Retaining School-Based Agricultural Educators: A System Dynamics Approach

The teacher retention issue has been plaguing school-based agricultural education (SBAE) since the 1970’s. This issue has been investigated from a multiplicity of angles by researchers throughout the discipline. A major gap in the literature, however, comes from the absence of a systems perspective which relates these various empirical studies to one another. This philosophical manuscript proposes a representation of one of the many systems teachers may navigate as they choose whether to remain in or leave the profession. Utilizing literature from the Journal of Agricultural Education, scholarship within the Theory of Margin, experiential knowing, and feedback from current and former teachers, a casual loop diagram (CLD) was constructed to represent one of the systems potentially present in SBAE. This model demonstrates how teachers navigate periods of margin deficit, where their workload is greater than their ability to achieve it. Analysis of the proposed CLD demonstrates there may be an overreliance on the noble sacrifice mindset and an underutilization (or prohibition) of boundary setting driving teachers’ decision to leave the profession.