‘Where you put your attention, where is your heart’ : understanding rural teachers’ perceptions and choices of retention in China

The retention of qualified teachers in rural schools remains a global challenge. The Chinese government has made considerable efforts in tackling the issue. However, how the policies are put into practice and impact teacher retention choices remains unclear. In order to investigate individual teachers’ perceptions and choices of retention in rural China, interviews were conducted with 15 teachers from Gansu Province. This study reports on policy enactment and implementation from teachers’ perspectives and how teachers agentically achieved self-conciliation in making their decisions to remain in their posts and manage their career objectives. The findings suggest that though retention policies aim to provide a supportive environment for teachers, most teachers are not satisfied with the available resources, and they suffer from a lack of freedom to engage in professional development activities. However, it is also noted that teachers are agentic in shifting their personally valued functioning and goals to make self-conciliation in retaining their teaching career. The findings imply that the implementation of retention policy should be strengthened, and professional freedom should be taken into account to improve teacher retention.