‘Why I left’: interpreting early career teacher attrition in Australia through exit narratives and the job demands–resources framework

Early career teacher (ECT) attrition continues to challenge the Australian schooling system, yet relatively few studies have examined how former ECTs retrospectively interpret the experiences that shaped their decisions to leave within the first 5 years of teaching. This qualitative study examined the experiences of six former ECTs who had recently exited the profession, recruited through purposive sampling and interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) framework was used to interpret the conditions shaping participants’ decisions to leave the teaching profession. Reflexive thematic analysis identified four contributors to attrition: intensifying workload, limited professional and relational support, emotional strain associated with teaching, and a misalignment between expectations and school realities. By applying JD–R to retrospective exit narratives, the study extends existing understandings of teacher attrition by demonstrating how resource erosion unfolds cumulatively and relationally over time. The findings reposition early career attrition as a gradual process of professional depletion rather than a single decision point. Implications are offered for strengthening preparation, induction, and relational leadership practices to support early career sustainability.