Reasons They Stay: Organizational Effectiveness and Oregon Teachers' Retention Stories

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding Why Teachers Stay or Leave: An Opportunity for Leaders to Improve Teachers' Working Conditions (Table 30)

Abstract

This phenomenological study relied on semi-structured interviews to examine Oregon teachers’ perceived reasons for staying in their schools, districts, and communities over long periods. This paper highlights two areas of organizational effectiveness in Oregon teacher retention 1) the vital early-career role of formal and informal mentoring relationships and 2) how teachers’ choice to live where they work or commute mediates their relationships with students and families. The job embeddedness framework is presented to help better understand the reasons for teachers’ choices to remain in their schools, districts, and communities.

Author

• Benjamin Ewing, Lincoln County School District