Does community matter?: a study on rural chinese teachers’ turnover

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ retention plays a critical role in rural students’ access to quality education. Previous studies on rural teacher turnover have emphasised the role of economic disadvantages, with little attention paid to non-economic factors. The present study examined the effects of teacher-community interactions and community social structure on rural teachers’ intention to leave. Hierarchical Linear Model analysis was conducted with a national sample of 3,742 rural teachers in China. The descriptive statistics showed that rural teachers had a mild level of community engagement on average. However, we found that interactions between teachers and local members were significantly related to a higher level of intention to stay. Teachers working in close-knit communities were more likely to leave than their counterparts in scattered and dispersed communities. Leaders of rural schools and communities should be aware of such interactions’ benefits, especially in areas with strong social ties.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher turnover
• rural teacher
• China
• community interaction
• community social structure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The 3,580 primary sampling units are all county-level divisions in China according to the standard of National Bureau of Statistics (http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/tjbz/tjyqhdmhcxhfdm/2015/index.html). A county, or district/prefecture, contains both urban and rural areas. Urban areas include the metropolitan areas of cities and areas where county-level governments are located. Rural areas are made up of the residual areas that are not included in urban areas.

2. All the four types of schools are in rural areas. In rural China, a centre town primary school contains grade 1 ~ 6 and a town middle school contains grade 7 ~ 9. Both are located at the town-level government area, surrounded by several villages. A village primary school contains grade 1 ~ 6 while its size is smaller than a centre town primary school. A teaching site is the smallest teaching unit which contains less than six grades and a very small enrolment number (can be less than ten) and is usually located in remote and small villages.

3. Based on annual per-capita income in a county, the Chinese central government classifies all counties into two groups: poverty county and non-poverty county. The standard line is dynamic due to economic development. In 2015, counties with a per capita annual income less than 2855 yuan (around $460, real-time exchange rates) were denoted as poverty counties.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The National Social Science Fund of China [BHA200154].

Notes on contributors

Chenglong Wang

Mingkun Cui is an instructor at School of Education, Beijing Sport University. His main research interests are rural education, rural teacher identity and retention, and rural student educational pathway.

Yu Xia is a PhD candidate at Learning, Design, and Technology program in College of Education at The Pennsylvania State University. Overall, her research concerns equity in education. Specifically, her current research interests lie in the fields of learning sciences and computer-supported collaborative learning, equity and agency in collaborative learning, and technologically enhanced learning.

Chenglong Wangis a research fellow at National Academy of Education Administration. He got his PhD degree of education at Beijing Normal University. His research interests include rural education and sociology of education.