Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

David Weintraub

Committee Member

Matthew Delaney

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Keywords

teacher attrition, teacher burnout, teacher retention, teacher turnover

Abstract

This qualitative, phenomenological study sought to present an understanding of low retention, or high turnover, of educators in a southern metropolitan county. The study purposefully brought to light the lived experiences and perceptions of 8 participants through the researcher’s designed interview protocol. The participants were former novice and expert educators from a southern metropolitan school system. This study was guided by three initial research questions that prompted the interviewees to disclose their perceptions of the various lived experiences and causations that led to personal resignations, as well as those of other educators. The interviewees also divulged interventions they thought would decrease teacher turnover.

The Mason and Matas’ four capital framework, developed in 2015, was implemented as a theoretical framework for this study. The theoretical framework consists of human capital, social capital, structural capital, and positive psychological capital that one or more may alleviate high teacher turnover or increase teacher retention.

A data analysis revealed that both novice and expert educators encountered some of the same lived experiences while educating in schools with high teacher turnover. They experienced being too stressed, inequity of pay compared to responsibilities, lack of support, and teacher burnout. The participants perceived that more support, higher earnings, empathetic and sympathetic leadership, and the hiring of qualified educators would diminish or eliminate high teacher turnover.

Download
To access this thesis/dissertation you must have a valid nova.edu OR mynsu.nova.edu email address and create an account for NSUWorks.

Free My Thesis

If you are the author of this work and would like to grant permission to make it openly accessible to all, please click the Free My Thesis button.

  Contact Author

Share

COinS