How can we keep teachers in the profession? It is a question that many are wrestling with, and the retention rates suggest that in many ways, we are struggling to find the answers.
Haili Hughes, has invested a significant amount of time exploring this issue. She is the author of the excellent new book ‘Preserving Positivity’: Choosing to stay in the classroom and banishing a negative mindset’.
As you will hear, she interviewed hundreds of teachers in preparation for the book, hoping to unpick practical ways in which teachers can overcome some of the challenges we face as a profession.
We explore three of those main driving factors that have resulted in teachers leaving the profession: work-life balance, accountability, and behavior. In each discussion, Haili gives brilliant and practical advice on how we can maintain a positive mindset and not allow ourselves to be overcome by stress and anxiety.
I’m sure, like me, lots of listeners will be thinking carefully about some of the changes they want to make when we eventually return back to schools. I hope this interview offers some guidance on how to make teaching a manageable and enjoyable career choice, one in which we can sustain for many years.