Exploring the Essence of Teacher Retention in a Christian School: A Multiple Case Study

The purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to understand the factors that contributed to teacher retention at two pre-K-12 Christian school associations of three schools, the Midwest Evangelical Christian School Association (MECSA) and the Rural Area Christian School Association (RACSA). In the research, teacher retention was generally defined as a teacher who is currently employed and intends to return next academic year as a teacher at this association. The theory guiding this study was Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The central research question guiding the study is: How do teachers describe the factors that motivate them to return to teach the following year at the same pre-K-12 grade Christian school association? Convenience and snowball sampling were used to secure 10 full-time teachers as participants to conduct this exploratory multiple-case study. They wrote a letter to themselves and were interviewed. Three focus groups were then conducted to complete the data triangulation. Data analysis procedures used pattern matching and content analysis based on Saldaña (2021) and Yin (2018). The themes that emerged were (1) God calling whether to stay or leave, (2) the Christ-centered environment, (3) goldy administrators and principals, (4) using the Bible as our guide, (5) this place feels like a family, (6) engaged parents, and (7) fear of becoming like a public school. The limitations and delimitations of the study, along with the relevant implications and recommendations for future research, are also discussed.