Preparing pupils for neo-liberal liquid modernity: could high staff turnover be developing pupil resilience?

Figure adapted from Worth and De Lazzari (2017)

Statistics show that the number of teachers leaving their school every academic year, either to pursue another career or to simply move schools, is steadily increasing (Worth and De Lazzari, 2017). This phenomenon has resulted in crises of both teacher retention and turnover (Hilton, 2017). Often, these studies highlight the negative impact of high teacher turnover: for instance, Ronfeldt et al (2012) found a correlation between student achievement and high staff turnover rates; the higher the turnover, the lower the achievement. However, in my school I have begun to witness an accidental by-product of high staff turnover: the development of resilience in the face of the unknown.

It has been recommended that a crucial skill that schools must develop within their pupils is resilience. Resilience is defined by Hinduja and Patchin (2017) as a skill to overcome adversity and adopt a “carry on” attitude despite the stresses of everyday life. There are many ways in which a school can plan to develop this resilience within their pupils. For example, resources have been developed to encourage Dweck’s (2006) growth mind set in order to foster pupils’ resilience (Edutopia, 2017). However, one unintentional method of developing pupil resilience could be the level of staff turnover within a school.

I have observed that pupils are increasingly becoming reliant on the ‘concrete’ structures, such as the behaviour policy and GCSE course structures, rather than specific teachers. As such, pupils are prepared for unknown factors: they can overcome adversity, the foundation of resilience. Indeed, this is preparing pupils for life after school. Participating within liquid modernity requires resilience: society is characterised by insecurity and the insecurity within schools will make the pupils familiar and ready to deal with this feature of society (Beck, 2014). In a way, the school can be seen as a microcosm of society.

Research suggests that high staff turnover happens predominantly within disadvantaged, non-white schools. Although this may be a contributing factor as to why the achievement gap exists, it may foster a resilience gap between disadvantaged schools and those schools who have low levels of staff turnover. As my observations are only that, observations of one school in isolation, it would be interesting to, somehow, measure the resilience levels of pupils attending a school with longstanding members of staff against pupils attending a school with high levels of staff turnover.   

Reference list

Beck, U. (2014). Pioneer in Cosmopolitan Society and Risk Society. Springer.

Dweck, C (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Stanford.  

Edutopia (2017) Resources for Nurturing Resilience. Online, available at: https://www.edutopia.org/article/resilience-resources

Hilton, G. (2017) Disappearing Teachers: An Exploration of a variety of views as to the causes of the problems affecting teacher recruitment and retention in England. BCES Conference Books, 2017, Volume 15.

Hinduja, S and Patchin, J (2017) Cultivating youth resilience to prevent bullying and cyberbullying victimization. Child Abuse & Neglect, 73, 51-62.

Ronfeldt, M. Loeb, S. Wyckoff, J. (2012). How Teacher Turnover Harms Student Achievement. American Educational Research Journal. DOI: 10.3102/0002831212463813

Worth, J. and De Lazzari. G. (2017). Teacher Retention and Turnover Research. Research Update 1: Teacher Retention by Subject. Slough: NFER.