UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

What motivates people to teach, and why do they leave? Accountability, performativity and teacher retention

Perryman, J; Calvert, G; (2020) What motivates people to teach, and why do they leave? Accountability, performativity and teacher retention. British Journal of Educational Studies , 68 (1) pp. 2-23. 10.1080/00071005.2019.1589417. Green open access

[thumbnail of Perryman_Teachers Leaving revised final.pdf]
Preview
Text
Perryman_Teachers Leaving revised final.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (173kB) | Preview

Abstract

A longstanding problem in the teacher workforce, internationally and in the UK, is the continuing and substantial numbers of qualified teachers who leave the profession within five years. This paper uses data collected from a survey to the last five years of teacher education graduates of UCL Institute of Education (IOE) in London, to explore what originally motivated them to teach, and the reasons why they have left or may consider leaving in the future. We discovered that despite claiming to be aware of the challenges of workload before entering teaching, workload was the most frequently cited reason for having left, or for leaving in the future. The data spoke to the reality of teaching being worse than expected, and the nature (rather than the quantity) of the workload, linked to notions of performativity and accountability, being a crucial factor. This paper draws on a substantial new source of data and explores reasons for leaving in the context of reported initial motivation of individuals who have left teaching, individuals who are planning to leave and individuals who are planning to stay in teaching.

Type: Article
Title: What motivates people to teach, and why do they leave? Accountability, performativity and teacher retention
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/00071005.2019.1589417
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2019.1589417
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: teacher retention, accountability, performativity
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10068733
Downloads since deposit
5,321Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item