Listening to the Career Life Stories of Teachers

Abstract

The issue of teacher retention attracts worldwide attention as governments, administrators and researchers look for strategies to keep their quality teachers. However, much of the research to date adopts a deficit approach by considering the systemic, procedural and policy changes needed to improve teaching conditions. Less often considered are individual factors within teachers’ control that contribute to personal satisfaction and success. Therefore, this qualitative study used narrative inquiry to address a gap and listened to the stories of late career teachers to discover how they sustain their careers over time. Using a phenomenological approach to examine the life and career of three Australian secondary school teachers who have been teaching for more than eighteen years, the study recognised individual teachers’ continuity of experience and relationships, across time and within the various geographic, professional and social places that teaching occurs. Late career teachers were the focus of this study because they have the ability to reflect on past teaching experiences in the context of current positions with a view to future teaching expectations. They have also navigated their teaching career in conjunction with living a life outside of school. Life story interviews were used to access stories about teaching in the context of life as it was lived and attention given to what was working for individual teachers. As teachers re-storied their experiences, they created a teaching narrative. Exploring this narrative, in the context of broader life experiences, provided an opportunity to examine different perceptions of teaching and notice when perceptions changed for the individual at different times throughout a career. The aim was to discover factors contributing to individual teachers’ enjoyment of and commitment to, their profession. The findings confirmed previous research that highlighted the importance of intrinsic and altruistic motivations and added a nuanced understanding to the relationship between the choices an individual teacher makes throughout their career and their individual motivations, values, beliefs, and perceptions of identity. In particular, passion for particular aspects of teaching, the opportunity to fulfil a personal purpose and, stimulating relationships with students and colleagues, were identified as energising, motivational and key to sustaining a rewarding teaching career. However, each participant had different needs in terms of fulfilling their passion, achieving their purpose and measuring what constituted a stimulating relationship. As teachers re-storied their career they noticed where, when and how their specific passion, individual sense of purpose and valued relationships helped sustain their career. Deliberate attention to their own stories helped the teachers in this study focus on how they could consciously craft a successful, self sustaining career. Therefore, results of this research may contribute to a greater understanding of how individual teachers can manage their teaching experience across their career and offer valuable insights into teacher retention.