Teacher Identity, Growth Mindset, and Agency: Changing the Trajectory of Teacher Retention

Chapter Objectives

• 1.

  Understand the relationship between teacher identity, growth mindset, and teacher agency.

• 2.

  Understand how teacher identity, growth mindset, and teacher agency might influence teacher retention.

Introduction

Matthew is not alone, as many teachers leave the profession each year. Teacher retention and attrition continue to be a serious concern in the field of education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2016), eight percent of teachers leave the profession yearly, and another eight percent move to other schools, bringing the total annual turnover rate to 16%. Researchers estimate that between 20-50% of public-school teachers in the United States leave the profession within the first five years of their career (Gray & Taie, 2015; Ingersoll et al., 2019). At these high rates, teacher turnover is “costly at all levels, draining resources from school districts, making management difficult at schools, and leaving many students in the hands of novice teachers with little classroom experience” (Glazer, 2018, p. 52). The hiring of new teachers, each based on such high rates of turnover, have “transformed the teaching profession such that there are now more short-term than career-long teachers” (Glazer, 2018, p. 52). Research tells us that high teacher turnover results in more students with “inexperienced teachers who we know are less effective on average” (Boyd et al., 2008, p. 1). This high turnover and lower level of effectiveness for early career teachers may be attributed to the broad array of responsibilities and stressors that they face. Therefore, preparing teachers for the day-to-day experiences of teaching, including non-instructional tasks, is important.

Faculty and supervisors in EPPs should assure pre-service teachers that the first three years of teaching can be challenging. However, it should be noted that teaching challenges might be effectively managed by helping pre-service teachers develop their teacher identities, growth mindsets, and agency. While learning content and pedagogy, pre-service teachers must also learn that challenges will arise when they become classroom teachers and must be prepared for them. Preparation begins by identifying themselves as teachers and with the teaching profession. Next, pre-service teachers must realize that teachers continually grow and change to meet the diverse needs of their students and the educational mandates that are given from school administrators, districts, and state governments. Finally, pre-service teachers need drive and ambition to seek out opportunities for solutions to challenges they may face. To retain teachers and allow them to gain the experience needed to be effective in the classroom, we must examine ways to support pre-service teacher learning, not only in pedagogical content but in ways that allow them to identify as teachers, seek opportunities to grow, and develop agency to overcome the difficulties they will experience in the teaching profession.