Continuing to Teach: Stories of Attrition and Retention

This book shares insights from experienced teachers who were invited to share the experiences challenging their decision to continue in the profession. Their stories are captured narratively through a critical ethnographic lens in fictional professional learning team (PLT) meetings, woven together and retold as collegial conversations centred around topics and themes in a school leadership text. These meetings focus on the themes of trust, truthfulness, workload, time and change. Their stories reveal themes of bullying, misogyny, sexism, power disparities, lies and deceit, lack of support, and inconsistent and questionable leadership decisions. Professionalism, ethical practice, and the nature of schools are questioned, along with perceptions and the need for change. The insights shared in the book will be of interest to academics researching teacher attrition and experiences, and those involved in teacher preparation.

Elizabeth Allotta is an educator passionate about the experiences of teachers and doctoral students working and studying in Australian contexts. She is a practising teacher in a secondary high school and a sessional university lecturer and tutor. Shehas edited two volumes in the series The Doctoral Journey in Education.