Juggling and struggling: walking the teaching tightrope - a constructivist grounded theory study

Teacher attrition is a worrying concern for parents, teachers, and national governments around the world. Teacher attrition brings a multitude of financial, educational and societal costs, among others. In the United Kingdom, teacher attrition has been a concern for over two decades and the rate of attrition shows no sign of slowing down. As a result, the government have introduced policies such as the Recruitment and Retention policy in attempts to stem teacher attrition, and although these have had some effect, there is more that can be done.
This small scale research study exploreds teacher attrition specifically fromin primary settings in England, from the perspective of nine long- serving teachers (both stayers and leaversfive of whom had left the profession at the time of data collection) with six or more years in the teaching profession. The study aimedIt aims to gain insight into the world of teachers to gain provide a more holistic view of teachers’ experiences that lead to attrition. A constructivist grounded theory methodology is was employed to answer the research questions, primarily, What are primary teachers’ perspectives about why primary teachers in England leave the profession?
. Two data generation methods are were used: participant- elicited visual representations and online synchronous semi-structured interviews, with the aim of gaining fresh insights from those uncovered in the background review which largely are the result of analysis of secondary data from surveys.

Findings demonstrated that teacher attrition is an emotive subject, grounded in the use of figurative and emotional language used by participants as they shared their understanding and experiences. The ‘constructed theory’ What was revealed was a better deeper understanding of the nature of the juggling of workload that teachers suffer and the struggles that they endure in teaching. In addition, stressors and mitigators act were seen to act upon this juggling and struggling. Implications of the study include recommendations for school leadership and initial teacher education providers among others.