Impact of COVID-19 on New Teacher Retention and Perceived Supports in a Northern California Public School District

Proceedings of The 4th World Conference on Teaching and Education

Year: 2022

DOI:

[PDF]

Impact of COVID-19 on New Teacher Retention and Perceived Supports in a Northern California Public School District

Rebecka Maxkenzie

ABSTRACT: 

This qualitative study examined teachers, schools, and district approaches to new teacher retention with a COVID-19 spin. In the changing world of a global pandemic and shifting teaching modalities, including distance or hybrid learning environments, teachers reflected on their experiences of adaptation. Interviews with teachers in their first three years in the profession were conducted to share the stories of new teachers amid COVID-19. New teachers were recruited through a snowball sampling technique from a large school district in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. To answer the research questions, participants were interviewed about the presence or absence of school and district-level new teacher supports, including improved working conditions, positive school climate, supportive school administrators, induction and mentoring programs, and PD was described alongside teachers’ self-reports of plans for retention or attrition.

keywords: COVID, new teacher retention, school leadership, emergency remote teaching.