K-12 Teachers’ characteristics and self-efficacy as determinants of their turnover intentions

• In Event: Teachers in Comparative Settings

Proposal

Teacher turnover is a major concern in the education sector worldwide, including Ghana. High turnover rates among K-12 teachers have been linked to negative outcomes such as reduced student achievement, lower teacher morale, and increased costs for schools (Adnot et al., 2017; Bartanen et al., 2019; Flowers Jr, 2019). Teachers turnover manifest in two different ways⎼ (a) teacher migration (“movers,” those who transfer or migrate to teaching positions in other schools) and (b) teacher attrition (“leavers,” those who leave teaching altogether) (Ayar, 2023). Several factors have been identified as predictors of teacher turnover intentions, including individual characteristics, workplace factors, and job satisfaction (Boamah et al., 2022; Park & Johnson, 2019). While teachers’ turnover has significant influence on educational outcomes of students, much attention has not been given, especially in the global South. Extant literature has also demonstrated that turnover intentions of teachers positively predict teachers’ turnover rate. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the relationship between K-12 teachers' characteristics, self-efficacy, and turnover intentions in Ghana. A cross-sectional survey design was used, and data were collected using three scales: teacher characteristic scale, turnover intentions scale, and teacher efficacy scale. A total of 334 K-12 teachers aged between 18-59 years from different schools in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region, Ghana, participated in the study. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with the AMOS software.
The study found that teachers, 34.4% reported low turnover intentions, 36.5% reported moderate turnover intentions, and 29.0% reported high turnover intentions. In addition, the result shows that teachers have varying levels of self-efficacy, with 30.8% of teachers reporting low self-efficacy, 37.1% reporting moderate self-efficacy, and 32.0% reporting high self-efficacy. Furthermore, the study showed that teachers’ characteristics, such as teacher-student interaction, teaching profession, and humanistic and justice characteristics, significantly predicted their self-efficacy beliefs in terms of efficacy for instruction, efficacy for classroom management, and efficacy for motivation. Furthermore, the dimensions of teachers’ characteristics, such as teacher-student interaction and teaching profession, predicted their turnover intentions, while teachers’ self-efficacy dimensions, except for the composite of teachers’ self-efficacy, significantly predicted their turnover intentions. These findings suggest that improving K-12 teachers’ characteristics and self-efficacy beliefs could potentially reduce their turnover intentions. Implications for policy practice are discussed.

Authors

• INUUSAH MAHAMA, University of Education, Winneba

• David Baidoo-Anu, Faculty of Education Queen's University