Attracting, nurturing and retaining qualified teachers has been identified by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as a step policy makers can take to address the international concern for building an excellent, inclusive and equitable education systems (Schleicher, Co-operation, & Development, 2014). The focus of this paper is on one teachers’ career path, considering the relationship between individual dispositions and contextual factors on Sarah’s career trajectory, addressing the limited longitudinal research contributing to our understanding of teacher retention.

Research on the socialisation experiences of teachers is long standing (Pike & Fletcher, 2014), including Hal Lawson’s seminal work on the socialization of physical education teachers (see Lawson, 1983a; Lawson, 1983b). While a considerable amount of research has been conducted on what Pike and Fletcher (2014) have identified as the profile of recruits, that is, understanding who chooses to teach and why, there has been less focus on the induction of teachers, and a very limited amount of literature which seeks to explore the years beyond induction into teaching in schools (Pike & Fletcher, 2014). There continues to be a lack of empirical research spanning multiple stages of socialization beyond the induction stages of physical education teachers and their career-long socialization process (Pike & Fletcher, 2014), with an identified need to explore the ways in which teachers navigate the cultures of the schools in which they are employed over the course of their careers (Richards, Templin, & Graber, 2014). There is relatively little research on the professional lives of teachers in the middle years of their career (Day & Gu, 2010), with the identification of a need to better understand the physical education teacher’s career between the early years and later years. This may help teachers anticipate and negotiate expected challenges throughout their entire career cycle (Lynn & Woods, 2010). Traditionally, approaches to analysing teacher retention have involved either the individual (see Bobbitt, Faupel, & Burns, 1991; Heyns, 1988) or the workplace context (see Bridge, Cunningham, & Forsbach, 1978; Buckley, Schneider, & Shang, 2005) in relation to the impact on the career path of teachers (Rinke, 2008). However, it has been noted that both the individual characteristics and workplace factors have rarely been combined to gain a more holistic understanding of teachers’ career trajectories (Rinke, 2008).

Agar, M. H. (1996). The professional stranger: An informal introduction to ethnography. Bobbitt, S., Faupel, E., & Burns, S. (1991). Stayers, movers, and leavers: Results of the 1988–89 teacher followup Survey, 1991. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES 91–128). Braun, V., Clarke, V., Terry, G., Rohleder, P., & Lyons, A. (2014). Thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Clinical and Health Psychology, 95. Bridge, J. T., Cunningham, C. H., & Forsbach, J. (1978). Faculty stability and effective schools. NASSP Bulletin, 62(417), 36-41. Buckley, J., Schneider, M., & Shang, Y. (2005). Fix it and they might stay: School facility quality and teacher retention in Washington, DC. The Teachers College Record, 107(5), 1107-1123. Day, C., & Gu, Q. (2010). The new lives of teachers: Routledge. Heyns, B. (1988). Educational Defectors A First Look at Teacher Attrition in the NLS-72. Educational researcher, 17(3), 24-32. Lawson, H. A. (1983a). Toward a model of teacher socialization in physical education: entry into schools, teachers’ role orientations, and longevity in teaching (part 2). Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 3(1), 3-15. Lawson, H. A. (1983b). Toward a model of teacher socialization in physical education: The subjective warrant, recruitment, and teacher education. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 2(3), 3-16. Lynn, S. K., & Woods, A. M. (2010). Following the yellow brick road: A teacher’s journey along the proverbial career path. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 29(1), 54-71. Pike, S., & Fletcher, T. (2014). A review of research on physical education teacher socialization from 2000-2012. Revue phénEPS/PHEnex Journal, 6(1). Richards, K. A. R., Templin, T. J., & Graber, K. (2014). The socialization of teachers in physical education: Review and recommendations for future works. Rinke, C. R. (2008). Understanding teachers’ careers: Linking professional life to professional path. Educational Research Review, 3(1), 1-13 %@ 1747-1938X. Schleicher, A., Co-operation, O. f. E., & Development. (2014). Equity, Excellence and Inclusiveness in Education: Policy Lessons from Around the World.