Published Paper Details:

Retention of teachers is a long-term problem in the privatised schooling systems especially in the non-metropolitan areas where the organisational and resource scarcity coupled with the variability of leadership cause greater instability in workforces. Regardless of the vast research done at the international level, empirically tested predictive models unique to non-metropolitan private schools are limited.The proposed study is a quantitative study proposal that will test a predictive model based on the impact of the institutional support, leadership behaviour and professional growth on teacher retention. Data were gathered using standardised Likert-scale measures on 350 teachers in non-metropolitan, private schools to use a descriptive-correlational design. The use of SPSS was based on reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. The three organisational predictors had a significant positive impact on teacher retention. The strongest predictor was leadership behaviour ( = 0.47, p <.001), which remained the next predictor (professional growth = 0.29, p =.001) and institutional support ( = 0.21, p =.001). The model offered was found to tell 62 percent of the variation in teacher retention (R 2 = 0.62), which means a high predictive potential. The research contributes to the retention literature by providing a context-specific, empirically supported organisational model of non-metropolitan private schools, which is a low-represented context of education.Results highlight the key importance of leadership capacity-building, institutionalised professional development, and support systems in teacher retention and policy intervention to enlighten policy action in resource-limited schooling contexts.