Mapping the global knowledge base on teacher retention: a mixed-methods integrative review of trends, theories, and policy pathways

Teacher retention has shifted from an individual motivation issue to a global sustainability challenge rooted in organizational and policy systems. Yet scholarship remains fragmented across single-country cases, isolated psychological variables, and method silos. This mixed-methods integrative review maps the field by analyzing 537 studies (1990–2025) through bibliometric science-mapping and thematic synthesis. We find a maturing but still disjointed knowledge base organized around multilevel determinants: micro (self-efficacy, stress, burnout), meso (leadership, organizational climate, job design), and macro (education policy, governance, social inequalities). We contribute an integrative model that links these levels, reframing retention as a structure-agency-context phenomenon. Policy and practice should realign teacher-retention strategies from piecemeal interventions to coherent system packages that pair individual resource-building with supportive organizational architectures and predictable, equity-oriented governance. We outline an agenda emphasizing comparative and longitudinal designs, intervention trials that test multilevel packages, and indicators that track both teacher well-being and organizational resilience.