The Impact of Texas High School Teachers' Perceptions of Culture on Their Intent to Stay or Leave from Their Position

Authors

Abigail Crawford, Tarleton State UniversityFollow
Lesley F. Leach, Tarleton State UniversityFollow
Ron Rhone, Tarleton State UniversityFollow
Juanita Reyes, Tarleton State UniversityFollow

Short Title

Teachers' Perceptions of Culture on Their Intent to Stay or Leave

Keywords

Teacher Retention, Teacher Attrition, Culture, High School, Faculty Relations, Administrative Decisions, Student Discipline, Learning & Assessment

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Teacher attrition has been an issue in education for decades, however, post-pandemic, the problem has grown exponentially. Teachers at the high school campus are often particularly difficult to replace because of their specialized areas. Yearly faculty surveys often ask teachers to share their perceptions of their campus, including but not limited to, faculty relationships, administrative decisions, student discipline, and learning and assessment. While teachers’ perceptions of these areas of campus life might be positive or negative, do any of these areas motivate a teacher to leave or to stay? The purpose of this research is to investigate high school teachers’ perceptions of these four aspects of school culture and how those perceptions might impact a teacher’s intent to leave or stay in their position.

Through using a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design, Texas high school teachers were first surveyed through simple random sampling as to their perceptions of campus climate and their intent to stay or leave, utilizing four sub-sections from a campus culture survey tool to investigate teachers’ perceptions of faculty relations, leadership/decisions, student discipline, and learning and assessment, followed by a six-question survey to ask purposeful intent as to whether the teacher would leave or stay. Post-survey, a purposeful sample of teachers was selected to provide context to the surveys through interviews.

The research found that the culture area of administrative decisions is a statistically significant predictor of whether a teacher will leave or stay in their position. Faculty relationships, student discipline and learning and assessment were not strong predictors of a teacher’s intent to stay or leave.

Recommended Citation

Crawford, Abigail; Leach, Lesley F.; Rhone, Ron; and Reyes, Juanita (2024) "The Impact of Texas High School Teachers' Perceptions of Culture on Their Intent to Stay or Leave from Their Position," School Leadership Review: Vol. 18: Iss. 2, Article 8.
Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/slr/vol18/iss2/8