Factors influencing Australian teachers' intent to leave the teaching profession

Abstract

Teachers play a vital role in shaping the lives of our children. In Australia, the teaching work force is experiencing a teacher shortage especially in particular subject areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Teacher retention rate is decided by teachers' outflow i.e. teachers permanently leaving the profession prior to retirement. This research uses the Staff in Australia's Schools 2010 data set as the data base to formulate a logistic regression model of teacher outflow, which enriches the quantitative research into Australian teaching work force planning. It addresses the teacher outflow issue by identifying what prominent factors would influence teachers' decision of leaving the profession. Factors that significantly affect Australian teachers' decision in terms of their intention to leave teaching profession are: teachers' satisfaction with student behaviour, salary, working relationship, and age. The analysis also has implications for the literature on school community and school effectiveness. Show more