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Around a quarter of new teachers in England leave the profession within three years, and a third do so within five years (DfE, 2025). My longitudinal PhD research with nine early career secondary teachers suggests retention is not only a policy problem but an identity problem. Teachers stay when their work aligns with who they feel they are becoming.

‘My research suggests retention is not only a policy problem but an identity problem.’

Across three years of interviews, participants described how their sense of themselves as teachers shifted. Their accounts show that identity does not grow from frameworks or lists of competencies. It develops through relationships, daily encounters and the meaning teachers attach to their work.

A sense of impact mattered most. When teachers felt they were making a difference to students’ learning and wellbeing, their motivation strengthened (Day & Gu, 2007). One of the participants, Mandy, said: ‘I am loving being in the classroom, I’m loving my classes.’ Isaac saw teaching as ‘the most important role.’ Catherine valued ‘seeing them grow and make progress’, and Tanya focused on ‘helping the students to see they can do it’. These moments provided the success cues that underpin identity and efficacy (Mockler, 2024).

Yet the Early Career Framework () (DfE, 2019) and Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework () (DfE, 2024) prioritise technical competencies and often overlook the relational and emotional dimensions of practice that teachers see as fundamental. This shapes how early career teachers interpret their role and whether they feel they belong.

Participants also described a gap between their lived realities and the policy narratives surrounding them. While the ECF and ITTECF position teachers as recipients of prescribed knowledge, my participants acted as interpreters who negotiated, adapted and sometimes resisted that guidance (Ellis, 2024). Audrey rejected mandated texts because ‘they’re so dry and dull’, choosing ones that created ‘excitement’. Mandy reshaped rigid form-time routines so they worked for her pupils, and Tanya withdrew from whole-school discussions when communication felt incoherent. These actions were attempts to preserve clarity and autonomy, not signs of disengagement.

Such withdrawal matters. Professional identity is relationally constructed, so when teachers feel pushed to the margins by rigid routines, inconsistent messaging or overwhelming policy, they have fewer opportunities to build identity through dialogue and shared meaning (Salo et al., 2024). Mandy’s adaptation and Tanya’s retreat illustrate how identity is shaped through school culture, trust and opportunities to exercise judgment (Steadman, 2024).

‘If schools foster identity-supportive environments, where teachers can interpret policy, adapt practice and stay connected to their moral purpose, professional identity strengthens and retention improves.’

Listening to early career teachers matters because it reveals the complexity of classroom life, the emotional labour involved and the quiet acts of agency that sustain purpose. Supporting them requires more than delivering a framework. It means creating cultures that value narrative reflection and professional dialogue.

If schools foster identity-supportive environments, where teachers can interpret policy, adapt practice and stay connected to their moral purpose, professional identity strengthens and retention improves. Teachers stay not only because workload eases but because their work continues to feel human, meaningful and their own.

References

Day, C., & Gu, Q. (2007). Variations in the conditions for teachers’ professional learning and development. Oxford Review of Education, 33(4), 423–443.

Department for Education. [DfE]. (2019). Early career framework: A framework of standards to help early career teachers succeed at the start of their careers (England).

Department for Education. [DfE]. (2024). Initial teacher training and early career framework (ITTECF): What trainee and early career teachers need to know and do (England).

Department for Education. [DfE]. (2025). School workforce in England: November 2024.

Ellis, V. (Ed.). (2024). Teacher education in crisis: The state, the market and the universities in England. Bloomsbury Academic.

Mockler, N. (2024). Troubled times and seeds of hope: Some reflections on teacher professional learning as praxis development. Professional Development in Education, 50(3), 586–593.

Salo, P., Francisco, S., & Olin Almqvist, A. (2024). Understanding professional learning in and for practice. Professional Development in Education, 50(3), 444–459.

Steadman, S. (2024). Who is it that can tell me who I am? What the ITE reforms in England mean for teacher identity. In V. Ellis (Ed.), Teacher education in crisis: The state, the market and the universities in England (pp. 163–177). Bloomsbury Academic.