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staffing the higher classes. The report also states that although many factors go into making a successful
school and educational system, the Ministry of Education believes that a high quality teaching force
is the most important factor for the educational system’s success.
In the light of the issue of teacher attrition, this study will investigate the contributing factors,
other than retirement, why teachers leave the educational profession. This study will further try to
examine levels of job satisfaction of those presently teaching to identify intrinsic andor extrinsic factors
that impact teacher decisions to leave the teaching profession.
The rest of the paper is arranged as follows: section II describes the literature review, section III
discusses the data and research methodology, section IV shows the results and section V gives the study’s
conclusion and recommendations.
2. Literature Review
Teachers leaving the profession will contribute to high levels of shortages in the school
and undermine the qualities of teaching in the class room. It is too often assumed that teachers leave their
positions for reasons such as salary, work load, working conditions, and social status.
More productive workers are more aware of salary in general because of a desire to be compensated for
their quality. In education, this could mean that teachers who are “highly-effective” may be more
sensitive to increases in compensation, since they better estimate their own worth and want to be
compensated accordingly. This could be particularly true in a teacher labor market, where teachers are
most often not compensated for their productivity within a school district and the primary way for them
to increase their compensation is to transfer to a school district with a higher salary Hough, 2012. In
line with economic theory, salaries have been found to be an important determinant of entry and quit
decisions for teachers Murnane and Olsen 1989. Ingersoll 2002a cites figures that state at least 50
of the teachers who leave do so due to job dissatisfaction. He defines job dissatisfaction as low
salaries. Darling- Hammond 2003 found that when teachers’ salaries are compared with any other
professions that require similar education and training, teacher are getting approximately 20
below their counterparts. Black 2001 noted that low salaries are indicative of low socioeconomic status
and as a result force teachers more often to just walk away to something better. Murnane, Singer and
Willet 1989, in their study also found that teachers are likely to stay long in teaching if they earn more.
Similarly, Dolton and Klaauw 1999 conducted an econometric estimation which highlighted the
importance of the wage and relative forgone earnings in turnover decisions also found that the higher the
opportunity wage outside teaching the more likely teachers are to leave teaching for an alternative
career.
Teachers perceive teaching as being an unusual profession in a number of ways. Teachers
work load not only include the total duration that one spent in schools teaching its students, but it is also
combinations of so many other attributes together. Teacher Workload Study, 2001 found teacher spent
their significant time in carrying out other school activities apart from their actual class rooms
teaching. Most beginning teachers find the work load more demanding than they expected during their
practicum or in their initial years of teaching. Most beginning teachers leave teaching due to pressure
from work load Kyriacou Kunc, 2007. Excessive paperwork, bureaucracy, administration tasks and
other non teaching obligations were some of the factors which stressed teachers and generated more
dissatisfaction in their work than the actual teaching activities Barmby, 2006; Perrachione et al 2008.
Every day teachers are leaving their jobs that can be related to the conditions of the workplace.
Darling-Hammond 2003, in her surveys of teachers has long shown that working conditions play a major
role in teachers’ decisions to switch schools or leave the profession. Teachers’ feelings about
administrative support, resources for teaching, and teacher input into decision making are strongly
related to their plans to stay in teaching and to their reasons for leaving, Ingersoll,2001. The attitude
and support of the employer, their superior’s leadership quality, recognition of one’s work, fair
treatment, relationship with peers and general school climate serve as supplementary reasons for teachers
developing positive or negative attitude towards their work Saiti, 2007. Ladd 2011, besides the quality
of the leaders in his study found that inadequate facilities and resources are also likely to reduce a
teacher’s willingness to stay in a school. Certo Fox, 2002, found that teachers not only feel a lack of
support from school level administrators, but also due to a lack of supplies, textbooks, staff development
opportunities, or not having a voice in district wide decision making, makes them to leave their job.
The status of teaching is an important factor in both attracting and retaining teachers. Teachers
view their role in society as being very important and noble. Watson and Hatton 2002 in their study found
that the most negative item for teachers in terms of job satisfaction was that status of teachers in society.
Similarly, Spear et al 2000 also found that the major factors of job dissatisfaction for teachers are
Education and Leadership in Glocalization : What does “think globally, act locally” mean for education around the world?
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the perceptions of how they are viewed by the society. The attitude of the general public combined
frequently with the media’s unfavorable representation of teachers’ work has to some degree
tainted the reputation of teaching as a career choice Kyriacou Kunc, 2007; Watt Richardson, 2008.
The modern society which places weight on prestige and status has much to do with fresh university
students not opting for teaching profession. This would lead to beginning teachers’ dissatisfaction
once they join teaching and discover that the perception of society in general does not have a
constructive view towards teaching. Barmby 2006 also found that society’s view as important factor to
motivate teachers to be in the job. In his finding, he found that more than 80 teachers perceived that
improved society’s view on teachers will encourage them to stay in jobs.
3. Data and Research Methodology
