#22 Teacher Attrition Part 2 Dr. Richard Ingersoll

Fishing For Problems

For this conversation, I spoke with Dr. Richard Ingersoll, Professor of Education and Sociology at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ingersoll is a leading expert on America’s elementary and secondary teaching force. His research examines teaching as a job, teachers as employees, and schools as workplaces—from a teacher’s pre-employment training through their last day in the classroom.

We have a profession called teaching. Theoretically, it's an important profession. That profession—teaching—is staffed by teachers. Teachers come and teachers go. It’s natural for individuals to leave a profession. So is there something unique about teacher turnover? This is the question we attempt to answer by exploring the history of teacher attrition, the reasons why the professions struggles to retain teachers year over, and the current challenges facing teachers during a time of Covid. We also explore possible policy solutions to this problem. Enjoy!