Antecedents of Norwegian beginning teachers’ turnover intentions

Abstract

This study aims at exploring several individual, organizational, and contextual factors that may affect beginning teachers’ turnover intentions during their first years of practice. The sample consists of 227 beginning teachers (69% female and 31% male) from 133 schools in Norway. The results show four important antecedents of beginning teachers’ turnover intentions: collective teacher efficacy, teacher–principal trust, role conflict, and affective commitment. Our findings suggest that organizational and contextual factors, and not necessarily individual competence perceptions, have a significant impact on beginning teachers’ turnover intentions. Also the findings suggest that beginning teachers should be studied separately from more experienced teachers. Implications for school leadership are discussed.

Keywords:

• beginning teachers
• turnover intention
• teacher attrition
• teacher retention

Notes

1. http://statbank.ssb.no/statistikkbanken/Default_FR.asp?PXSid=0&nvl=true&PLanguage=0&tilside=selectvarval/define.asp&Tabellid=04,897 and https://gsi.udir.no/tallene.

2. Information provided by the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) in 2012 upon request of the authors.