Date

2-28-2025

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

Carol Gillespie

Keywords

Teacher retention, leadership, school culture, open communication, administration, principal, retention

Disciplines

Curriculum and Instruction | Education

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the influence of school leadership on teacher retention for public school teachers at Helam Public School District. The phenomenon of the influence of school leadership on teacher retention encompasses various interconnected factors that significantly affect the decision of teachers to remain in or leave the profession. The historical, social, and theoretical context of teacher retention were highlighted in the introduction. The theory guiding this study was the transformational leadership theory. The central research question aimed to understand the school leadership experiences of retained public school teachers at Helam Public School District. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to explore teacher retention. The focus was on investigating how leadership influenced teacher retention. There were three data collection approaches: survey, journal prompts, and individual interviews. Moustakas’s modification of van Kaam’s analysis method was used to analyze the findings. In addition, factor analysis was used to uncover the underlying structure of multi-dimensional data sets and gain a deeper understanding of the complex relationships among variables in the study of leadership and teacher retention. The analysis of the three collected data types identified four central themes that reflect the lived experiences of teachers at HPSD: leadership support, communication, recognition and appreciation, and school climate. The data analysis includes a discussion of its empirical, practical, and theoretical implications, along with recommendations for future research.

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