Making Sense of Science Teacher Retention: Teacher Embeddedness and Its Implications for New Teacher Support

Abstract

This chapter reports initial findings from IMPREST, a 5-year research project that aims to investigate novice science teacher retention in the United States, with a focus on the underlying factors influencing retention for the teachers who stay. The goal of this project is to describe efforts to support novice science teachers across a wide range of school and community environments in places where the retention rate of novice science teachers is demonstrably well above average. In such districts, there are stakeholders who know and have learned a great deal about how to support novice science teachers and create conditions for their success, including district administrators, science supervisors, teachers, and community members, and a core aim of this project is to spread their hard-won practical wisdom to a wider audience. In this chapter, we report the design of the project, introduce the theory of teacher embeddedness used in this research, and share preliminary findings from case studies in six school districts. This study found that retained teachers placed a high value on collaborative environments, adequate resources and salary, and the relationships they developed both within the school organization and the community. In many of the case study districts, the collective mentoring efforts of the science department as a whole was viewed by teachers as more important for retention than individually assigned mentors. In these districts, the human resources process of “onboarding” into the job was distinct from induction efforts to provide longitudinal new teacher supports. One clear implication from this study is the value of adequate common planning time, shared spaces, and engagement in informal relationship-building efforts because doing so helps teachers develop the links necessary to sustain themselves professionally over time.