Factors Influencing Teachers’ Performance and Retention

It is critical to retain high quality and qualified teachers to provide high quality education in schools. Turnover intentions of teachers in schools have a negative impact on student satisfaction and on their educational development as well. The retention and performance of school teachers is possible through their job satisfaction to which reduces their turnover intentions and lead to their higher performance. Therefore, it is vital to consider all possible factors that impact on the teacher’s performance and on their turnover intentions. Thus, due to the importance of teacher’s turnover issue, the purpose of this paper is to review the literature relevant to teacher’s performance and factors that reduce teacher’s turnover intentions from schools. This study also aims to review the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors to assess teacher’s performance and their staying intentions. Dimension for intrinsic motivation is the satisfaction derived from teaching, recognition, enjoying teaching, career development, the challenging and competitive nature of teaching, teaching as one goal in life and control over others. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation mainly includes the award applied externally as a salary or wages, free accommodation, educational progress in paying premiums, meals, additional payments in case of financial problems, paid leave and free medical assistance. The existing literature has identified major influential factors such as working conditions, administrative support and student behavior impacting teacher’s performance and their retention. This study also provides some directions for future research in this regard as well. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n1p233