How does autonomy relate to job satisfaction and retention in teaching?

Retaining more teachers is crucial for the education system, particularly at a time when there are not enough teachers coming into the profession to meet the growing need from rising student numbers. Unmanageable workload and low job satisfaction are significant factors determining teachers’ decision to stay in the profession or leave. To explore this further, NFER, in partnership with the Teacher Development Trust (TDT), looked at the relationship between professional autonomy and teachers’ job satisfaction and retention. So, does a greater sense of autonomy relate to higher job satisfaction and retention in teaching? Our new research, the first large-scale quantitative study in England to look at teacher autonomy and retention, suggests that it does (Worth and Van den Brande, 2020). Teacher surveys show that when teachers have a lot of influence over what they do in their job and how they do it, they are more likely to feel that they have a manageable workload, are more sat