent that these factors have embedded within the professional experiences of early career teachers in rural schools compelling them to leave the profession before reaching to their retirement age.

Theory: Job demands-resources (JD-R) theory was used as the conceptual framework for this study. According to this theory, increased job demands contributed to heightened the stress levels, emotional exhaustion, job dissatisfaction, job burnout ultimately leading to a higher degree of attrition. Conversely, Job resources act as mitigating factors that alleviate stress levels, reduce job dissatisfaction and decrease emotional exhaustion leading to a lower degree of attrition.

Method: A semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively selected government school teachers whose first appointment was a rural school in various parts of the country. A total of seven teachers were interviewed and the data was recorded and transcribed.

Results: Data analysis revealed seven major themes: working conditions, personal factors, policy and administration, professional development, compensation and benefits, community and support, and cultural and social factors. The research findings showed that working conditions, compensation and benefits, and personal factors have a significant impact on attrition as they have increased job stress, emotional exhaustion, physiological and psychological well-being of newly appointed teachers in rural school context. Under the theme policy and administration, administrative support had moderate responds while recruitment practices had negatively affected on early career teachers as they were assigned to rural schools against their will which had become a major motive to seek alternatives. Furthermore, professional development reported higher degree of professional isolation, limited career advancement and training opportunities which led to attrition while mentoring program had created a healthy environment to retain in the profession. Cultural shock had a significant impact on these teachers which influenced them to seek alternative careers. Finally, community engagement, peer relationships, and social status of teachers had reduced the attrition rates in rural school across the country.