The influence of support for early career teachers on their decision to remain in the teaching profession

Jennifer Hatley, Lecturer and Course Leader, Education Studies, School of Education, University of Worcester, UK Alison Kington, Professor, Psychology of Education, School of Education, University of Worcester, UK Introduction In 2019, the Department for Education (DfE) published two documents relating to the work of early career teachers (ECT): ‘Early career framework’ and ‘Reducing workload: Supporting teachers in the early stages of their career’ (2019a, 2019b). These were welcomed, especially as retention in the early phase of a teacher’s career has historically been lower than for their more experienced peers (Guarino et al., 2006). This research-based article focuses on how, in spite of issues with high workload, student behaviour management and a lack of support from senior leaders and colleagues (Perryman and Calvert, 2020, Ainsworth and Oldfield 2019), some ECTs sustain resilience and gain a strong sense of satisfaction from their work. Described as times of su