Exploring the Implications of Teacher Turnovers in Private Academic Institutions: A Perspective of School Heads

The purpose of this generic qualitative study is to explore and understand the implications of teachers’ turnover from the perspective of the school heads in the private academic institutions. Using the purposive sampling strategy, this study had 10 research participants who underwent in-depth interviews (IDI) at both primary and secondary levels in Tagum City, Davao Del Norte. Five of the 10 research participants came from non-sectarian schools, and the other five were from sectarian private institutions. With the use of the thematic analysis, results revealed that the impact of teacher turnovers are the apprehensions on hiring and training of teacher replacement, workloads and transfer of duties, consistency of teaching methods, and system adaptation, social and career impact of teacher’s departure, and acquiring financial and economic stability. The research participants also shared their ways of addressing teacher turnovers, which are through fostering open communication, support, and understanding, nurturing professionalism in resignation from work, adherence to contract and renewal protocols, professional development opportunities, increasing teachers’ salaries, provision of additional incentives, and decide autonomy among teachers. In addition, they cited insights that they can share with other school heads who experience turnover, which are: to have mentorship and professional growth, support for various pieces of training, cultivate a positive work culture, provision of contracts, and manage turnover with foresight. The findings of this study can be used to understand the impacts of teacher turnover. Thus, these results can be used by school owners, school heads, and government officials to understand teacher turnover and adopt strategies and insights to improve retention policies and programs to alleviate teacher turnover in private academic institutions.