What is involved in being retained as a teacher? Early career teachers in England show relational activism in their retention decision-making

Retaining early career teachers is a challenge across the Global North, making it vital to understand what shapes teachers’ decisions to remain. This paper draws on nine interviews with early career teachers in England, using socio-network maps from their training year and three or four years later. Findings show that teachers actively shaping their professional lives through decisions which can be viewed as invisible retention activity. Their retention decision-making is conscious, values-driven, emotionally demanding and fundamentally relational. By drawing on their network of relationships early career teachers can build resilience, which underpins their retention. Interpolating from this study, early career teachers more widely are likely to be demonstrating activism to achieve work conditions which suit them, particularly since COVID-19. To optimise teacher retention, those supporting early career teachers during training and in early employment, could help them recognize how they can show agency in their retention, through relational activism.