ABSTRACT

The greatest challenge facing the profession is how to retain the one-third of teachers who begin training, but who currently drop out during their training year or first year on the job. Interviews with former teachers, which are supported by large-scale empirical studies, illustrate how schools can inadvertently create huge demands on novice teachers, who are not then backed up with sufficient support systems. The psychological Job Demands Resources model can explain why teachers become burnt out and disengaged from their work. It also gives a framework for understanding how to make the first years of teaching more manageable.