How school leaders attract, recruit, develop and retain the early career teachers they want : positives and paradoxes

Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers to the profession is of international concern as it has far-reaching economic and social implications for all nations. In Australia, discussion of teacher workforce development has focused predominantly on attracting and recruiting quality teachers, with less attention given to the broader retention process. In this chapter, we discuss how school leaders influence new teachers and foster their professional commitment. Furthermore, we identify the micropolitical activities that school leaders consciously use to promote the engagement and retention of the early career teachers they want to keep. We also present data and analyses which reveal the dilemmas and paradoxes that school leaders encounter when they attempt to reconcile the competing demands of different stakeholders in the staffing process. We juxtapose the mostly benevolent actions of leaders with their often-unintended consequences to establish the need for ongoing critical reflection about the impact of taken-for-granted human resources processes on early career teachers.