Situated professional learning for retention and success in early career teaching

This article argues for a situated perspective of new teachers’ work and professional learning, and highlights important considerations for retention and success in early career teaching. Attrition rates of early career teachers The attrition rate of new teachers is an ongoing concern for governments across the globe. More than 10 years ago it was reported that 10 per cent of teachers in OECD countries in their first three years of teaching leave, sometimes at a rate 150 per cent higher than for other teachers (Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development, 2005). More recent figures indicate that attrition rates might be even higher now. In the USA, data shows that 30 to 46 per cent of new teachers leave teaching within the first five years (Gouldring et al., 2014), while current figures in England suggest that around a quarter of newly qualified teachers who join state-funded schools leave within four years (Department for Education, 2018). Moreover, there is evidence