'Leaving my teaching job or leaving my school?' The role of SES composition, teachability perceptions, emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy

Teacher turnover is problematic for teachers and students as it negatively impacts educational quality. Especially for low SES students, an unstable teaching staff can be detrimental for their schooling career. However, teacher turnover and teacher mobility are often intermixed in studies and may not have the same association with the students’ SES composition. In addition, research has shown that teachers’ teachability perceptions of the students increase teachers’ level of burnout and turnover intentions. However, these teachability perceptions often first influence teachers’ level of emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy, which affects their turnover intentions. In this study, we investigate whether the SES composition impacts teachers’ intention to quit and intention to transfer schools. Furthermore, we analyse whether both intentions are impacted by teachability perceptions and if this association is mediated by emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy. Through a multilevel analysis, we investigated the Procrustes data (2012-2013) of 1087 teachers and 6234 students in 58 Flemish secondary schools. Preliminary results show that the SES composition is only associated with teachers’ intention to transfer schools. In addition, more negative teachability perceptions increase teachers’ intentions to transfer, both through a direct effect of teachability as through a mediation via emotional exhaustion. Self-efficacy only has an indirect effect on intention to transfer through emotional exhaustion. The intention to quit does not vary across schools. Teachability perceptions only have an indirect effect on intention to quit via emotional exhaustion. However, self-efficacy has both a direct effect on intention to quit and an indirect effect through emotional exhaustion