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Leading the new generation: principal leadership practices that promote retention of millennial teachers

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Leading the new generation: principal leadership practices that promote retention of millennial teachers

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Content Leading the New Generation: Principal Leadership Practices That Pr omote Retention of
Millennial T eachers
Mark Adato
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education
May 2023
© Copyright by Mark Adato 2023
All Rights Reserved
The Committee for Mark Adato certifies the approval of this Dissertation
David Cash
Christina Kishimoto
Gregory Franklin, Committee Chair
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2023
Abstract
High rates of teacher attrition in the United States have been a pressing issue for educators for
the last several decades. The average level of teacher competency across a school decreases as
teachers leave the classroom, creating a negative impact on student achievement and forcing
financial burden on the school’ s budget. At the time of the writing of this dissertation,
millennials are the lar gest generation represented in the workforce and are at a range of ages
putting them in prime positions to adopt leadership roles within their or ganizations. Millennials
are collaborative, creative, and driven individuals with a unique set of professional
characteristics that are enhanced by certain or ganizational models. Companies across private
industries have already begun evolving to harness these advantages, and our school systems will
need to follow suit in order to retain their millennial teachers. This study utilizes Herzber g’ s
two-factor theory to investigate which factors are the most influential in keeping millennial
teachers in the classroom, and which principal practices are perceived as having the highest
impact on retention. A total of 50 millennial teachers who had been in the classroom for at least
5 years were surveyed, and of those participants, 14 were interviewed for qualitative data
collection. The findings of this study indicate that relationships, autonomy , and salary are the
factors which have the greatest impact on either keeping millennial teachers in the classroom or
driving them out. The principal practices which are most commonly cited as promoting their
retention are giving autonomy , supporting teachers’ ideas, building personal relationships with
teachers, and growing their capacities.
Keywor ds : teacher retention, motivation, millennials, principal practices, qualitative
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Dedication
T o my parents, who did not want me to be a teacher . I did not listen to them, as usual. And they
kept loving me, as usual.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my parents for supporting me through every aspect of my education
and my career . They have given me everything they have without a moment’ s hesitation, and I
am privileged beyond measure to be their son. My sisters have provided me with models of what
strong, capable, and intelligent women look like, and their collective love and patience has made
me a rich man.
I would also like to thank my professors and fellow doctoral students at the Rossier
school in USC for making me laugh, making me think, and making me feel over the last few
years. My dissertation committee members, Dr . Cash, Dr . Kishimoto, and especially my chair Dr .
Franklin provided me with guidance and questions which helped form this dissertation into one
of my greatest accomplishments. I am proud of this contribution to the education landscape that I
am able to submit.
Finally , I would like to thank the students and community of Ewa Beach, O’ahu for
welcoming me in as a teacher at James Campbell High School and helping me realize my life’ s
work. Not many people have the good luck of finding that out as early as I did, but if there is one
thing that students are good at, it is helping you put your priorities into focus really quickly .
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T able of Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................ 4
Dedication ............................................................................................................................ 5
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. 6
List of T ables ........................................................................................................................ 9
List of Figures .................................................................................................................... 10
Chapter One: Overview of the Study ................................................................................... 1
Statement of the Problem ......................................................................................... 2
Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................ 3
Significance of the Study ......................................................................................... 3
Limitation and Delimitations ................................................................................... 4
Definition of T erms .................................................................................................. 4
Or ganization of the Study ........................................................................................ 5
Chapter T wo: Review of the Literature ............................................................................... 7
T eacher Retention .................................................................................................... 7
Motivation Theory ................................................................................................. 13
Millennials ............................................................................................................. 24
Summary ................................................................................................................ 35
Chapter Three: Methodology ............................................................................................. 36
Purpose of the Study .............................................................................................. 36
Sample and Population .......................................................................................... 36
Instrumentation ...................................................................................................... 37
Data Collection ...................................................................................................... 39
Data Analysis ......................................................................................................... 41
Summary ................................................................................................................ 42
Chapter Four: Results or Findings ..................................................................................... 43
Participants ............................................................................................................. 44
Results Research Question 1.................................................................................. 48
Discussion Research Question 1............................................................................ 61
Results Research Question 2.................................................................................. 63
Theme 1: Give Autonomy ..................................................................................... 66
Theme 2: Support Their Ideas ................................................................................ 68
Theme 3: Build Personal Relationships ................................................................. 70
Theme 4: Grow Their Capacities ........................................................................... 71
Discussion Research Question 2............................................................................ 73
Summary ................................................................................................................ 75
Chapter Five: Discussion ................................................................................................... 77
Findings ................................................................................................................. 78
Implications for Practice ........................................................................................ 83
Future Research ..................................................................................................... 85
Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 86
References .......................................................................................................................... 87
Appendix A: Recruitment Letter and Survey Instrument .................................................. 94
Appendix B: Qualitative Interview Protocol ..................................................................... 99
Questions (W ith Optional Probes/Follow-Ups) ..................................................... 99
Closing ................................................................................................................. 102
List of T ables
T able 1: Interview Data: Number of T imes Factors W ere Cited As
Primary Reasons for Staying in or Leaving the Classroom
49
T able 2: Survey Data: Factors Most Often Cited As Having a
Significant or Lar ge/Central Impact on Decision to Stay in the
Classroom
51
T able 3: Principal Practices Cited As Promoting Millennial
T eacher Retention
65
ix
List of Figur es
Figure 1: Survey Responses to Question 1 45
Figure 2: Survey Responses to Question 2 46
Figure 3: Survey Responses to Question 3 47
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Chapter One: Overview of the Study
The quality and competency of teachers is ar guably the most important factor af fecting
student achievement inside the walls of a school (Darling-Hammond, 2000). T o that end, the
retention of high-quality teachers is one of the highest priorities that fall under the umbrella of
school and district leadership. W atkins (2005) ar gues that the most important role principals fill
in the operation of a school is not only attracting the best teachers available, but in retaining and
developing them throughout their career . This is a unique leadership challenge in that teachers
seemingly leave the profession at higher rates as compared to other industries (Ingersoll, 1999).
Ingersoll (1999) found that teachers tend to leave in order to better their careers or as a result of
being dissatisfied with teaching as a career , and that retirement is responsible for less than
one-fifth of teachers leaving the classroom. Indeed, within the first 3 years of teaching, 29% of
new teachers have already left, and within 5 years, 39% have left (Heller , 2004). In order to
reverse this trend, employee motivation has become a popular research topic to apply to
education systems. Several theories have been developed in order to determine why employees
leave their fields, and how to encourage them to stay (Herzber g et al. 1959; McClelland 1961;
V room 1964). These research-backed theories provide a degree of guidance to administrators
who are trying to hold on to their teaching staf f, but are circumstantial at best.
A notable gap in the research is a more modern focus on the retention of employees from
the millennial generation. Defined as people born between 1981 and 1996 by the Pew Research
Center (2018), millennials have been described as a generation that is both impatient and
self-absorbed, and are often the tar gets of criticism. However , the experiences that have
influenced the people in this generation are unique from a historical standard, and
correspondingly , their characteristics are a mixed bag of positive and negative traits. They are
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traumatized by 9/1 1, financial crises, and school shootings, yet are pragmatic idealists who are
hopeful about making the world a better place (Rauch, 2019). They are more racially diverse,
less religious, and more open to social liberalism than past generations, but are also the least
likely to go to the polls and vote (Rauch, 2019). While their work ethic is often questioned, they
have undoubtedly impacted their workplaces in positive ways as they bring with them a broader
perspective on the global marketplace and an almost inherent mastery of digital communication
technologies (Myers, 2010). Based simply on the timing, members of this generation are
currently reaching the pinnacles of their careers and beginning to take the reins of leadership in
their industries. The world of private industry has dedicated much ef fort into finding out how to
retain them and maximize their potential. If schools wish to hold on to their millennial teachers,
they will need to make similar ef forts.
This research study will provide insight into the factors that millennial teachers describe
as influential in their decisions to remain in the classroom, and will provide strategies for school
leaders who wish to promote higher rates of retention among their millennial teachers.
Statement of the Pr oblem
Retaining millennial teachers is a major focus of school and district leaders at this point
in history , and the unique traits characterizing this generation may not be well aligned with the
retention strategies traditionally used by school leaders. Millennial teachers who are still in the
classroom have generally been there for several years at this point and have likely taken up
leadership positions within their schools. They have been acquiring expertise, making
connections with students, and gaining the benefits of professional development. Focusing on the
retention of these teachers means focusing on the needs of millennials in many cases, so a deeper
understanding of the factors that impact their decisions to remain at a school is crucial for
3
ef fective leaders in education. This research study will examine what those factors are and how
they af fect the decisions of millennial teachers to stay in their classrooms, and will provide
guidance for school leaders who wish to influence the decisions of their millennial teachers in
encouraging them to stay .
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that millennial teachers describe as
influential in their decisions to remain at their schools and in the classroom, and to provide
recommendations for school leaders on improving the retention of their millennial teachers.
Herzber g et al.’ s (1959) two-factor theory will be used as the foundation for the factors that are
explored throughout a series of surveys and interviews with millennial teachers who have
demonstrated a willingness to remain in their classrooms. The responses of the participants will
be analyzed in order to identify common themes and determine which factors are the most
influential.
The following research questions were used to guide this study:
1. How do millennial teachers (born between 1981–1996) with at least 5 years of
teaching experience describe the factors that influenced their decisions to stay at their
schools?
2. Which principal practices and strategies do millennial teachers believe promote
higher rates of retention among millennial teachers?
Significance of the Study
This study will provide insight into the factors motivating millennial teachers to remain
in the classroom and will provide an updated lens on how a traditional motivation theory can be
applied to a modern population. School and district administrators will benefit from the
4
knowledge gained in this study by being better able to promote the retention of their millennial
teachers who are likely taking leading positions in their schools. District boards and
policy-makers will also benefit from this study by gaining a better understanding of how to retain
their high-quality teachers who fall into this generation.
Limitation and Delimitations
This study was limited to teachers who were connected to me via either social media
(both directly and through reference) or word-of-mouth reference. The interviewees’
self-reported personal narratives were the basis for understanding the significance of the factors
af fecting their decisions. My own positionality as both an educator and a millennial is considered
as a possible source of bias, as well as a source of passion for investigating the topic.
The delimitations of this study were limited to participants who met the standard age
definition of millennials (born between 1981–1996), and had a demonstrated willingness to
remain at their schools by remaining in the classroom for at least 5 years. Participants were not,
however , required to currently be classroom teachers in order to contribute to the study .
Definition of T erms
Hygiene Factors
Defined in Herzber g’ s two-factor theory as factors in a workplace that are necessary to
avoid job dissatisfaction. They are considered distinct from motivational factors which increase
job satisfaction (Nickerson, 2021).
Millennial
A member of the generation born between the years of 1981–1996. Named as such
because the older members of this generation became adults around the turn of the millennium
(Dimock, 2022).
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Motivation Factors
Defined in Herzber g’ s two-factor theory as factors in a workplace that increase job
satisfaction. They are considered distinct from hygiene factors which are necessary to “avoid
unpleasantness” in the workplace (Nickerson, 2021).
Motivation Theory
A theory that explains individual dif ferences in decision-making outcomes ( Eccles &
W iggfield, 2020).
Retention
The keeping of teachers in the classroom and in the profession (Minarik et al., 2003).
T eacher Quality
The competency of a teacher in terms of their ability to af fect student achievement. It is
measured by dif ferent variables in dif ferent contexts, but generally refers to a teacher ’ s level of
knowledge, skills, and preparation (Darling-Hammond, 2000).
Organization of the Study
Leading the New Generation: Principal Leadership Practices that Promote Retention of
Millennial T eachers is or ganized into five chapters. Chapter 1 is an overview of the study and
introduces background information which lays the foundation for the purpose and significance of
the study in the context of education academia. Chapter 2 presents a literature review of the
following three areas: teacher retention and the role of the principal, motivation theories, and
common characteristics of millennials. Chapter 3 describes the methodology used in the research
and includes: survey and interview processes, population sampling techniques, data collection,
and data analysis. Chapter 4 presents the research findings based on the analysis of the
interviews. Chapter 5 summarizes the major findings and proposes best practices for school and
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district leaders based on the research. References and appendices are included at the end of the
study .
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Chapter T wo: Review of the Literatur e
The repurposing of a traditional motivation theory to analyze the modern millennial
generation will provide research-backed insight into an important contemporary issue. In order to
provide recommendations to educational administrators on how to retain their millennial
teachers, we need to develop both a solid understanding of what drives the retention of teachers
as well as a grasp on motivation theory . W e must then be able to identify the unique qualities of
millennial teachers so that the theory can be applied in a practical manner . In this chapter , I will
first review the literature on teacher retention which outlines why it is a growing crisis in our
country and go over the principal’ s role in addressing this problem. This is especially relevant at
a time when workers are quitting their jobs en masse at unprecedented rates in the wake of the
Covid-19 pandemic, a phenomenon termed the “Big Quit” or the “Great Resignation” (Curtis,
2021). Then, I will explore the foundations of motivation theory which have been developed
over the last several decades, including Herzber g’ s two-factor theory which serves as the
theoretical framework for this study . Finally , I will illuminate elements of the personal and
professional characteristics of millennials which we ultimately seek to influence in a manner that
keeps them in the classroom.
T eacher Retention
High levels of retention are an important characteristic in any successful or ganization,
and the same is very much true in the industry of education. When teachers leave the classroom,
the quality of instruction at a school generally suf fers as teacher competence is directly
correlated with years of experience (Darling-Hammond, 2000). Additionally , the financial
impact of recruiting and replacing teachers takes away resources from classroom supplies,
teacher pay , and facility maintenance (Minarik et al., 2003). These repercussions are a consistent
8
and significant source of pressure for education leaders as attrition in education is much more
rampant than in private industries. Minarik et al. (2003) found that whereas corporations
experience, on average, a 6% loss of staf f per year , an alarming 25% of teachers have left by the
end of their first year , and only 50% remain after their first 5 years. Not only do educational
leaders need to contend with the substantial impact that teacher attrition has on student learning
and financial resources, they are forced to contend with one of the highest rates of attrition in any
industry .
Sadly , teacher turnover rates are reported to be higher in urban areas serving a lar ger
number of low-income students which is where high quality instruction and financial resources
are needed most. Carver -Thomas & Darling-Hammond (2017) found that reported teacher
turnover rates in T itle I campuses are 50% higher than campuses that do not receive federal T itle
I funds, and that turnover rates are 70% higher for teachers in schools with the lar gest
concentrations of students of color . The overall drop in teaching quality caused by teacher
attrition is thus felt most acutely by the students at these schools, generally in urban districts,
where novice teachers are brought in to replace those who have left. The burden is also felt
financially through school expenditures on orientation and training; Carver -Thomas &
Darling-Hammond (2017) estimate a cost of $20,000 to replace a teacher in an urban district.
Along with losing access to resources that otherwise might have been paid for by these funds, the
remaining teachers in the school have to shoulder the burden of this instructional loss, further
discouraging them to remain (Bland et al., 2014). Another consequence is that leaders end up
struggling to establish a positive school culture as morale dips when colleagues leave, and they
become obligated to frequently reinvent norms and practices that a school with a consistent
workforce would naturally develop over time (Bland et al., 2014). The fact that teacher attrition
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has a disproportionately lar ge impact on schools serving low-income students means that this
issue is a matter of social justice, and that the vicious cycle created and sustained by these events
is a source of inequity for our urban communities.
Established Recommendations for Pr eventing T eacher Attrition
A considerable amount of research has gone into understanding why teachers leave the
classroom in an attempt to begin generating solutions. Carver -Thomas & Darling-Hammond
(2017) found that about two-thirds of teachers leave the profession for reasons other than
retirement. Some of the reasons most cited by those who have left their schools and/or the
profession include: testing and accountability pressures, lack of administrative support,
dissatisfaction with the teaching career and lack of advancement opportunities, and
dissatisfaction with working conditions (Carver -Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). Earlier
studies have identified additional issues. Minarik et al. (2003) found that teachers cited
inadequate induction and lack of principal support, feelings of isolation and lack of community ,
major flaws in teacher preparation, unsafe work environments, and student discipline and
motivation problems as the most prominent reasons for them leaving the classroom. It is
noteworthy that both studies, separated by almost two decades, found that lack of support from
administrators was cited as one of the primary reasons for teacher attrition.
Included with the research on what drives teachers to leave the classroom are a number of
suggested solutions to increasing recruitment and retention of ef fective educators (Minarik et al.,
2003; Heller , 2004; Bland et al., 2014; Carver -Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). Minarik et
al. (2003) suggest that educational leaders develop ef fective principal leadership, transform
schools and districts into an employer of choice, hire the right teachers, enhance relationships
within the educational community , and promote connectedness with the lar ger community . Thus,
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their suggested focus areas center around school leadership, ef fective recruitment practices, and
building positive relationships both between and among school staf f and external stakeholders.
Heller (2004) focuses more narrowly on strategies directly connected to the recruitment of
teachers as well as their continuous on-the-job training. The proposed actions that Heller (2004)
suggests revolve around how teachers are taught and managing the number of responsibilities
they are frontloaded with upon hiring, as well as the notion that their ongoing professional
development should include a mentoring program between senior and junior teachers within the
context of a rich, supportive learning environment. The responsibility for the development and
maintenance of these initiatives rests with principals as they are needed to both lead with vision
as well as manage with ef ficiency (Heller , 2004). Bland et al. (2014) concur with the notion that
strong induction and mentoring programs are essential. They also advocate for ef fective
professional development, attractive financial incentives for teachers, shared responsibility for
administrative decisions, and principals who nurture an environment of high standards and
autonomy (Bland et al., 2014).
One common thread between all of these sets of solutions across a span of years is clear:
strong school leadership from the principal is needed to recruit and retain ef fective teachers. That
is why the role of the principal in teacher retention is the topic of the next section in this
literature review .
One might wonder why teacher attrition remains an ongoing impediment with the
voluminous research already performed on it. The discrepancy lies in the gap between the
idealistic systems for teacher retention that are suggested and the sets of practices that a school or
district leader must realistically adopt. Administrators tend to get caught up dealing with ur gent
issues within their school systems and their external communities, and they end up either failing
1 1
to see how these issues impact teacher retention from the lens of systems thinking, or are left
with few choices (Minarik et al., 2003). They are often encumbered by lack of availability of
suitable teachers, leading to the necessity of hiring less-qualified teachers, assigning teachers to
subject areas or grade levels that they are not trained to teach, or extensively using substitutes, all
of which can lead to lower -quality teaching (Ingersoll, 1999). Educational leaders often find that
resorting to these methods is more convenient, less expensive, or less time-consuming than the
alternatives, and are forced to use them out of necessity (Ingersoll, 1999). T eachers subjected to
this treatment tend to leave the classroom, thus creating a vicious cycle of burnout and
dissatisfaction (Ingersoll, 1999). Educational leaders are also subjected to limitations to
recruitment and retention ef forts created by unproductive battles over issues between
policymakers and educators, geographical and other external factors outside of their control, and
inef fectual hiring policies that result from the push-and-pull between school districts and unions,
state budget deadlines, and dysfunctional human resources policies (Bland et al., 2014). The
challenge of recruiting and retaining ef fective teachers as a principal is therefore not only one of
the most important aspects of their job, but one of the most challenging.
The Role of Principal Leadership
The quality of a school’ s leadership is already the second-most important factor that
contributes to student achievement (only trailing behind teacher instruction), and there are no
documented cases of turnaround schools making improvements without the influence of a
powerful leader (Louis et al., 2004). The fact that school leadership is also an influential factor in
the determining level of teacher retention only further amplifies the importance of the principal’ s
role. A review of the literature by Gay (2018) examining teacher retention revealed that many of
the studies reviewed cited poor leadership as one of the reasons why it continues to be a problem.
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These findings are in line with what we already understand about the connection between
leadership and retention in or ganizations in general. Oftentimes the single most important
variable in staf f productivity and loyalty is the quality of the relationship between staf f and their
direct supervisors (Buckingham, 2016). In a school setting, that relationship either directly or
indirectly leads to the principal. This is why high-quality training and accreditation programs for
principals are one of the pillars of Carver -Thomas and Darling-Hammond’ s (2017) guidelines for
alleviating teacher attrition which have been used to shape educational policy in recent years.
It is a principal’ s responsibility to make the systemic, cultural shifts necessary to attract
and retain teachers since they are acting as leaders for their schools and not just operational
managers. Ef fective principals nurture or ganizational climates that value professional growth,
encourage risk-taking behaviors, build active involvement in the education community , and give
teachers autonomy , thus creating an inviting culture that attracts and welcomes ef fective teachers
(Minarik et al., 2003). They also cultivate and maintain mentoring programs, implement rigorous
ongoing inservice training initiatives, and build other systems that help develop a rich,
supportive learning environment which grows teachers’ capacities while also creating a sense of
belonging (Heller , 2004). W atkins (2005) suggests supporting and extending innovative practices
through active research, and supporting collegial discussions and learning among staf f of various
experience levels along with the principal through study groups to further instructional expertise,
thus enhancing the connections among staf f members which only serve to strengthen the
relationships being formed. Being an expert in culture, systems, and research all at the same time
is challenging as a job description. However , these are a critical set of skills for a principal to
have in order to develop an environment in which teachers choose to stay .
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The research already shows that there is a link between the quality of principal leadership
and teacher retention. Ladd (2009) studied school climate surveys and found that teachers’
perceptions of school leadership was more predictive of a teacher ’ s intent to remain or leave the
school than any other school work condition. Johnson et al. (2005) conducted a literature review
of similar studies and reported that teachers are more attracted to schools when ef fective
principals lead the campus. Even simply making an ef fort to recruit and retain teachers can make
a dif ference in retention numbers. Banks (2015) was able to find that the more ef fort exerted by
principals to ef fectively recruit, retain, support, mentor and develop teachers, the more likely
they will actually remain on the faculty or indicate an inclination to do so. The fact that a
correlation exists between the level of ef fort put forth by the principal to keep their teachers and
the actual results demonstrates the degree to which principals influence this facet of education.
Unfortunately , even with what we already know , teacher retention continues to be a struggle for
educational leaders:
These numbers reveal a serious problem for principals: teachers, particularly new
teachers, are leaving the classroom at an alarming rate, and reversing this trend demands
their full attention. Retaining and developing quality teachers must become a principal’ s
priority . The stakes for children are too high to do otherwise. (W atkins, 2005, p. 83).
Motivation Theory
Dinham & Scott (1997) defined motivation as “a stimulus for behavior and action in the
light of a particular context” (p. 362). Over 20 years later , Schunk (2019) defined it as “the
process of instigating and sustaining goal-oriented behavior” (p. 360). These two definitions,
along with many others, point towards the underlying meaning of motivation being an
understanding of the cause of human behavior . While behaviors can be directly observed,
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motivation cannot be and must be inferred from one’ s behaviors (Schunk, 2019). Thus one can
generalize the study of motivation to be the study of influences that af fect individuals’ behavioral
decisions. A motivation theory seeks to provide a consistent explanation behind those decisions
that can be applied in dif ferent scenarios.
Understanding motivation and what drives it is centric to any ef forts made towards
systemic change. In Fullan and Centre’ s Change Theory (2006), one of the texts that has become
foundational to the study of change management in education, the authors describe seven core
premises that need to be considered when a leader is implementing change. The first of these
premises revolves around motivation, and the authors explain that all of the other premises are
focused on accomplishing this one (Fullan & Centre, 2006). Indeed, most change theories
revolve around the concept of influencing the motivation of the individuals experiencing the
change (Fullan & Centre, 2006).
There are two main types of motivation as categorized by the literature: intrinsic and
extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is described as a work value orientation that is focused on
self-actualization and self-expression, while extrinsic motivation is described as a work value
orientation that is focused on security and material acquisition (V ansteenkiste et al., 2007). Put
another way , intrinsic motivation refers to one’ s desire to engage in an activity for the betterment
of oneself, while extrinsic motivation is driven by the prospect of external gain. Intrinsic
motivation is generally considered to be a more consistent source of incentivization in the
achievement of student success and otherwise, and is tar geted more often than extrinsic
motivation in motivational practices (Rueda, 201 1). Schunk (2019) however , who associates
intrinsic motivation with self-determination and the perception of self-control, posits that
15
rewards (extrinsic motivation) can be used to increase intrinsic motivation and therefore can also
play an important role in driving behavior .
Herzberg’ s T wo-Factor Theory
Frederick Herzber g along with his colleagues Bernard Mausner and Barbara Bloch
Snyderman wrote The Motivation to W ork (1959) which outlines Herzber g’ s two-factor
motivation theory . His theory is based on two dif ferent sets of factors that influence an
employee’ s decision to remain in an or ganization: one set of factors that encourages them to stay ,
and another set of factors based on needs that must simply be met in order for them to not feel
discouraged and decide to leave (Herzber g et al. 1959). He postulated that job satisfaction and
job dissatisfaction exist on two dif ferent scales and can be measured by two dif ferent sets of
indicators. This theory is the basis of the theoretical framework for this study , and these
indicators are explicitly explored with research participants through the use of the survey tool
and interview process. However , the two sets of indicators are not dif ferentiated in the survey
tool nor the interview process based on the research design as well as noted limitations of
Herzber g’ s work. These limitations will be explored at the end of this section of the literature
review .
Motivational and Hygiene Factors
The factors that encourage a person to stay at an or ganization were termed “motivational
factors” (Herzber g et al. 1959). There are six distinct motivational factors as defined by
Herzber g: advancement, the work itself, possibility for growth, responsibility , recognition, and
achievement (Herzber g et al. 1959). Advancement refers to the potential for upward mobility in a
person’ s status or position in the workplace. The work itself refers to the content of the job, and
the level of dif ficulty or engagement experienced by the employee. The possibility for growth
16
refers to the opportunities open to the employee for both personal and professional growth with
new skills, techniques, or knowledge. Responsibility refers to the responsibilities held by the
employee, and acts as a positive motivational factor when it is appropriately matched up with the
authority that the person is given. Recognition refers to the praise or rewards that the person
receives for their work. Finally , achievement refers to the positive results that a person might see
as a result of their work, as a result of completing a dif ficult task on time, or from solving a
job-related problem. Based on Herzber g’ s theory , these factors collectively determine the
satisfaction that a person would find within the job itself (Nickerson, 2021).
The set of factors that must be satisfied in order for an employee to not feel discouraged
from staying were termed “hygiene factors” (Herzber g et al. 1959). The five distinct hygiene
factors he defined are: interpersonal relations, salary , company policies and administration,
supervision, and working conditions (Herzber g et al. 1959). Interpersonal relations refers to the
personal and working relationships an employee would have with their supervisor and peers.
Salary refers to the amount of financial compensation given by their employer . Company policies
and administration refer to the need for management policies to be clear within an or ganization,
and for or ganizational guidelines to be transparent. Supervision refers to the employee’ s
judgments of the competence and fairness of their supervisor . Lastly , working conditions refers
to the physical surroundings of the job (e.g., the physical amount of space, ventilation, and
safety). These factors were given the term “hygiene” based on the concept that they represented
contextual factors which could mitigate “hazards” to the satisfaction of the employee, much like
medical hygienic equipment is used to remove health hazards from the environment (Nickerson,
2021).
Limitations to Herzberg’ s Theory
17
Although Dinham and Scott (1997) point out that Herzber g identified hygiene factors as
lower order needs and motivational factors as higher order needs, both sets are required in order
to motivate a worker to stay with an or ganization. An appropriate application of this theory
would thus take into account both the motivational and the hygiene factors. For example, Expert
Program Management (1997) presents two sets of suggestions for leaders to follow in order to
motivate their employees to stay . The first set describes how to eliminate stressors: reduce
bureaucratic company policies and micromanagement by supervisors, and develop a supportive
or ganizational culture with competitive salaries and meaningful tasks (Expert Program
Management, 1997). This is their adaptation of Herzber g’ s hygiene factors in a modern
workplace as their suggestions address needs which must be met in order to prevent
discouragement to remain at the or ganization. The second set of suggestions boost job
satisfaction: give employees more challenging and complex tasks to enrich their roles, grant
them a greater variety of tasks to perform, and increase the amount of responsibility delegated to
each team member (Expert Program Management, 1997). These suggestions are akin to
Herzber g’ s motivational factors as they are designed to inspire a worker to stay . Since this
approach follows the model of treating factors that “eliminate stress” and “boosting job
satisfaction” as separate lists of indicators with separate forms of measurement, it remains true to
Herzber g’ s approach.
Critics of Herzber g’ s theory have pointed out that if both motivational and hygiene
factors are equally important to a person, then both sets of factors should in fact be motivational
and increase job satisfaction (Robbins and Judge, 2013). Nickerson (2021) also notes that
Herzber g conducted his research during a period of time when or ganizations were usually more
focused on mass production and less towards innovation, which is in stark contrast to the modern
18
workplace. There are certainly updates and adaptations that one can make to Herzber g’ s theory to
help it fit a more contemporary context. Applying the motivational and hygiene factors exactly
as written by Herzber g would ignore situational context (Expert Program Management, 1997).
Context is a central theme of the research in this study as the goal is to analyze a specific group
of people in a specific industry . Thus, for the sake of simplicity and in order to conduct an
inductive study which casts a wide net of possibilities as a starting point, this research paper
presents the full list of motivational and hygiene factors as equally available to participants to
choose from when indicating which factors have (or would have) impacted their decision to stay
in the classroom. The two sets of factors are not distinguished when listed out for participants in
the survey tool, and there is no direction provided by myself to treat them any dif ferently when
they are discussed during the interview .
Alternative Motivation Theories
Several motivation theories besides Herzber g’ s have been introduced over the last few
decades to explain why members of an or ganization choose to remain. The reason one of these
alternative theories was not chosen for this study is because Herzber g’ s list of factors is the most
comprehensive, creating the opportunity to categorize feedback from participants in a thorough,
detailed manner . The factors listed in the alternative theories are generally more broad in nature,
and certainly encompass elements of Herzber g’ s factors which create pockets of overlap.
However , having a list of factors which is broken out into the level of detail found with
Herzber g’ s two-factor theory provided me with a greater opportunity to identify the specific
factors that influenced the research subjects’ decisions to stay in the classroom. A more
comprehensive list of factors also led to the design of a more meaningful survey tool which
allowed for a greater range of choices by the participants. Nevertheless, it behooves us to
19
develop a basic understanding of these alternate motivation theories in order to round out our
knowledge and draw comparisons where appropriate. An overview of these theories is what
follows in this section.
Human Motivation Theory
David McClelland introduced human motivation theory in his book The Achieving
Society (1968) . Human motivation theory states that every person has one dominant driving
motivator out of three: a need for achievement, a need for af filiation, or a need for power
(McClelland, 1968). People will have dif ferent characteristics depending on which of the needs
is their dominant motivator , and it is lar gely dependent on the person’ s culture and life
experiences (Mind T ools, n.d.). Therefore, the dominant motivator for a person is a learned
characteristic as opposed to inherent one. A person whose dominant motivator is achievement
likes to set and accomplish goals, receive regular feedback on progress, and often likes to work
alone. A person whose dominant motivator is af filiation does best in groups, desires to be liked,
favors collaboration over competition, and doesn’ t like risk or uncertainty . A person whose
dominant motivator is power attempts to exert control or influence over others, enjoys winning
ar guments and competitions, and enjoys status and recognition. A person utilizing human
motivation theory within the context of leading an or ganization would identify the dominant
motivating drivers of their team members, and then structure their leadership style for each team
member (Mind T ools, n.d.).
Some facets of the three drivers of human motivation theory have nearly direct
connections to factors in Herzber g’ s two-factor theory . For example, a person with a dominant
motivator of achievement can likely relate closely to Herzber g’ s two motivational factors of
recognition and achievement. However , the hygiene factor termed “interpersonal relationships”
20
in Herzber g’ s list encompasses most of McClelland’ s drivers which all describe dif ferent forms
of relationships between colleagues. A study more closely focused on the nature of professional
relationships may thus be better suited to use McClelland’ s human motivation theory as a
theoretical framework.
Expectancy Theory
A second theory is V ictor V room’ s expectancy theory described in his book W ork and
Motivation (1994). Expectancy theory states that people make decisions about their work based
on the reward they expect to receive from it (V room, 1994). Thus, an individual’ s behavior
depends on the expectancy of attaining a particular outcome and how much they value that
outcome (Schunk, 2019). Three key concepts that are tied to this theory are expectancy ,
instrumentality , and valence (Indeed Editorial T eam, 2021). Expectancy is the belief that as one
raises their level of ef fort, their rewards will also increase. This concept leads to the notion that
one who strives for more dif ficult goals will have the opportunity to achieve more.
Instrumentality is the belief that the reward received depends on performance in the workplace,
and that the individual performing the behavior should ideally have a clear understanding of
what type of reward they will receive for dif ferent levels of performance. Common work-related
rewards include a pay increase, a promotion, recognition, or a sense of accomplishment. V alence
refers to the importance placed on the expected outcome of one’ s performance, and depends on
what the individual’ s needs, goals, and values are. A workplace aligned to V room’ s expectancy
theory would provide challenging but achievable goals, ensure that the assigned tasks match the
team member ’ s skill set, sets clear connections between performance and reward, makes reward
distribution fair and logical, and grants autonomy to the employees (Indeed Editorial T eam,
2021).
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There is a close link between Herzber g’ s “achievement” motivational factor and V room’ s
expectancy theory as they both explore the relationship between an individual’ s ef fort and their
expected reward. V room’ s theory , however , seems to be a deeper dive into that specific concept
and does not take the time to explore dif ferent external factors which may af fect one’ s behavioral
decisions. Another perspective might be that expectancy and instrumentality can be treated as
dimensions of extrinsic motivation, while valence can be treated as a dimension of intrinsic
motivation. If this study were to be more closely aligned to dif ferentiating participants’
motivations between these two categories, this motivation theory might be a more appropriate
theoretical framework to use. Another reason this theory was not selected as a framework is that
the outcomes of one’ s decisions are not as relevant to this study as would be necessary for an
appropriate use of V room’ s expectancy theory . Schunk (2019) posits that V room’ s theory
represents one’ s decision-making as a balance between hope for success and fear of failure.
Unfortunately for schools and the students they serve, once a teacher has left the classroom, the
damage has already been done to students regardless of whether the results of that decision are
classified as a success or a failure by the individual making it (i.e., whether or not they end up
happy with their decision).
Self-Ef ficacy Theory
A third and final relevant motivation theory is Albert Bandura’ s self-ef ficacy theory .
Self-ef ficacy is the belief that one is capable of carrying out a specific task or reaching a specific
goal, and Bandura postulates that this belief in and of itself is a primary , explicit explanation for
motivation (Bandura, 1997). A person’ s sense of self-ef ficacy is developed by four main sources
of influence: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and emotional states
(Lopez-Garrido, 2020). Mastery experiences are gained from taking on a new challenge and
22
being successful at it. V icarious experiences are gained from observing others who are similar to
oneself successfully completing a task. Social persuasion occurs when an individual receives
positive verbal feedback while undertaking a challenge, leading them to believe they have the
skills and capabilities to succeed. Emotional states refer to the emotional, physical, and
psychological well-being of a person and how they may influence how the person feels about
their abilities in a particular situation, thus managing their level of anxiety and overall mood
when taking on a challenge. Self-ef ficacy theory is linked to resilience to adversity and stress,
healthy lifestyle habits, improved employee performance, and educational achievement
(Lopez-Garrido, 2020). A leadership style centered on this theory would emphasize peer
modeling, seeking feedback from others, encouraging participation, and allowing for freedom of
choice (Lopez-Garrido, 2020).
While Bandura’ s theory is helpful in the context of education when exploring a learner ’ s
motivation to engage with content, it is less appropriate for a study on motivation to remain in a
workplace. The facets of mastery and vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and emotional
states are all exclusively tied to the concept of intrinsic motivation and do not take into account
external factors which generally play a lar ge role in an employee’ s decision to stay with an
or ganization. Additionally , the definitions of “success” in the classroom would likely vary as
widely as the educators themselves who participated in this study . There is little overlap between
Bandura’ s and Herzber g’ s motivation theories, and the latter remains the stronger choice of
theoretical framework for the research performed here.
Modern Applications of Motivation Theory
All of these motivation theories, including Herzber g’ s two-factor theory , have been
applied in a variety of ways in modern workplaces. In many instances, they have been adapted
23
into more simplistic models that are easier for corporate leaders to digest and employ . Daniel
Pink (201 1) summarizes what motivates individuals into three broad categories: mastery ,
purpose, and autonomy . Mastery refers to one’ s feelings of competence surrounding their work,
purpose refers to the impact of their work, and autonomy refers to their ability to make their own
decisions around how to perform the work (Pink, 201 1). One can find layers of the traditional
motivation theories presented above tied into models such as Pink’ s, and the application of this
type of model is generally more appropriate for a modern-day or ganization. However , Herzber g’ s
two-factor theory remains the most comprehensive option and provides for the most dimensions
of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for us to explore in the context of teachers leaving the
classroom.
Several studies on the motivation of teachers to stay in the classroom have been
performed in the time since these theories were developed (although none tar geted the millennial
population specifically). One notable study was performed by Dinham & Scott (1997) and found
that changes in education had resulted in greater workloads for teachers, leading to increased
teacher stress, burnout, morale drop, and less satisfaction. Based on this study , both teachers and
administrators wanted the focus of their work to be student achievement, but the increase in
expectations and responsibilities placed on them made them feel inadequate and created the
perception that their community did not value nor appreciate them (Dinham & Scott, 1997). A
later study by Kocabas (2009) found several sources of motivation for teachers to stay in the
classroom, including the success of their students, their own self-esteem and perception of their
respectability in society , their relationships with peers and the or ganizational culture of their
school and community , and a healthy balance between their professional and personal lives. A
sense of alienation from their communities, being subjected to disciplinary measures, unsafe or
24
inadequate facilities, and practices which emphasized competition among teachers had a negative
impact on their motivation levels (Kocabas, 2009). Although neither of these studies explicitly
utilized Herzber g’ s T wo-Factor theory , they followed his model of treating motivators and
detractors of motivation on separate scales, further confirming the decision to use his work as the
theoretical framework for this study exploring teachers’ selection to stay in the classroom or
leave. Regardless of the framework used, most studies came to a similar conclusion: “It seems
imperative that there be a reassessment and redefinition of teachers’ work and school
responsibility” (Dinham & Scott, 1997, p. 377).
Millennials
The Pew Research Center (2018) defines millennials, also known as Generation Y , as
individuals born between the years of 1981–1996. This means that at the time of the writing of
this study , millennials were generally between the ages of 26–41. There is widespread public
opinion on the characteristics of millennials, both positive and negative, which pervades national
conversations in the political and professional spheres. A fact that is generally not up for debate,
however , is that the lar ge volume of millennials present in the population has led to significant
societal impacts. There are about 80 million millennials in the U.S. population at the time of this
writing, and they are poised to become the lar gest percentage of the workforce as baby boomers
are reaching their retirement ages (Buchko & Buchko, 2016). Although millennials only
comprise 23% of the total U.S. population, they make up 30% of the voting age and 38% of the
working age population (Frey , 2017). This means that a school or district leader who is aspiring
to retain the majority of their teachers, especially those who are taking on teacher leadership
roles (e.g., grade level chair , department head), are likely tar geting their millennial teachers. The
25
stereotypical characteristics of millennials and their influence in the workplace is what will be
explored in this section of the literature review .
Characteristics of Millennials
The members of Generation Y have been shaped by unique experiences into a unique set
of individuals. They are typically characterized as having been brought up by overprotective and
over -involved parents, and are known as “trophy kids” who got participation awards regardless
of who won or lost the game (W alker , 2009). Members of other generations, particularly older
ones, tend to prescribe the characteristics of “entitled” and “soft” to millennials for these reasons,
and many of the frustrations expressed by millennials through social media and other informal
means are diminished in the public eye because of this perception. The over -involvement of their
parents has led them to desire constant feedback, frequent praise, and to become sensitive to
constructive criticism, painting them as narcissistic and unable to process criticism (Buchko &
Buchko, 2016).
At the same time, there are also positive traits associated with this generation. Millennials
are recognized to have an almost inherent ability to learn and utilize communication technology ,
and they are known to hold themselves and the or ganizations they are associated with to higher
ethical standards than previous generations (W alker , 2009). They are less attached to political
parties, more socially liberal, more racially diverse, more environmentally conscious, and expect
the businesses they work for and with to honor the same strong values that they hold (Rauch,
2019). This is a description of individuals who are adaptable, passionate, and willing to hold high
standards for themselves and those around them, making them ideal candidates for the work of a
teacher . W alker (2009) neatly sums up why the typical millennial is an asset to their or ganization
26
and to their community and what one can expect from their work ethic: “to the millennials,
average means failure” (p. 74).
Economic Experiences
Millennials have come of age in a 21st-century economy typified by rising inequality and
declining economic mobility across the United States, and in many ways are inheriting the older
generations’ anxieties about the future of the U.S. economy (Grusky et al., 2019). They tend to
carry a sense of cynicism around their economic futures, and feel that the messaging they
received from their parents regarding a college-educated profession being the key to financial
stability left them with a sense of disillusionment which is currently being broken. Many of them
entered the labor force in the midst of the Great Recession of 2008 which continues to
profoundly impact them, and which has led to a rise in student debt defaults and a low home
ownership rate (Grusky et al., 2019). Millennials’ upbringings are heavily associated with
economic challenges, and the ways in which they have changed the job market make more sense
when considering the circumstances they were presented with when entering it. The introduction
of the gig economy and the low-wage service sector are examples of adaptations made necessary
by a society experiencing rising costs without wages to match. These conditions have led
millennials to experience a set of jobs that of fer less attractive possibilities than generations prior
to them have experienced, leading to the notion that unfavorable economic developments are
being disproportionately born by this generation (Grusky et al. 2019).
Interestingly , millennials are still more apt to consider value-centered goals than financial
needs when considering their workplace. This is a significant way in which their notions on work
and money tend to stray from their parents’ views. Millennials are typically less concerned about
financial success and are more likely to view money as a means to an end (Anderson et al.,
27
2016). This is another interesting dichotomy that characterizes the typical millennial: although
they are plagued by financial dif ficulties, money is generally not the primary driver when
considering where to dedicate their ener gies.
Defined by Cultural Diversity
Frey (2017) tells us that “racial diversity will be the most defining and impactful
characteristic of the millennial generation.” Culturally , only 55.8% of millennials are white, and
30% of millennials are made up of “new minorities” such as Hispanic, Asian, and those
identifying as two or more races (Frey , 2017). In addition, 20% of them have one immigrant
parent (W alker , 2009). Between their varied ethnic roots and their openness to the diverse
backgrounds of others, this generation is poised to redefine the standards of cultural awareness in
the United States. Millennial teachers in particular are more likely to be accepting of cultural
diversity , willing to engage in civic issues, and to become advocates for social justice (Castro,
2010). They also have an increasing recognition of the importance of their own personal
backgrounds on multicultural concepts based on their level of digital global connectivity and
demographic diversity , suggesting that millennial teachers with prior culturally diverse
experiences may be predisposed to have a greater level of acceptance towards diverse
populations (Castro, 2010).
Although Anderson et al. (2016) reported that millennials typically tend to identify with
their parents’ values and feel close to their families, there are stark diver gences in where those
values lead them. Millennials are fascinated by new technologies which have made connecting to
others across the world almost ef fortless, blurring global lines and giving rise to identities and
values that span across borders. W alker (2009) tells us that millennials have a high rate of
volunteerism and community service, reflecting their desire to become part of a global
28
community which they are able to give back to. W e therefore see the crossplay between these
tendencies in millennials manifested as a desire both to honor the cultures they come from, and
to explore the cultures of their global peers.
Based on their inherent diversity and desire for connectedness, there is a natural tendency
for millennials to lean towards the goals of social justice. However , there are still challenges in
this area for them to work through. Many millennials, especially those of color growing up in
schools with diverse populations, experienced their own education with teachers rarely talking
about race and intersectionality (Castro, 2010). W ithout identifying and understanding racist
structures which have burdened historically mar ginalized groups over time, it is hard to imagine
how millennials will be able to disrupt these structures in a meaningful way . Although they are
generally well-intentioned, there is a contradiction between the typical millennial’ s openness to
cultural diversity and their lack of complexity in understanding multiculturalism, with many of
them holding “generic” ideas about multiculturalism as well as a lack of critical awareness of the
cultural logic that reinforces systems of inequity in education (Castro, 2010).
These shortcomings are not limited to White millennials. In her study on the alignment of
Black feminism with culturally-tar geted curriculum taught by millennial Black women teachers,
Nyachae (2016) found that instead of intersectional conversations, these Black female teachers
were likely to use color blind language and politeness to navigate around race. The implication
drawn is that millennials did not grow up in a post-racial society but rather in a society less overt
about discussing race and racism than previous generations (Nyachae, 2016). Although one may
ar gue that the millennial generation has taken steps forward in terms of inclusivity and equity , we
are reminded that cultural awareness does not necessarily imply cultural competency .
Millennials in the W orkplace
29
The Pew Research Center (2018) found that there were around 56 million millennials
either working or looking for work at the time of their report, making them the lar gest generation
in the labor pool at about 35% of the total workforce. Understanding the characteristics of this
generation and how they translate into working habits is therefore a vital skill for any leader who
is hoping to attract and retain a strong employee base. Millennials grew up in the shadow of 9/1 1
and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, entered the workforce during economic downturns,
experienced the first Black president as well as the raucous T rump presidency , and have had
unprecedented advances in technology become a part of their daily lives (Dimock, 2022). The
factors which have shaped their lives have also shaped the qualities they bring to the
or ganizations where they are employed, and that is what we will explore in this section of the
literature review .
Millennials are uniquely positioned to impact the workforce at this point in history as
they not only make up the majority of it, but can also be found in leadership positions throughout
it. They see issues dif ferently than other generations because they grew up in a world of
globalization, technological advances, workforce diversity , climate change, and sustainability
(Alonso-Almeida & Llach, 2018). These idiosyncratic experiences have led them to develop both
positive and negative qualities in the workplace that ef fective leaders must learn to harness.
Nolan (2015) tells us that the cost of an employee leaving the company can be as much as 250%
of their annual salary in the private sector , so this has been a primary concern for corporate
America for some time. Millennials have already for the most part adapted to the rapid
advancement, meaningful and challenging work duties, and flexible working arrangements that
they prefer (Nolan, 2015). Our education system must match this pattern of evolving workplace
values if it hopes to retain its millennial teachers.
30
Strengths in the W orkplace
Myers and Sadaghiani (2010) posit that “millennial stances and behaviors can be viewed
by or ganizations as opportunities rather than obstacles” (p. 235). Admirable depictions portray
millennials as more accepting of diversity , more capable with communication and information
technologies, able to see problems and opportunities from a fresh perspective, and are more
comfortable working with teams (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). These are qualities that most
employers would hold in high regard in a world where or ganizations that are continuously
learning and adapting to stay in the lead. As the first generation to experience the widespread use
of cell phones, the internet, and personal electronic devices, millennials are typically the
technologically savvy members of their teams helping to bring older generations up to speed
with modern tools (Clark, 2017). They also hold broad perspectives about the world marketplace
and superior -subordinate relationships that have begun to redefine or ganizational structures,
enhancing the performance of companies that embrace these views (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010).
As a result of these characteristics in the workplace, millennials tend to be more social
and confident, seek balance between life and work, and enjoy experimenting and finding new
solutions to problems (Clark, 2017). They are lifelong learners who thrive when their ideas are
respected, when they are given autonomy and the latitude to take creative risks, and when they
are held accountable to the group as opposed to the boss (W alker , 2009). Many of these attributes
require a dif ferent approach to or ganizational structures and practices than is generally found in
the traditional workplace. The private sector seems to have had to have an easier time adapting to
these changes, and has demonstrated more of an ability to reshape or ganizational hierarchies and
leadership styles than the public sector has. Our education system must find a way to match this
professional evolution of or ganizational structures and practices expected by our millennials.
31
Areas for Growth
Millennials oftentimes carry a reputation for shortcomings that make them less desirable
to work with in the workplace. The term “helicopter parents” has been attributed to the
over -involved parents of millennials as they seemed to constantly hover about their children,
protecting them while being wary of dangers and violence (Clark, 2017). This pattern of
parenting has resulted in childhood dependencies which have manifested in millennials as a
series of unattractive traits. Millennials are often described as self-confident, self-absorbed,
disloyal, and impatient (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). Social media and other informal forums for
communication often pick out these traits, comparing millennials to older generations which they
deem as more capable and less liable to complain. While generalizations are usually unhelpful in
understanding individuals with unique traits and backgrounds, this commonality across the
millennial generation has been noticed often enough that it has af fected some employers’
perceptions.
Some of the strengths that are attributed to millennials in the workplace can also lead to
discouragement on their part if expectations are not met. Millennials’ comfort with the internet
and technology has created expectations that work can be done from anywhere at any time
(Kelly et al., 2016). Stay-at-home conditions forced by the COVID-19 pandemic proved that
notion to be true in many industries where it was not thought possible before, including public
education. However , the optimism around being able to handle most types of work remotely is
not typically shared by older generations, causing breakdowns in communication and
understanding that often lead to colliding paths in the workplace (Kelly et al., 2016).
There are certain actions that employers can take to play to millennials’ strengths instead
of weaknesses and help them add value. Millennials respond well to praise and positive
32
supervision, but not as well to direct criticism (W alker , 2009). Employers who utilize positive
reinforcement and asset-based mindsets will likely have happier , more productive millennial
employees since this style of supervision more closely matches the upbringing they experienced
by their parents. Millennials are also excellent multitaskers, and although they claim to aspire to
a strong work-life balance, they have a tendency to burn out (W alker , 2009). Aiding them in
achieving actual balance between their personal and professional lives and managing their
workloads are therefore important strategies for keeping them engaged in the long term.
Recommendations for Attracting and Retaining Millennials
Drawing millennials into an or ganization requires developing an understanding of their
upbringing and what motivates them to perform at their peak. They are attracted to workplaces
that have growth opportunities which match their ambitions, encourage a healthy work-life
balance, advertise the meaningfulness of the work more than the pay they will receive for it, and
focus on corporate social responsibility (Edwards, 2010). This last quality is especially important
among millennials; they are noted for their desire to work for employers which are
environmentally-inclined and community-oriented. Some studies found that they are even
willing to be paid less for higher levels of social responsibility if they feel that the company is
contributing to a sense of global well-being and helping the communities where they are located
(Alonso-Almeida & Llach, 2018).
Continuous learning is also an important quality they look for in potential employers.
There is a common understanding that the contemporary American workplace has become more
knowledge and service-driven with less demand for manual labor; 56% of workers between the
ages of 30–49 considering ongoing training to be essential for long-term career growth, as do
roughly 40% of those aged 50 or older (The State of American Jobs, 2021). Employers who
33
make learning part of the job and take a vested interest in increasing the skills of their workers,
whether their career paths lie with this company or the next one, will find themselves recruiting
millennials more successfully . Millennials prefer to work to live rather than live to work, expect
to be paid well and promoted quickly , and are less interested in common goals that do not match
their own personal interests (Alonso-Almeida & Llach, 2018). Employers who can deliver on
these promises are more apt to attract a millennial workforce.
Millennials who are already employed at this point in time are likely reaching the peaks
of their careers and taking on leadership positions. They are not so young that they are new and
inexperienced, and they are not old enough yet to be considered behind the curve. Employers
who are looking to retain their top talent are likely tar geting their millennial workers and should
apply intentional strategies to retain them. For teachers specifically , W alker (2009) recommends
retention programs and policies which focus on quality time with people and curating successful
experiences, both of which play to millennials strengths. These may include induction programs
with additional support for first-year teachers, ongoing staf f learning opportunities, regular
access to and utilization of technology , principal and administrative support, a transparent career
ladder , and the encouragement of balancing work and personal life (W alker , 2009).
When the values that are important to millennials are not reflected in their workplace,
they will have less hesitation than their older colleagues to leave and find a new one. Millennials
tend to highly value their free time and do not define themselves through their jobs, so they
possess lower commitment to employers and have higher turnover intentions than past
generations who might typically stay at a single company for decades on end (Agrawal, 2017).
Agrawal and Sajid (2017) found that turnover rates for millennials actually exceed turnover
intentions in this generational cohort as they studied job satisfaction among public and private
34
sector employees, noting that millennials are more technologically driven than any generation
before them and expect or ganizations to provide technology appropriate for their jobs. This trend
is only exacerbated by the impact on employment levels already caused by the “Great
Resignation” which is disproportionately born by the younger generations (Adobe Document
Cloud, 2021). Nolan (2015) of fers several recommendations to address dissatisfactions in the
workplace that will likely impact millennials. Employers can address dissatisfaction caused by
poor work-life balance by of fering flexible working arrangements, and having managers support
employees in building a strong balance which will raise productivity , lower absenteeism, and
raise retention. They can address dissatisfaction caused by lack of meaning by showing there is a
meaningful connection between work and performance, and matching employee tasks with
business goals so that employees feel involved. They can address dissatisfaction caused by low
enticement (salary and benefits) by of fering benefits which help employees avoid financial risk,
and which of fer opportunities for self-development. Finally , they can address dissatisfaction
caused by management styles by having managers invest in and believe in their employees, and
treat them as having unique needs and talents, noting that “it is relationships that retain
millennial workers” (Nolan, 2015, p. 74).
Millennials will best be supported by colleagues helping them to understand rather than
criticizing, and leaders who demonstrate trust and supportiveness will get them more involved,
committed, and better performing in their or ganizations (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). It is
already apparent that employers who do not meet these needs will be quick to find themselves
with open spots to fill. Geor ge and W allio (2017) found that 78% of millennials who participated
in their study expected to be job hunting within the next 2 years. W ith teacher retention already
at a crisis point in education, school and district leaders cannot af ford to ignore this issue.
35
Summary
The impacts of a teacher leaving the classroom go beyond a change in trajectory for the
individual making that choice. The culture and the financial health of the school are af fected
among other things, and ultimately , student achievement suf fers. The high rate of teacher
attrition in the United States has been an area of concern and a subject of research for many
years. One approach to getting a grasp on this problem has been to delve into various motivation
theories which attempt to explain the reasoning behind human behavioral decisions. This study
will utilize one such motivation theory , Herzber g et al.’ s (1959) T wo-Factor Theory , to gain an
understanding of why employees choose to leave their or ganizations. In this case, this analysis is
being done with a lens trained specifically on the millennial generation. Millennials, who make
up a significant portion of the workforce at the time of this writing, are a unique group of
individuals who are idealistic in their ambitions and unafraid of change. Keeping them in the
classroom will require school and district leaders to evolve their or ganizational models. Chapter
Three will describe the methodology of this study which seeks to develop recommendations that
can guide this evolution, and Chapter Four will share the analysis of the data gathered from the
millennial participants. The concluding recommendations will be shared in Chapter Five.
36
Chapter Thr ee: Methodology
W ith nearly half of teachers leaving the profession within the first 3 years, it is incumbent
upon school and district leaders to develop strategies to retain them (Reeves et al., 2017). As
millennials are the lar gest generation in the workforce at the time of this writing, developing an
understanding of this generation’ s unique professional needs is therefore necessary to develop
these strategies and to ef fectively promote retention (Pew Research Center , 2018). This study is
grounded in the notion that leveraging a research-backed motivation theory with a focus on
millennial teachers will provide the insight needed for principals and other school leaders to
increase retention of this population of teachers.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this grounded theory study is to develop an understanding of which
factors are the most influential in millennial teachers’ decisions to remain in the classroom.
Based on analysis of these factors, I will recommend strategies to principals who want to
encourage retention of their millennial teachers.
The following research questions were used to guide this study:
1. How do millennial teachers (born between 1981–1996) with at least 5 years of
teaching experience describe the factors that influenced their decisions to stay at their
schools?
2. Which principal practices and strategies do millennial teachers in secondary schools
believe promote higher rates of retention among millennial teachers?
Sample and Population
I surveyed and interviewed millennial teachers who had demonstrated a willingness to
remain in the classroom in order to better understand which factors influenced their decisions.
37
The responses of these participants are used to represent the collective perspectives of this tar get
population, and lend themselves to the identification of strategies that may be used by school
leaders to help reduce attrition of their millennial teachers.
There were 50 voluntary participants who self-identified as teachers that had spent at
least 5 years in the classroom and were born between the years of 1981–1996 that filled out the
survey for this study . These participants were sought out via social media connections and
word-of-mouth references, and they were able to access the survey through a publicly-accessible
hyperlink to the corresponding Google Form. The survey included a final question asking if the
participant would also be interested in taking part in the interview process of the study , and 14 of
those who responded af firmatively were scheduled to interview . These interviews were
conducted online through Google Hangouts and recorded using V imeo, and online transcription
services were provided by Rev Max. Thus, only teachers who were willing and able to respond
to the request to fill out the survey , or to fill out the survey and follow up with an interview , were
included as participants. I am myself a millennial as well as a former teacher with 5 years of
experience in the classroom and thus found personal connections with many of the views and
experiences shared by participants. I had a personal interest in exploring these connections both
as a fellow educator and as someone who was interested in pursuing a career in education
administration in the future.
Instrumentation
Quantitative Instrument
The quantitative data was gathered through the use of a survey collected via Google
Forms (see Appendix A). Surveys are helpful in identifying and describing patterns, trends, and
relationships in numeric data (Lochmiller & Lester , 2017). For these reasons, surveys were
38
essential in determining the rank-order of influencing factors that impacted participants’
decisions to remain in the classroom.
The survey had three sections with a total of 18 questions that were all directly correlated
to the research questions. The first section included demographic questions designed to gather
foundational data and act as a low-stress entry point for the survey . The second section explicitly
stated the motivational and hygiene factors of Herzber g’ s two-factor theory and asked
participants to rate their level of impact on their decision to stay in the classroom. The
motivational factors in Herzber g’ s theory represent aspects of a job that would entice an
individual to stay at an or ganization, and the hygiene factors represent conditions of a job that
need to be met in order to avoid dissatisfaction ( Herzber g et al., 1959) . Herzber g treated these
two sets of factors separately , but they collectively lend themselves well to the development of a
list-based survey covering a wide array of factors that can easily be rank-ordered, giving me
detailed insight into respondents’ perceptions. Response options were formatted as a Likert-scale
with four options ranging from little/no impact on their decision to lar ge impact/central to their
decision. The last section of fered open-ended questions which invited participants to elaborate on
their previous responses, and to describe what impact, if any , their principal(s) had on their
decisions to stay in the classroom.
Qualitative Instrument
The qualitative data was gathered through online interviews conducted with participants
via Google Hangout and recorded using V imeo. Interviewing is a useful method for
understanding the thoughts and feelings of participants which may not be directly observable,
and thus is an important technique in this study for understanding the driving forces behind
participants’ decisions (Patton, 2002). The interview protocol consisted of 12 questions which
39
were directly related to the research questions (see Appendix B). Optional probes and follow-ups
were included with each question in the protocol to provide opportunities for me to continue
delving into the participants’ experiences and to draw rich, thick data (Patton, 2002). Interviews
were conducted in a semi-structured format, meaning set questions guided the conversation but
with room for flexibility and follow up, and notes were taken by me throughout the process
(Lochmiller & Lester , 2017). My researcher notes were also recorded in order to record personal
reactions or thoughts experienced by me during the interview process. My notes were not,
however , shared with participants in order to maintain a sense of neutrality during the
conversation and to avoid the possibility of any feelings of judgment or harm (Patton, 2002).
The interview began with demographic questions designed to gather basic information
about the participants and provide a low-stress entry point into the conversation. The second set
of questions dove into the participants’ perceptions of the millennial generation and how they
saw themselves fitting into it. The third set of questions explored participants’ experiences at
their schools and any factors that may have influenced their decisions to stay , and the last set of
questions asked participants to directly correlate their decisions to remain in the classroom with
the actions or characteristics of their principals, if any correlation existed.
Data Collection
The survey instrument was designed using Robinson and Leonard’ s (2019) guidelines on
crafting quantitative questions and response options: composing clear and ef fective question
stems, avoiding problematic text, utilizing open-ended vs. closed-ended questions appropriately ,
selecting suitable response options, and ordering both questions and response choices in a
meaningful and easily accessible manner for respondents. Surveys, in the form of a hyperlink to
a Google Form, were made available to potential participants through posts in various social
40
media channels and via email when a direct reference was provided. Participants who chose to
complete the survey were asked, via the final question in the survey , if they were interested in
continuing to participate in the interview process. Of the 50 participants that filled out the survey ,
14 also participated in the interview process.
The interview protocol was designed using Patton’ s (2002) guidelines for developing
high-quality qualitative interview experiences: keeping questions clear and open-ended, avoiding
jar gon or terms that might be unfamiliar to the interviewee, asking for specifics (e.g., who, what,
where, why), having the interviewer remain neutral, and having the interviewer remain sensitive
to the perceptions of the interviewee. Interviews were scheduled with the participants ahead of
time based on their availability and preference by communicating through emails and/or text
messages. As mentioned in the previous sections, interviews were conducted online via Google
Hangouts using calendar invites generated by me. All 14 respondents participated in a
one-on-one interview which generally lasted between 30 to 60 minutes.
Information sheets were provided with the survey which assured participants that their
participation in the study was completely voluntary and that no negative consequences would
come as a result of their refusal to participate or decision to discontinue at any time. Participants
were also assured that their participation would be kept confidential and their data de-identified
for their protection. These assurances were reiterated at the beginning of the interview process
for those who participated in it, and participants had an opportunity to ask any clarifying
questions they may have had. All research instruments were approved by an institutional review
board in order to ensure that I followed ethical guidelines, with a particular emphasis on
establishing that no harm would be perpetrated upon at-risk populations (Rubin & Rubin, 2012).
41
Data Analysis
This study utilized both a limited amount of quantitative data from surveys and extensive
qualitative data from interviews as part of its qualitative approach to deepening my
understanding of why millennial teachers choose to remain in the classroom. All survey items
and interview questions were either directly linked to the research questions or provided an
opportunity for the participants to reflect on topics tangential to the research questions, creating
the space for insights to surface. A small portion of the survey items and interview questions also
provided me with relevant background and demographic data. The research questions were
purposefully designed to give focus to the study and preempt the methodology used for data
analysis in order to garner useful results (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007).
Both research questions were investigated through the quantitative and qualitative data
collection methods used in this study . The first research question was aligned directly to the
Likert-scale items in the second section of the survey , and to the middle two sections of the
interview protocol which explored the participants’ perceptions of millennials and self-assessed
reasons for staying in the classroom. The second research question was aligned to the last section
of the survey with open-ended questions exploring any connections between their decisions and
their principals’ practices, and the last section of the interview protocol which asked the
participant to discuss the same topic. All interviews were recorded with verbal permission from
the participants, and recordings were reviewed alongside paraphrased notes taken by me. The
survey results and interview transcriptions were coded and analyzed to identify themes
connected to Herzber g’ s motivational and hygiene factors, and to identify principal strategies
perceived by participants as highly ef fective in promoting teacher retention. The survey results
were recorded in tabular format and visualized by the Google Forms software to determine
42
which of the motivational and hygiene factors had the greatest impact on teachers’ decisions to
remain in the classroom, and to provide an open-ended space for respondents to describe any
connections with principal practices that they might have already established.
The credibility of the interview questions was ensured through field testing and
respondent validation of draft interview protocols which resulted in refinement, and quantitative
data gathered from the respondents was used to triangulate results (Maxwell, 2013). The validity
of the survey questions were ensured through field testing and consultation with other doctoral
candidates for content, criterion, and construct alignment (Salkind, 2020). Since the application
of Herzber g’ s two-factor theory directly to millennials is a topic with no previous studies
attributed to it, my inability to validate the survey questions through correlation of a theorized
outcome is a noted limitation of this study .
Summary
This qualitative study utilized both qualitative and quantitative data-gathering methods
with 50 voluntary respondents who self-identified teachers in the millennial generation who had
been in the classroom for at least 5 years. Both the survey and interview protocol had questions
that were aligned to the research questions, and careful consideration was given to ensuring the
well-being of participants throughout the data collection process. Bogdan and Biklen (2007)
advocate for using data analysis to develop ideas about our findings, which are presented in
Chapter Four , and relating them to the broader concepts and recommendations of a study , which
are discussed in Chapter Five.
43
Chapter Four: Results or Findings
This qualitative study was designed to investigate the factors that millennial teachers
describe as influential in their decisions to remain in the classroom, and to provide school and
district administrators with recommendations on strategies that may promote the retention of
their millennial teachers. The following research questions were used to guide this study:
1. How do millennial teachers (born between 1981–1996) with at least 5 years of
teaching experience describe the factors that influenced their decisions to stay at their
schools?
2. Which principal practices and strategies do millennial teachers believe promote
higher rates of retention among millennial teachers?
Herzber g et al.’ s (1959) two-factor theory is used as the theoretical framework for this
study . This theory posits that there are six motivational factors which encourage an individual to
stay at an or ganization: advancement, the work itself, possibility for growth, responsibility ,
recognition, and achievement. It also posits that there are five hygiene factors which must be
addressed in order for an individual to not feel so discouraged as to leave an or ganization:
interpersonal relations, salary , company policies and administration, supervision, and working
conditions. Millennial teachers’ perceptions of these eleven factors were explored in order to
determine which of them were the most influential in their decisions to remain in the classroom.
In addition, participants’ perceptions on the actions their principals had taken which encouraged
them to stay in the classroom were also explored. The data gathered for this analysis came from a
survey instrument filled out by all participants, and from responses to questions in one-on-one
semi-structured interviews with several participants who were selected from those who filled out
the survey based on willingness and availability .
44
Participants
Participants were asked to self-select into the study based on willingness to participate
and on meeting the criteria set by the first research question. This limited respondents to teachers
who were born between the years of 1981–1996 (i.e., millennials) and had been in the classroom
for at least 5 years, although it would have been possible for participants who did not meet the
criteria to still fill out the survey . The results of this study therefore assume a degree of honesty
from the participants. These prerequisites were set in order to establish purposeful sampling for
the research so that meaningful data could be obtained (Lochmiller & Lester , 2017). A total of 50
participants filled out the survey which was made available via a hyperlink posted in social
media channels or shared via email, and of those participants, 14 participated in the interview
process.
The length of time participants had been in the classroom was explored via the first
survey question: How long have you been an educator? The possible lengths of time in the
classroom were represented by four response options: 5–7 years, 8–10 years, 1 1–13 years, and
14+ years. Approximately a quarter of the participants fell into each range of years of experience
as seen in Figure 1.
45
Figur e 1
Survey Responses to Question 1
Whether participants were still classroom teachers at the time they filled out the survey
was asked in the second survey question: Are you currently a classroom teacher? Approximately
60% of participants indicated that they were still classroom teachers at the time they gave these
responses, and approximately 40% of them were no longer in the classroom as seen in Figure 2.
It should be noted that the survey question asking for this information was added after the initial
rollout of the survey hyperlink based on participant suggestion, and so the first three participants
did not answer this question as it was not available to them at the time they responded. This is
evident based on the total of 47 responses.
46
Figur e 2
Survey Responses to Question 2
The roles filled by participants during their careers as educators was explored in the third
survey question: What role(s) have you had during your career as an educator? Please select all
that apply . The options provided to participants consisted of: Elementary classroom teacher ,
secondary classroom teacher , resource teacher/T OSA, specialist/academic coach, program/club
advisor , athletic coach, administrator , and other (with a short space for added explanation). It
should be noted that the option of “administrator” was added after the initial rollout of the survey
hyperlink based on my noticing that some participants had filled in the “other” option with roles
fitting that description (e.g., principal, academy coordinator). Based on the responses, there were
a total of six participants who identified as having had some type of administrator role. The
47
overall variety of roles served by the participants varied widely , with all participants having
spent at least some time as either an elementary or secondary teacher . In sum, 74% of
participants indicated that they had served as secondary classroom teachers, and 34% indicated
that they had served as elementary classroom teachers. There were a total of six participants who
indicated that they had been both elementary and secondary teachers. Of note, there were two
participants who did not identify themselves as having held either a secondary or an elementary
teacher role, but responded af firmatively to the second survey question (Are you currently a
classroom teacher?), so it is assumed that they worked in the classroom in some capacity akin to
teaching.
Figur e 3
Survey Responses to Question 3
48
49
Results Resear ch Question 1
The first research question explored in this study was as follows: How do millennial
teachers (born between 1981–1996) with at least 5 years of teaching experience describe the
factors that influenced their decisions to stay at their schools?
High rates of teacher attrition are recognized as a significant challenge facing the
education system in the United States (Darling-Hammond, 2000). There has been a good deal of
research conducted to find out why teachers leave the classroom and what makes them stay over
the years with a wide range of participants and results. The first research question for this study
seeks to explore this same issue with a more tar geted focus: which factors specifically influence
the retention of teachers in the millennial generation, the lar gest and ar guably most influential
generation in the workplace at the time of this writing (Pew Research Center , 2018). Millennials
are a unique set of individuals with unique characteristics that they bring to the workplace, and it
is my hope that developing an understanding of how these characteristics manifest in the school
setting may lead to concrete strategies for principals and other school leaders to promote their
retention.
The factors presented by Herzber g et al. (1959) in their motivation theory served as
or ganizational categories used in a structured coding format to sort the data for analysis
(Maxwell, 2013). There was no distinction made between the motivational and the hygiene
factors during the coding process. The themes that emer ged from the analysis showed that
“personal and working relationships with colleagues,” “autonomy ,” and “salary” were the factors
with the lar gest impact on decision making on staying in the classroom. The full set of results are
seen in T ables 1 and 2.
50
T able 1
Interview Data: Number of T imes Factors W er e Cited As Primary Reasons for Staying in or
Leaving the Classr oom
Factor Stay Leave T otal
mentions
T otal
responses
% of total
responses
Potential for advancement
of job status or position
2 1 3 14 21%
Level of engagement
and/or challenge with
the work
0 2 2 14 14%
Possibility for personal
growth and development
3 0 3 14 21%
Level of
responsibility/autonomy
6 0 6 14 43%
Recognition/praise for
high-quality work
1 0 1 14 7%
Sense of achievement 6 0 6 14 43%
Personal and working
relationships with
colleagues
6 3 9 14 64%
Personal and working
relationships with
students
10 0 10 14 71%
Salary 4 6 10 14 71%
Clarity/coherence of
company policies and
administration
2 3 5 14 36%
Competence and fairness
of your supervisor
2 2 4 14 29%
51
Factor Stay Leave T otal
mentions
T otal
responses
% of total
responses
W orking conditions of the
physical environment
(e.g., safety ,
temperature)
0 0 0 14 0%
52
T able 2
Survey Data: Factors Most Often Cited As Having a Significant or Lar ge/Central Impact on
Decision to Stay in the Classr oom
Factor Significant Lar ge/
central
T otal T otal
responses
% of total
responses
Potential for advancement
of job status or position
7 1 1 18 50 36%
Level of engagement
and/or challenge with
the work
17 6 23 50 46%
Possibility for personal
growth and development
17 1 1 28 50 56%
Level of
responsibility/autonomy
18 16 34 50 68%
Recognition/praise for
high-quality work
14 13 27 50 54%
Sense of achievement 15 16 31 50 62%
Personal and working
relationships with
colleagues
12 17 29 50 58%
Salary 15 19 34 50 68%
Clarity/coherence of
company policies and
administration
19 10 29 50 58%
Competence and fairness
of your supervisor
15 18 33 50 66%
W orking conditions of the
physical environment
(e.g., safety ,
temperature)
18 10 28 50 56%
53
Theme 1: Personal and W orking Relationships W ith Colleagues
The types of relationships that teachers build are unique from a professional perspective
in that they are formed with both peers as well as the students they instruct. Students would most
likely be classified as “clients” if one were forced to draw a parallel with other industries, but
this comparison does not do justice to the strong connections that are for ged between teachers
and students. Therefore, this study treats both relationships with peers and relationships with
students as facets of the motivational factor “personal and working relationships with
colleagues,” and from that lens, it was found to be the most influential factor cited in decision
making to stay in the classroom. T en of the 14 interview participants indicated that their
relationships with their students were one of the primary reasons they stayed at their schools, and
six of them indicated that their relationships with their colleagues were a primary reason for
staying. Based on the survey responses (which, to reiterate, do include the responses of the
interview participants), 56% of respondents indicated that this factor was either significant or
central to their decision to stay or leave the classroom. While this is not the most heavily cited
factor from the survey as seen in Figure 5, it is more than likely that survey respondents did not
necessarily consider relationships with students to be described by this factor . Therefore, this
conclusion is drawn mainly from interview responses.
Several comments from participants describe the relationships they built with students as
a central reason they chose to stay in the classroom. When asked Question 6 in the interview
protocol (If someone were to ask you what the main reasons you have stayed in the classroom
are, what would you tell them?), one interview participant shared the impact of the connections
they had been making with students, their families, and their communities, and how that kept
them in the classroom:
54
I really became connected to students and families and communities and quickly realized
that emotionally this was a really good fit for me. I just loved building relationships, I
loved connecting with families, students and communities. I loved working in
communities. And I would say my verb went from serving a community to partnering
with a community . And I’d say just that I was always really inspired by students,
families, and the communities that I worked in. And they kept me coming back though
was this emotional connection.
Another interview participant shared why building relationships with students was so meaningful
to them:
I like that I’m kind of a part of molding who they’re going to become. I am all about the
relationships with the kids and the families, and really , I guess interacting with the kids as
more than just a kid in the classroom, but the whole person knowing them, what they do
on the weekends or their family situations, things like that. I just like kids.
A third interview participant shared a similar sentiment:
W ell, I love kids. And I still love kids. The kids - I could deal whatever adult bullshit was
—sorry , I don’ t mean to curse in front of you—was put in front of me but then get kids in
front of me and I can connect with them on a human level and I can help them to see this
agency that they have in themselves, tell their own stories, and craft the narrative of their
life, which is super important.
In tandem with the comments concerning relationships with students, several comments
from survey respondents indicated how impactful the relationships they had with their colleagues
were on their decision to stay in the classroom. One participant shared their thoughts on the
55
environment formed through their relationships with their colleagues and how that kept them in
the classroom:
I stayed in the classroom for this long because I love my job, and I had colleagues that
helped create a positive environment for me. T eaching is a very demanding job, and if I
didn’ t have supportive colleagues (including administration), I am not sure how well I
would’ve prevented burn out, despite my love for teaching. They supported me through
the ups and downs, and provided time and resources for endeavors that I wanted to
pursue. I felt like I had a safe space to succeed or fail wonderfully .
Another participant shared similar views on how their staf f team kept them at the school:
My decision to stay in the classroom is lar gely due to the good relationships I’ve built
with the staf f. My science department is incredibly collaborative and we work extremely
well together . While I’ve had moments where I’ve thought about leaving education, or
moving to a dif ferent school because of how dif ficult it’ s been, I think about how well my
team works together and the fact that it is not like that everywhere, and it keeps me back.
A third participant shared: “Seeing student growth and engagement and developing strong
relationships with colleagues would be the main reasons why I continue working in the
classroom.” A fourth participant drew a connection between the relationships they had with their
colleagues, administrators, and students as elements of the culture that they enjoyed experiencing
at their school:
The culture of the school as a whole is a very important factor that caused me to stay a
classroom teacher for as long as I have. The colleagues I work with, the support I receive
from our administration, the students at our school…they all contribute to the culture or
the environment of the workplace that makes it a desirable place to be.
56
In the same vein, several participants indicated that poor relationships with colleagues
was a significantly discouraging factor in choosing to stay at a school. During the interviews,
three participants shared that it was a primary reason they decided to leave, or would decide to
leave, the classroom. When asked Question 7 (T ell me about any influencing factors that have
possibly discouraged you from staying in the classroom), one interview participant shared:
“Leaving the classroom never had anything to do with the kids; it all had to do with the adults.”
Another participant shared: “W orking with students is why I am still in the classroom. Honestly
all the other stuf f is just a bunch of bull and I’m almost over it.”
Theme 2: Autonomy
After relationships with students or colleagues, the factor most often cited in the
interviews with participants as being influential in their decision to stay in the classroom was the
autonomy they were able to experience as teachers. A total of six interview participants indicated
that it was, in fact, a primary factor in their decision. Based on the survey , 68% of participants
indicated that it was either significant or central to their decision to stay in the classroom. The
desire for autonomy is consistent with the research on what millennials value. W alker (2009)
found that millennials prefer a workplace where they are given the creative freedom to try out
new solutions and hold themselves accountable to the results. When asked Question 3 (What
traits, positive or negative, do you personally associate with the term “millennial?”), one
interview participant neatly summed up this generation’ s attitude towards problem solving: “I
would say that we’re pretty unafraid of innovation, we’re willing to take on the risk of
innovation. So, I think that’ s something that I would say is a trend among a lot of millennials.”
This factor was cited both directly as a response to Question 6 (If someone were to ask
you what the main reasons you have stayed in the classroom are, what would you tell them?),
57
and indirectly through explanations surrounding favorable circumstances or school principals
they had worked with. One interview participant shared their positive experience with the
autonomy granted to them by their leadership:
That was the one school where there was a high level of professional trust. I was given
resources, and if I asked for things, I usually got them. That did not happen at any other
school I worked at. So that school I really felt heard, trusted and respected.
Another participant shared that the trust their administrators placed in them was impactful
enough to keep them in the classroom:
There was a [sense of] I know you’re passionate about it and I trust you to do it. And that
meant a lot to me. And I think it was why I stayed at [my school] for so long was that I
was given a lot of trust if I wanted to start something new or try something dif ferent or
things like that.
A third participant shared why they considered their experience to be uniquely positive in terms
of the autonomy they had been able to experience as a teacher:
I’ve had a lot of autonomy curricularly that not every teacher has. And I think that
allowed me to be in the classroom as long as I was because we [currently] use a lot of ...
canned curriculum and that is very disengaging for me. I have to ask the question,
ultimately , who do our policies and procedures put in the driver ’ s seat when it comes to
kids’ education: a curriculum or a teacher? And I would always answer that question
[with] a teacher , and I don’ t think every district does that and that can be really
demoralizing.
A final participant shared a similar outlook:
58
I know I have been lucky that a lot of factors have worked in my favor . I have had
generally good admin that allows a fair amount of autonomy , my students have been
invested in learning, and I have only taught it to high performing schools. All these
factors have impacted my decision to stay in the classroom.
Similar to how the opposite end of the personal and working relationships factor was
discouraging for participants, the opposite end of autonomy—or being micromanaged—was
mentioned by several participants. In response to Survey Question 15 (Feel free to elaborate on
any of your responses regarding factors that have impacted/would impact your decision to stay in
the classroom), one survey respondent shared their thoughts on their lack of autonomy: “No
autonomy—completely micromanaged even if you performed well.” A second survey
respondent shared:
I left the classroom after teaching for 6 years. The biggest factors that led to my decision
were little room for growth when staying as a classroom teacher , no prep time (adequate
time to complete grading), pay , and autonomy to do what is best for my students.
Theme 3: Salary
Unlike the first two themes identified from the data as factors that encouraged millennial
teachers to stay in the classroom, the factor of salary was most often cited as a reason to leave it.
Six of the interview participants indicated that their pay as a teacher was the primary reason they
left the classroom, and 68% of survey respondents indicated that it was either significant or
central to their decision to stay in or leave the classroom.
Through both the interview process and the survey , participants described salary as one of
the primary factors that drove them or would drive them from the classroom. In response to
Question 7 (T ell me about any influencing factors that have possibly discouraged you from
59
staying in the classroom), one of the interview participants, shared the financial impact of having
to use their own funds to pay for school supplies:
Can you af ford to still be a teacher if you know that you’re going to be dumping part of
your salary back into the classroom? The joke of teaching is the only profession you steal
from home and bring to work. Most people steal from work and bring them home. But
the other way around for teachers.
Another interview participant shared that even though they had accepted the idea that they were
not going to make much money , the bleakness of their financial future and their own mental
health seemed to be the price they were going to pay:
I saw no future of economic financial freedom or even [the possibility of] a place where I
wasn’ t just surviving but I was actually living or maybe even thriving. I saw no future
staying there and doing that … I’m comfortable bucking the system—I don’ t care, I don’ t
make much money , I’m a teacher . But then there’ s only eating ramen noodles at night,
and not having fun, ever . … I’m bucking the system and doing good things but the
system isn't getting bucked, I’m getting bucked. And sometimes wonder about that
juxtaposition of that sense of am I disrupting or am I actually hurting myself?
In response to Question 8 (Which external factors [meaning factors from sources other than the
individual themselves] do you think have the most influence over millennial teachers’ decisions
to remain in the classroom?), another interview participant shared a comparison with the pay
they could be making in the private sector:
The first thing that comes to my head is salary and compensation. ... If you look at these
teacher salary schedules, it takes 10 years to make a meaningful increase that you would
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have where you would get a promotion in the private sector and get that increase in 2 to 3
years.
A fourth interview participant shared their views on the financial situation for most teachers:
I mean, the salary’ s horrible. I really don’ t know why there’ s still as many teachers as
there are. It’ s such a horrible financial decision to be a teacher . I think the only way
someone could actually make it work for them is if they stayed until they can get full
retirement benefits. But I’m exhausted. I don’ t know how people make it that far . I’ve
only been teaching 8 years and every year at the end I’m just so burned out.
A final interview participant shared the assumptions they had made getting into the teaching field
and how their financial expectations were not being met:
When I got into teaching, the baseline assumption was I’m never going to be rich, but I’m
always going to be able to live autonomously in whatever city I live in, so I’d be able to
af ford a one-bedroom apartment. Those underlying assumptions were just like, I’m
always going to be able to be fine on our teacher pay . And then obviously the last year
and a half or so, with everything going on that is no longer the case.
Several responses in the survey also indicated salary as one of the chief reasons they
decided to leave, or would decide to leave, the classroom. In response to Survey Question 15
(Feel free to elaborate on any of your responses regarding factors that have impacted/would
impact your decision to stay in the classroom), one respondent shared:
I answered “lar ge impact” for salary even though I am currently paid a relatively low
salary because a lar ger salary would have a significant impact on my decision to stay in
teaching. But since there is little hope of a salary increase, salary is one of the top reasons
why I plan on eventually leaving the teaching profession in the next few years.
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Another respondent shared that teaching long-term seemed unsustainable for them:
T eaching as a long-term career choice for millennials is unviable for several reasons.
First, the salary has remained stagnant, while benefits have been slashed. This is
compounded by an increased level of education required to remain in the profession.
Professionals with comparable education are making significantly more money in other
jobs.
A third respondent shared that ef fort and pay were not balanced enough for them:
It was nearly impossible to make a salary commensurate with the work I was putting in.
Additionally , other teachers were often recognized for their work or troubles because “the
squeaky wheel gets the grease.” It ultimately led to burnout in the profession.
A final respondent shared that their teaching career ended because of the lack of a financial
future:
I decided to leave the classroom after 7 years. What it came down to was this: One, I love
teaching but I do not love the lifestyle of a teacher . Specifically , long workdays at work
beginning at the crack of dawn, evenings spent grading, Sundays spent planning. I did not
like that my salary would never adjust more than for inflation—in other trajectories, good
performance leads to a raise or promotion. For a teacher , the only real promotion is to go
into administration—which I had no interest in doing. Ultimately , there is not enough
opportunity for career advancement in teaching, and salaries are not reflective of the
amount of hard work teachers put in.
The reverse of this sentiment was also true for some: four of the interview participants
indicated that either a high or stable salary was the reason they decided to stay in the classroom.
In two of these cases, the participants indicated that job security was their highest priority and
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their reason for staying at their job. In one other case, the participant indicated that the loan
for giveness program they were involved with made staying in the classroom worth it. In the final
case, the participant taught in a city where most schools, including their own, were part of a
charter network and teacher salaries were typically determined by school administrators. The fact
that they were at the school with the highest teacher salary in the city was their reason for staying
there.
While this perspective is consistent with the notion that salary is influential on a
millennial teacher ’ s decision to stay in or leave the classroom, the second case in particular
highlights an important distinction. In most cases, a noted commonality among interview
participants was a belief that having a low salary as a teacher is a given, and is not something
that can be altered by their principals. This was not the case for this particular interview
participant as they were fully aware of their school leaders’ abilities to determine their level of
pay based on their charter model. Although most interview participants felt that principals in
traditional public schools typically do not have the ability to af fect teacher pay , one participant
who had experience both as a classroom teacher as well as a school administrator disagreed:
“There’ s a way around it. Y ou’re just not being creative enough. And that leads people to believe
they’re not worth it. That’ s a problem ... that’ s the piece I would push people to unpack.” The
degree to which a principal can determine the level of pay their teachers receive, and in which
circumstances their level of influence is increased or decreased, is a possible topic for future
research.
Discussion Resear ch Question 1
The factors “personal and working relationships with colleagues” and “autonomy” had
the strongest ef fects of motivating millennial teachers to stay in the classroom, and the factor
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“salary” had the strongest ef fect of motivating millennial teachers to leave. This contrast
supports Herzber g et al.’ s (1959) position that there is a distinction between motivational factors,
which encourage individuals to stay at an or ganization, and hygiene factors, which introduce
needs that must be met lest the individuals become discouraged and leave. At the same time,
poor relationships and lack of autonomy were expressed by several participants as having the
impact of discouraging them from staying, and a high or stable salary had the impact on some
participants of encouraging them to stay . Thus, all three factors could be described as both
motivational or hygiene factors in some context, although not necessarily with the same degree
of influence. All three factors elicited emotional statements from participants, and were cited
directly by multiple participants as primary reasons for deciding whether or not to stay in the
classroom in both interview and survey responses.
The factor “personal and working relationships with colleagues” was indicated as a
primary factor in the decision of the most interview participants, but it was also the factor I took
with the widest interpretation since the nature of the relationships that teachers share with their
students are unique from an industry perspective. This finding supports the statement by Nolan
(2015) that relationships are the chief reason millennials will choose to stay with an or ganization.
Some of the other factors that were noted by multiple interview participants as being a
primary reason for either staying in or leaving the classroom were a “sense of achievement,”
“clarity/coherence of company policies and administration,” and “competence and fairness of
your supervisor .” The “sense of achievement” factor was broadened to capture both the notion of
being mission-driven, which two participants described as a primary reason for staying, and
finding the content they were teaching to be personally meaningful, which four participants
described as a primary reason for staying. The latter four participants were all teachers in a
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secondary setting who either taught English or social studies and found deep connections
between the work they were doing and the impact they were having on their students and on
society . The factor “clarity/coherence of company policies and administration” was noted as
relevant to three participants who indicated that the flexibility and work-life balance their
teaching positions provided for them were a primary reason for staying, and to two participants
who described disor ganized structures and disruptive policies as reasons for leaving. Finally , the
factor “competence and fairness of your supervisor” was noted as relevant for two participants
who described the encouragement and positive culture-building actions of their principals as
primary reasons for staying, and for two participants who described incompetent school
leadership as primary reasons for leaving.
This last finding indicates that leadership may not be the most important factor in a
millennial teacher ’ s decision to stay in or leave the classroom, but it does play a significant role.
66% of survey respondents indicated that the competence of their supervisor was significant or
central to their decision to leave the classroom. This idea is explored further in the next section
with the analysis of the second research question.
Results Resear ch Question 2
The second research question explored in this study was as follows: Which principal
practices and strategies do millennial teachers in secondary schools believe promote higher rates
of retention among millennial teachers?
The strong correlation between one’ s desire to stay at a job and the quality of their
relationship with their direct supervisor has been noted across industries (Buckingham, 2016). In
understanding what keeps millennial teachers in the classroom, this topic is therefore an
important one to study . Ladd (2009) found through his studies on school climate that teachers’
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perceptions of their relationships with their principal was the strongest predictor of whether they
chose to stay at the school or not. Although the analysis of the first research question revealed
that Herzber g et al.’ s (1959) factor “competence and fairness of your supervisor” was not the
factor most heavily referenced by participants as central to their decision to stay in or leave the
classroom, there can still be a connection drawn between this idea and the factor “personal and
working relationships with colleagues” which was indeed found to be the most influential factor .
Although a principal’ s competence might not be what keeps a millennial teacher in the
classroom, the nature of their relationship with that teacher very well might.
The data from the survey and the interview responses were or ganized into substantive
categories, or descriptive topics based on the participants’ own meanings and understandings, in
order to identify patterns around repeated themes (Maxwell, 2013). The principal actions and
practices most often cited by interview participants as being influential in promoting retention
were giving autonomy , supporting their ideas, building personal relationships with them, and
growing their capacities. The full set of results can be seen in T able 3.
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T able 3
Principal Practices Cited As Pr omoting Millennial T eacher Retention
Principal practice Number of times cited
Good relationships with teachers 7
Provide consistent, quality experience 5
Create a safe environment based on reasonable practices 1
Collective ownership 2
Grow your people 7
Support teachers’ ideas 8
Support your teachers of color 1
Instructional leadership 5
Give autonomy 9
Recognize ef fort/show appreciation 6
Remove barriers 1
Create a culture of innovation 2
Ef fective change management 2
Servant leadership 1
Improve salary 3
Retention and removal of teachers 2
Create a positive school culture 1
Be present 1
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Theme 1: Give Autonomy
The emer gent theme of appreciating the autonomy granted from their principals is
aligned with participants’ views that “autonomy” is one of the most influential factors in their
decisions to stay in the classroom. Millennials thrive in professional cultures where creative
freedom is encouraged, and where new ideas have the potential to become new adopted practices
(W alker , 2009). Nine of the interview participants identified giving autonomy as one of the most
important practices a principal can engage in to keep their millennial teachers in the classroom,
and described both positive and negative experiences in this area. The autonomy the participants
either got to experience or were lacking spanned dif ferent decision-making areas such as
curriculum, instruction, and professional development.
In response to Interview Question 1 1 (What would you ask your principal to either start
doing or continue doing to help motivate their millennial teachers to stay?), one participant
shared that autonomy in decisions surrounding curriculum were important to them:
Do allow for flexibility . … Who is in the driver ’ s seat when it comes to the children’ s
education. Is it curriculum or is it your educators? And who are you going to trust to
make those decisions that are going to support kids?
In response to Survey Question 17 (In what ways have your current or previous principals
influenced your decision to stay in the classroom, if any?), one participant shared their positive
experiences with having autonomy in instruction:
My principal has always been very supportive of my endeavors as a classroom teacher ,
doesn’ t try to control how we teach our students, and helps us to fund as much as possible
for our students so we don’ t have to pay for everything.
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Another survey response answered in a similar fashion: “By just letting me do my thing and
trusting me as a professional, my principals have not gotten in the way of me wanting to continue
teaching.”
Autonomy in decision-making around professional development was also mentioned by
several participants in response to Question 1 1. One interview participant shared their positive
experiences with being able to choose how they spent their professional development time, and
their negative experiences with being forced into a decision:
Just of fer flexibility with work time or staf f development time. Some of my favorite
things that I’ve seen in the dif ferent districts I’ve worked in are on those staf f
development days, if there are choices between dif ferent workshops to go to, and then
you’re given the option where if you just need the prep time, if that’ s what’ s best for you,
just go do your prep time. Because the worst is when it’ s a 3-hour speaker everyone has
to go see, and you’ve got a billion other things to do.
Another interview participant shared their exasperation with their lack of decision-making power
when it came to professional learning experiences in their response to Question 10 (How , if at
all, have the principals you have worked with lowered your motivation to stay in the
classroom?):
I think the misuse of teachers’ time and giving them things that are supposed to help them
without asking them, do you actually really need this? Do you want to do this? Hey ,
we’re trying to fix this problem, so come if you need it, don’ t if you don’ t. That’ s
something that’ s made me really frustrated.
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Theme 2: Support Their Ideas
Millennials want to try their ideas out in the workplace and to have an active dialogue
around the solutions they propose. The second emer gent theme of having their ideas supported
goes hand-in-hand with the first theme of having autonomy in decision-making. It is not enough
to simply be given the creative space to make a decision; millennials want their principals to help
them follow through with their propositions. Millennials have begun to shift the nature of the
relationship between supervisors and employees across industries to one that is more
collaborative, and the or ganizations that have allowed for this change to happen have grown
stronger for it (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). Eight participants in this study indicated that
working with principals who embraced this philosophy enhanced their experience in the
classroom and played a chief role in their desire to stay at the school.
One interview participant shared their view on the importance of feeling like the principal
was on their side in their response to Question 1 1 (What would you ask your principal to either
start doing or continue doing to help motivate their millennial teachers to stay?):
It all goes back to the culture. Do I feel like they’re on my team? Do I trust them? Are we
working together or are they an adversary? … If you don’ t feel like you want to be there
and you don’ t feel supported and happy to do your job, it’ s a hard job to half-ass.
One of the survey responses to Question 17 (In what ways have your current or previous
principals influenced your decision to stay in the classroom, if any?), expressed the importance
of this practice in keeping them in the classroom:
All of the principals I have had (which are 3 so far) have been very supportive of me. I
am lucky . I think had I not had supportive principals, I might’ve changed career paths
considering a lot of other dif ficult factors in education.
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Another survey response to the same question shared a similar positive impact which kept them
in the classroom:
Currently , I very much enjoy my immediate supervisor . That is a huge reason why I stay .
She connects with us individually , and really listens to our concerns. She either does
something about it, or explains honestly any roadblocks to changing a situation.
Several participants also expressed how important it was to them that their principals
supported their ideas in front of parents and students. In response to Question 9 (How , if at all,
has your current principal motivated you to remain in the classroom?), one interview participant
shared their positive experience in regards to presenting a united front to parents:
Our principals support us teachers, we feel like a unified front. As long as the teacher has
the student’ s best interest at heart and is trying, they will back us together to parents who
might be causing issues rather than feeling like you’re fighting against both parents and
admin. And I feel like that’ s been really important to me is feeling that my admin is on
my team and that we’re working together towards a common goal versus it being me
against the admin and the parents and these other people.
Another interview participant shared that the lack of support from their principal when it came to
student discipline was discouraging to their desire to stay in response to Question 10 (How , if at
all, have the principals you have worked with lowered your motivation to stay in the
classroom?):
She hasn’ t always had teachers’ backs when it comes to situations with students and
discipline. And so, I think that’ s really hard when you’re trying to … hold a kid
accountable for being absent or not turning in work, and then their family can come in
and talk to the principal and she says, oh, well you can do one project to make up the
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whole semester . That is very dif ficult and creates more work for me. It also looks like
doing work in class doesn’ t actually matter
Theme 3: Build Personal Relationships
The third emer gent theme of millennial teachers valuing the personal relationships that
their principals build with them is aligned to Herzber g et al.’ s (1959) factor of “personal and
working relationships with colleagues” being the most influential factor in their decision to stay
in the classroom. Nolan (2015) made the point, through his studies on management styles which
resonate with millennials, that relationships with coworkers is what keeps millennials in an
or ganization. The participants in this study indicated that principals who got to know them as
people and took a personal interest in their well-being were able to gain their trust. Seven
interview participants identified this as one of the most important actions a principal could take
to increase their willingness to stay in the classroom.
One interview participant described how the way the principal formed relationships with
teachers impacted how teachers formed relationships with students, and influenced the culture of
the entire school:
The principal is more than just the glue that holds the school together . They’re more than
just the budget. If the principal doesn’ t have those relationships with teachers, then the
teachers are going to have a harder time having those relationships with the kids as well.
If the principal is not a good instructional leader , then the teachers will not be
instructional leaders for the kids as well.
Another interview participant described how the relationships that principals hold with teachers
can influence the teachers’ perception of their principal’ s intentions in various endeavors:
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If you perceive your admin to be on your team, then a lot of what they do is going to be
through that lens and you’re going to assume best intentions. Whereas if that perception
is not there, they may be trying to be a team player or whatever , but you are viewing
them through that dif ferent lens. So, if you can establish yourself as someone who’ s with
the teachers, for the teachers, cares about the teachers, then I feel like what you do is
going to be better received, even if it’ s the same thing that you’re doing, if that’ s the way
that you’re perceived.
A third interview participant shared how their principal increased their desire to stay in the
classroom by taking a personal interest in them in response to Question 9 (How , if at all, has your
current principal motivated you to remain in the classroom?):
It seemed like she was interested in me as a person and I wasn’ t just a worker . She helped
me seek out when there were opportunities that she felt like I would be interested in, and
she talked to me about it. So, she was not scarce.
A final interview participant shared how their principal was able to build relationships not only
with them but with their students through informal observations:
I just like the fact that she comes in not to do a formal observation, just literally wants to
see what’ s going on in the classrooms and when she comes in it’ s as much about her
bantering with the students and also talking to me just as a human. ... So, what’ s been
great about my whole entire group of APs and principals is that it’ s humans first, it’ s the
kids are humans first, the teachers are humans first.
Theme 4: Gr ow Their Capacities
The fourth theme that emer ged was growth in professional capacities around both
or ganizational and personal goals. Interestingly , Herzber g et al.’ s (1959) motivational factor
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“possibility for personal growth and development” was not found to be one of the most
influential factors in helping a millennial teacher decide to stay in the classroom according to the
results aligned to the first research question. However , seven interview participants indicated that
principals who helped them grow encouraged them to stay in the classroom, making it stand out
as a theme among the data. This notion is supported by the research on millennials as well.
Myers and Sadaghiani (2010) found that members of this generation do best in work
environments where colleagues help them learn and leaders are committed to helping them get
better . Alonso-Almeida and Llach (2018) also found that millennials strive to improve in order to
get promoted quickly and seek to align their personal goals with the goals of the or ganization to
increase their engagement. While promotion as a teacher might be a more elusive idea, the
millennial generation seems firmly committed to growing professionally in whatever ways they
can.
One interview participant shared how their principal took a personal interest in their
growth as a leader whether it was inside the classroom or not in response to Question 9 (How , if
at all, has your current principal motivated you to remain in the classroom?), and that it actually
increased their motivation to stay with them at the school:
My other principal I think he invested in me and my leadership honestly regardless of
teaching. So, it wasn’ t about him. He encouraged me to teach by just investing in me and
my leadership and what I needed and it didn’ t matter if I stayed in the classroom or not.
And that actually I think inversely makes you want to stay in the classroom and with
someone even more.
Another interview participant described the best principal they had gotten to work with also as
one who helped them grow as a leader:
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The best principal I ever had ... I spent an hour with him every single week. Half of it was
administrative things and the other half was literally just personal individual leadership
development, which was fantastic.
A third interview participant shared their thoughts on how a principal could more ef fectively
help their millennial teachers grow through modernized professional development strategies in
response to Question 1 1 (What would you ask your principal to either start doing or continue
doing to help motivate their millennial teachers to stay?), which would in turn encourage them to
stay:
Whether it’ s watching T ikT ok videos or scrolling through Instagram posts, the idea of
professional development in schools has really changed from reading a book to watching
somebody’ s reel of what they’ve done in their classroom and then using those engaging
strategies themselves. So as long as you can engage that part of the millennial, they like
to then take it inward and see how they can use those same kinds of strategies with their
lives or their classes.
A final interview participant once again brought up the idea of the observation process and
described how millennials truly desire growth as a result of it instead of paperwork:
So much of evaluation with administrators, especially in bigger districts, it’ s not about
coaching, it’ s about filling out paperwork. Whereas … I think millennials, they want to
grow professionally and know that they’re not just filling out this paperwork with a box
to check. They’re doing it because it matters.
Discussion Resear ch Question 2
Giving autonomy as the principal practice most highly valued by millennial teachers is
consistent with Bland et al.’ s (2014) findings that autonomy retains teachers in general. It was
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cited by the most interview participants as being a highly influential principal trait which would
keep them in the classroom. Supporting their ideas was the second-most cited principal practice,
and building personal relationships along with growing their capacities were tied for the
third-most cited. These principal strategies were both directly and indirectly cited throughout the
interview process as participants described school settings they had been a part of and how they
had reacted to them. Participants’ recollections of the schools and working environments they
had worked in naturally incorporated descriptions of their school leadership, and I probed further
to gain a better understanding of the actions their leaders had taken which had influenced their
decisions to stay or leave. These responses were generally reiterated in the third section of the
interview which explicitly asked which principal practices had af fected them both positively and
negatively . Several survey responses supported these same conclusions.
Three of the four themes that emer ged from the analysis of the second research question
were validated by the results of the first research question. The factors of “personal and working
relationships with colleagues” and “autonomy” being influential in a millennial teacher ’ s
decision to stay in the classroom are aligned to the emer gent themes of a principal who gives
autonomy , supports their teachers’ ideas, and builds personal relationships having more success
retaining their millennial staf f members. The final emer gent theme of millennial teachers
wanting to work with a leader who grows their capacities is aligned to the motivational factor
“possibility for personal growth and development,” but this factor was not considered to be one
of more influential factors keeping teachers in the classroom. It is, however , consistent with
Alonso-Almeida and Llach’ s (2018) findings that millennials seek out workplaces which value
continuous learning and match their ambitions with opportunities for growth.
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Other principal practices that came up multiple times through the interview process were
recognizing ef fort and showing appreciation, acting as a strong instructional leader , and
providing a consistent quality experience for teachers. Six interview participants shared that even
without money being involved, being recognized for the hard work they were putting into their
job and the reciprocal enthusiasm of their principal was a primary reason they chose to stay in
the classroom. Five interview participants described how their principals were strong
instructional leaders by modeling continuous learning and in some cases teaching their own
classes, and how that contributed to a positive perception of their leadership. Finally , five
interview participants indicated that providing a consistent experience for teachers regarding
student discipline practices and following through with initiatives (as opposed to giving in to
solution-itis) was important practices they looked for in a principal, and provided a much-needed
antithesis to the instability of the economy in which they grew up.
Summary
Chapter Four presents an overview of the data collected and analyzed from the survey
instrument and interview processes. A total of 50 participants who self-identified as millennial
teachers (born between 1981–1996) with at least five years in the classroom filled out the survey ,
and of them, fourteen went on to complete an interview with me to delve deeper into the topic
and share their views. The survey was available as a Google Form, and was accessible through a
hyperlink shared in social media posts and via email. The interviews were conducted over
Google Hangouts, recorded using V imeo, and transcribed using Rev Max for coding purposes.
In regards to the first research question, the interview results showed that the most
impactful factors af fecting the decisions of millennial teachers in remaining in the classroom
were the professional relationships they formed with both students and colleagues, the autonomy
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they were given, and their salaries. The responses to the survey validate these factors as indeed
being among the most impactful, although the definition of professional relationships as
presented in the survey was likely not considered in the same way I did and so did not garner the
same level of response.
In regards to the second research question, the interview results showed that the principal
practices which were perceived to have the strongest influence on keeping millennial teachers in
the classroom were giving autonomy , supporting teachers’ ideas, building personal relationships
with teachers, and growing the capacities of teachers. The responses to the survey validated these
findings, and the research on millennials cited in Chapter T wo were also consistent with these
findings.
The analyses of the first and second research questions were generally aligned with one
important exception: from the second research question, the principal practice of growing their
teachers’ capacities was found to be an emer gent theme while Herzber g et al.’ s (1959)
motivational factor “possibility for personal growth and development” was not found to be an
emer gent theme from research question one. This begs the question why millennial teachers
consider this trait to be so important in a school leader but do not consider it to be as important
when deciding to stay in or leave the classroom, and presents possibilities for further research.
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Chapter Five: Discussion
High rates of teacher attrition across the United States remain a prevalent problem as
every time a teacher leaves the classroom there is a loss of expertise, a loss of established
relationships, and a loss of funding associated with finding a replacement (Minarik et al., 2003).
T eacher attrition is particularly common in lower income schools serving historically
mar ginalized students, further straining resources in institutions where these resources are
needed the most (Carver -Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). In order to address this issue, this
study focuses on factors that impact the retention of teachers in the millennial generation, the
generation currently making up the lar gest portion of the workforce (Pew Research Center ,
2018). Millennials have a series of distinct characteristics which can end up being an aid or a
hindrance in the workplace depending on the or ganizational model and culture, and many private
industries have already begun evolving to meet the needs of this high-performing population.
This study is designed to provide insight into what keeps millennial teachers in the classroom so
that school and district leaders can follow suit.
The following research questions were used to guide this qualitative study:
1. How do millennial teachers (born between 1981–1996) with at least 5 years of
teaching experience describe the factors that influenced their decisions to stay at their
schools?
2. Which principal practices and strategies do millennial teachers in secondary schools
believe promote higher rates of retention among millennial teachers?
Herzber g et al.’ s (1959) two-factor motivation theory was used as the theoretical framework, and
the eleven factors introduced by this theory (six motivational factors, five hygiene factors) were
used as the basis for data analysis. A total of 50 respondents self-identifying as millennial
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teachers who had been in the classroom for at least 5 years filled out a survey which was shared
via social media and emails, and from among these participants, 14 went on to participate in the
interview process which I conducted. During the interviews, I more thoroughly investigated the
impact these factors had on the participants’ decisions to remain in the classroom, as well as the
impact that the participants’ principals had, if any . The interview transcriptions were coded to
find emer gent themes based on patterns in responses, and survey responses were used to validate
and supplement the data.
Findings
Resear ch Question 1
The factors which emer ged as the most influential for millennial teachers in deciding to
remain in the classroom were “personal and working relationships with colleagues,”
“autonomy ,” and “salary .” “Personal and working relationships with colleagues” described the
relationships teachers had with both their colleagues and their students as I had it defined, and
was most frequently identified as the primary reason a participant remained at a school.
“Autonomy” was perceived to mean being trusted by school administrators to try out new ideas
and solutions, and was the second-most frequently identified primary reason to stay . “Salary”
referred to both teacher ’ s pay as well as any other financial programs or incentives participants
experienced, and was the most frequently identified reason a participant would leave the
classroom.
These findings support an important claim made by Herzber g et al. (1959) in the
construction of their motivation theory . Namely , that the factors which motivate an individual to
stay at an or ganization (i.e., motivational factors) can and should be considered separately from
the factors that discourage them to stay (i.e., hygiene factors), and should be treated separately
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by employers who wish to retain their staf f ( Dinham & Scott, 1997). W e see this distinction in
the way that the factors of “personal and working relationships with colleagues” and “autonomy”
mainly motivated millennial teachers to stay in the classroom, and the factor of “salary” was
generally discouraging for them as it represented a need which was not met. While lack of strong
relationships and lack of autonomy were both cited by participants as reasons to leave the
classroom, they were not mentioned nearly as many times as the positive influence of having
those factors in place. Also, while one participant did say that their high teacher salary was the
reason they stayed at their school, their situation was unique among the interview participants in
that their charter network had more direct control over teacher pay . Thus, one would not be able
to conclude from these findings that increasing the salary of a millennial teacher beyond a certain
level would necessarily motivate them to stay at a school. The critique by Robbins and Judge
(2013) of this theoretical framework stating that all factors should only be considered to be
motivational would have been somewhat limiting in the context of this study .
The first two themes, relationships and autonomy as primary motivating factors for
millennial teachers to stay in the classroom, are consistent with the research presented on
millennials in the workplace. The omnipresence of communication and information tools in the
lives of millennials positions relationships and the desire for autonomy as high on their list of
workplace priorities (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). On the other hand, the theme of salary being a
primary reason for leaving the classroom is seemingly contradictory to the research obtained on
millennials’ attitudes towards money as a motivator . Anderson et al. (2016) found that
millennials are generally less concerned with financial success than with making meaning from
their work. Alonso-Almeida and Llach (2018) found that millennials are willing to accept lower
pay if their job feels meaningful and creates a positive global or community impact. It is hard to
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think of a job more meaningful and impactful than teaching, and millennials tend to be
mission-driven when it comes to their career choices (Edwards, 2010). However , responses
provided by the interview participants clarified that their decisions to leave the classroom based
on salary was less about preference and more about necessity . The salary of a teacher simply was
not enough to cover their basic needs and expenses. One interview participant shared their
thoughts on how the public’ s perception of realizing financial stability through hard work and
college degrees was of f the mark for teachers:
W e’ve had these narratives painted for us about what we could or should achieve if we
were working hard enough that just are not realistic. I’m thinking housing, I’m thinking
student loans and the idea of education as an investment. Those are some concrete
examples I can think of where we were told stories that just are not true anymore. ... I was
applying for a dif ferent job and ... I have a master ’ s degree and they of fered me $42,000 a
year for this position and I was like, nope, I’m just not going to do that.
Another participant shared their perception of the views that millennials hold towards their
financial futures: “I think just uncertainty [sets apart the millennial generation]. A lot of people
are wondering, can I retire? W ill I ever be able to buy a house?” These views are consistent with
millennials’ misgivings about the economy shared by Grusky et al. (2019) which stem from the
widening gap between social classes and a lessened ability to traverse them. The subject of how
well teacher salaries across the country provide for a basic level of financial stability for
millennials (and likely the younger generations as well) is a possible future research topic that
deserves our attention.
The limitations of this study in answering the first research question are primarily based
on the risk to the external validity of the results. My ability to generalize what is influential to
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millennial teachers, a subset of a population of about 56 million millennials in the workforce, is
based on a comparably small number of responses. A higher level of generalizability could be
experienced with a smaller tar get population (e.g., millennial secondary teachers in Southern
California), but I left the door open for any and all millennial teachers to respond to combat the
risk of not garnering enough responses to carry out the study . Therefore, the backgrounds and
experiences of the participants varied widely within the confines of being a millennial teacher
with at least 5 years in the classroom (e.g., the wide range of roles held by survey respondents as
seen in Figure 3). Other limitations include a lack of ability to confirm that respondents actually
met the participation criteria as defined by the first research question when choosing to fill out
the survey , and a dif ference in interpretation of the motivational and hygiene factors by the
respondents and myself. A final limitation is my ability to correctly identify factors which
interview participants felt were of primary importance in their decisions to stay in the classroom,
although thorough probing with follow-up questions were incorporated into the interview
process to combat that risk.
Resear ch Question 2
The four themes that emer ged from the analysis of the second research question were that
the principal practices of giving autonomy , supporting teachers’ ideas, building personal
relationships with teachers, and growing their teachers’ capacities were perceived to be the most
influential in retaining millennial teachers. Autonomy in this case was defined with more
specificity than with the first research question, and referred to having choice in terms of
curriculum, instruction, and professional development options. Supporting teachers’ ideas was
described to mean creating a culture where teachers and administrators were “on the same team”
when trying out new solutions or presenting a united front to parents. Building personal
83
relationships was important to participants who described principals who had positive impacts on
them as ones who took a personal interest in their well-being as people and built cultures around
compassion. Finally , participants shared that it was important to them that their principals grow
them professionally both as educators and as leaders, and that opportunities for growth can be
found in dif ferent methods of engagement such as classroom observations.
All four of these emer gent themes are consistent with the research on what keeps teachers
in the classroom in general. Bland et al. (2014) found in their research on teacher retention that
autonomy , collective ownership (comparable to the supporting of teachers’ ideas), and ef fective
professional development were all important in retaining school staf f. Minarik et al. (2003) in
their research found that building foundational relationships among staf f members was also
important for teacher retention. These themes are also aligned to or ganizational values that
millennials seek out in the workplace: they want the space and the support to try out their ideas,
they want to grow their skills, and they want to work amongst friends (Nolan, 2015). However , it
is interesting that the motivational factor “possibility for personal growth and development” was
not considered to be one of more influential factors keeping them in the classroom in general
even though growing teachers’ capacities was considered to be such an influential practice. One
might interpret this discrepancy to mean that millennials place a good amount of responsibility
for their growth on their supervisor , and that although it is not one of the most important facets of
their work environment, they consider it to be one of the most important characteristics they look
for in a leader . This may also be a manifestation of the leadership style millennials have become
accustomed to through the seeming over -involvement of their parents in their upbringing (Clark,
2017).
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The limitations of this study in answering the second research question were generally
identical to the limitations in answering the first. In this case, the number of principals the
interview participants had worked with played the greatest role in posing a risk to external
validity . Some interview participants had only worked with two or three principals in similar
school settings, and others had worked with a variety of administrators at several dif ferent
institutions. Controlling for the background experiences of the participants may have provided
me with more generalizable results, but would have run the risk of not finding enough
respondents.
Implications for Practice
This study was designed to provide guidance for school and district leaders to increase
the retention of their millennial teachers, and to provide insight into what teachers in this
generation consider to be important when deciding whether or not to stay in the classroom. Both
research questions help provide that insight, and lead explicitly towards best practices that
principals can adopt and begin developing strategies around.
The first best practice suggested by the results of this study is to develop an
or ganizational culture which values relationships. The participants in this study made it clear that
the relationships they hold with their colleagues and especially with their students is what kept
many of them coming back to the classroom each year . This was the most common emer gent
theme from the analysis of the first research question, and interview participants went on to
describe the positive experiences they had with principals who developed personal relationships
with them in response to the second research question. The implications behind this best practice
are two-fold. First, principals should find ways to connect with their millennial teachers on a
human level and make them feel valued as people, not just employees. Second, principals must
85
allow for the space and time for millennial teachers to nurture and enjoy their relationships with
their students. This might mean removing barriers to spending time with students in the form of
streamlining inef ficient protocols or removing unnecessary tasks. Millennials respond especially
well to shared ownership and can likely provide ideas on how to accomplish this within the
context of their school system (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010).
Another practice suggested by the results of this study is to grant millennial teachers the
space and the support to try out their own solutions to problems. Autonomy is craved by the
millennial as demonstrated by it being a shared emer gent theme in the analysis of both the first
and second research question. Being given the autonomy to make decisions around how to teach
and which professional development sessions to attend allows the millennial teacher to build a
sense of trust with their principal, and ultimately leads to a more ef ficient use of their time as
they are already driven to exceed expectations. But simply having the autonomy to exercise their
novel ideas is not enough; millennial teachers want to work with school leaders who provide
resources and professional learning opportunities to make them work. The emer gent themes of
wanting to work with principals who support their teachers’ ideas and grow their teachers’
capacities based on the second research question speak to the millennial’ s desire to increase their
ability to accomplish their goals. A principal who provides their millennial teachers with the
opportunities and the support to stretch their potential will find themselves holding on to those
teachers.
A final best practice suggested by the results of this study is to find ways to increase the
financial health of your millennial teachers so that they are not forced to leave the classroom
despite their best intentions. This best practice is likely to be more challenging for school and
district leaders whose influence over teacher pay is limited based on any number of factors. The
86
emer gent theme of salary being the primary reason why many participants left or would leave the
classroom based on the first research question, though, poses an obstacle that must be addressed
one way or another . Finding either creative or direct solutions around increasing teacher pay is a
vital element in retaining millennial teachers. The economy in which they were raised and
entered the workforce has created a more challenging environment to survive financially than
has been experienced by past generations, and we as a society must find ways to respond so that
choosing the career path of teaching does not become a crippling monetary hardship for these
enthusiastic educators.
Futur e Resear ch
There are opportunities to build on these findings by analyzing results from a more
narrowly scoped tar get population, as discussed above with the limitations. Possible delineations
within the millennial teacher population that was sampled include dif ferentiating between
elementary and secondary teachers, teachers who are currently in the classroom and those who
have already left, educators who have had experience as administrators and those who have not,
and even distinct age ranges within the millennial generation (as several interview participants
described themselves as “old millennials” as a means of distinguishing them from their younger
counterparts). Lessening the range of the tar get population presents the challenge of finding
enough study participants who meet the requirements, but would possibly present dif ferent
findings that are more specific to that group. The variation in career experiences, particularly the
variation between millennial teachers who have and have not yet left the classroom, and those
who have and have not had an administrative role(s), will likely deliver a rich set of findings that
will help us dig deeper into what keeps them in the classroom.
87
The second focus area for future research is on teacher pay and to what degree school
administrators are able to influence it. W ithin the scope of this study , I was introduced to the
distinction between a principal at a charter school who was able to determine teacher pay , and
others at traditional public schools where that determination was made elsewhere. Therefore,
studying traditional public schools exclusively in this regard may confront more challenges as
well as present more creative approaches to providing additional financial compensation for
teachers. Educational leaders in each state and each school district likely have a unique
experience with finding ways to pay their teachers more. An ef fective study on this topic would
therefore most likely take the form of a case study .
Conclusions
The millennial generation is made up of individuals who are passionate, driven, and eager
to learn. They are well-suited for the work of a teacher whose mission is to unlock the potential
of their students while facing the challenge of limited resources, and yet an unacceptably low
rate of teacher retention continues to af flict the country even as millennials become the lar gest
group represented in the workforce. This study investigated the factors which they describe as
influential in their decisions to remain in the classroom, and which principal practices positively
impact retention. In alignment with the research on millennials which many or ganizations in
private industry have already incorporated, they were found to value relationships, autonomy ,
support, personal growth, and financial solvency . If the education system in the United States
hopes to stem the tide of teacher attrition, it must catch up with the times and address these
issues head on.
88
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Appendix A: Recruitment Letter and Survey Instrument
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Appendix B: Qualitative Interview Pr otocol
Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me for this interview . This interview
should take about an hour and your responses will be incorporated into a study I am conducting
on millennial teachers and what motivates them to either stay in the classroom or leave. I am also
studying what role the principals of the school play , if any , in these decisions. I will be talking to
multiple teachers who fit into the category of “millennial,” meaning they were born between
1981–1996, and have been at their schools for 5 years or more. This information is in the Study
Information Sheet which should have been provided to you.
I want to remind you that this interview is not evaluative, and that there will be no
judgments made based on your responses. T oday I am wearing the hat of an impartial researcher ,
and my only goal is to understand your perspective.
As stated in the Study Information Sheet, this interview is confidential and your name
will not be shared with anyone outside the research team. I will do my best to de-identify the
data I gather from you and if your responses are referenced in the study , it will be through the use
of a pseudonym. The data will be stored in a password-protected computer and destroyed after 3
years.
W ith your permission, I would like to record the conversation so that I can more easily
refer to it later on. As with all of the information gathered here, the recording will not be shared
with anyone outside of the research team. Do I have your permission to record? Before we get
started, what questions do you have?
Questions (W ith Optional Pr obes/Follow-Ups)
I. Backgr ound Information
I would like to start by asking some background questions about you.
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1. First, tell me about your background in education.
● How did you become interested in the field of education?
● How long have you worked in the field?
● What roles or positions have you held?
2. What subject(s) do you teach? … T ell me about your role in the program/school.
II. Millennials
Let’ s get started by talking about this millennial generation that we are both a part of.
3. What traits, positive or negative, do you personally associate with the term
“millennial?”
● How have you heard this term referenced by other people, if at all?
● Which of those traits, if any , do you identify as your own?
● How do you feel about these characterizations of millennials?
4. What do you think sets the millennial generation apart from the others?
● What is unique about members of our generation?
● What challenges do millennials face that may be unique to them, if any?
5. What do you believe are the strengths and weaknesses that millennials bring to the
workplace, if any?
● Which of those strengths and weaknesses, if any , do you identify with?
● What other factors might there be that influence the work lives of millennials?
III. Persistence and Motivation
Now let’ s dive in and talk about what keeps you at your school.
6. If someone were to ask you what the main reasons you have stayed in the classroom
are, what would you tell them?
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● Please rate those reasons in order of most important to least important, if you
can.
● Have those reasons and their importance evolved over time? If so, how?
7. T ell me about any influencing factors that have possibly discouraged you from
staying in the classroom. … If you have left a school you were working at in the past,
what influenced you to leave?
8. Which external factors (meaning factors from sources other than the individual
themselves) do you think have the most influence over millennial teachers’ decisions
to remain in the classroom?
● Please rate those factors in order of most influential to least influential, if you
can.
● Why do you believe these factors are the most influential?
IV . Role of the Principal
I would like to learn more about how the principal(s) you have worked with may have
had an impact on these influencing factors.
9. How , if at all, has your current principal motivated you to remain in the classroom?
● How significant is your principal’ s role in your decision to stay in the
classroom?
● What could your principal do in order to do an even better job of motivating
you to stay in the classroom?
10. How , if at all, have the principals you have worked with lowered your motivation to
stay in the classroom?
● What about their actions discouraged you from staying in the school?
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● T ell me what the principals could have done instead to motivate you to stay in
the classroom.
1 1. What would you ask your principal to either start doing or continue doing to help
motivate their millennial teachers to stay? … How would your advice dif fer in
regards to retaining teachers in general, if at all?
V . Closing Question
12. What other insights would you like to share about our conversation about millennial
teachers’ motivations to stay in their schools and the roles principals play that I might
not have covered, if any?
Closing
Thank you so much for taking the time to sit with me and help me learn more about your
experiences and perspectives. Y our input will help me put together a study that I hope will
enlighten both millennial teachers and the school and district leaders who are working with them.
If I have any follow up questions, may I email you? Thank you again for your time and for
participating in my study .

Abstract (if available)

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Asset Metadata

Creator Adato, Mark (author)

Core Title Leading the new generation: principal leadership practices that promote retention of millennial teachers

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Educational Leadership (On Line)

Degree Conferral Date 2023-05

Publication Date 05/03/2023

Defense Date 03/29/2023

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Millennials,Motivation,OAI-PMH Harvest,principal practices,qualitative,teacher retention

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Franklin, Gregory (committee chair), Cash, David (committee member), Kishimoto, Christina (committee member)

Creator Email madato@gmail.com,madato@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113095827

Unique identifier UC113095827

Identifier etd-AdatoMark-11760.pdf (filename)

Legacy Identifier etd-AdatoMark-11760

Document Type Dissertation

Format theses (aat)

Rights Adato, Mark

Internet Media Type application/pdf

Type texts

Source 20230503-usctheses-batch-1035 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu