Teacher turnover is a global phenomenon which negatively influences students’ achievement (NCES, 2008). In recent decades, there have been an abundant number of studies focusing on the issue of teacher turnover, including research done in America, Australia, Singapore and Sweden (Porter, 2012; Hill, 2017; Buchanan et al., 2013; Greer & Wallace, 2017; Lindahl, 2015), which analyze the reasons behind and the effects caused by the phenomenon. Comparatively speaking, the relevant research that has been conducted in China is not comprehensive and thorough enough.

According to Lindahl (2015), the reasons can be divided into three categories, which are societal reasons, organizational reasons and individual reasons. The reasons of three categories are not totally independent of each other; instead, they are closely intertwined and can be better understood when considered together.

The Societal Reasons

The development at the societal level will influence education which in turn influences teacher turnover from different aspects. For example, in Korea, the society’s demand for preschool education as well as the government’s promotion of the young children education have grown significantly (Lee, Myers & Kim, 2009). The same trend can also be observed in China.

The Status of Children

Chinese children have gained more important position in society in the past few decades and correspondingly the teaching quality has increased to a great extent. From 1979, China started enforcing the only child policy and gradually the situation of “4-2-1 Syndrome” appears, which means in each family there are four grandparents and two parents and they give attention and love to the only child (Zhou, 2007). This situation makes some children spoiled and can cause extra psychological or physical burdens and widening responsibilities, as spoiled children are relatively difficult to teach. And besides daily teaching, teachers are expected to communicate with and report to children’s parents or grandparents more frequently. In addition, it is because each child is treasured too much, any small injury or minor accident should be avoided. According to the report of Guo and Pan (2018), kindergarten teachers’ psychological pressure also comes from the need to maintain vigilance constantly to make sure each child is safe and no injury or minor accidents occur.

The Social Status of Kindergarten Teachers

Generally speaking, teachers are highly respected, as their responsibilities are mainly nurturing the younger generation and imparting knowledge. However, this high level of respect is mostly confined to authorized teachers teaching in primary schools, middle schools and universities. By contrast, kindergarten teachers do not enjoy the high respect in the society. According to the survey conducted by Yu (2014), it is found that only about a quarter interviewees held the viewpoint that kindergarten teachers have received systematic learning and training previously. The reasons could possibly be that the various credentials required for kindergarten teachers are not familiar to the general public (Lee, Myers & Kim, 2009). The kindergarten education not being compulsory is also a possible reason that could be used to explain the relative low respect for kindergarten teachers (Lee, Myers & Kim, 2009).

The Organizational Reasons

Yu (2014) mentioned that the ratio between pay and return in the study. While kindergarten teachers’ remuneration level remained relatively low when compared with teachers at other levels, their workload and work pressure were extremely high. Ghamrawi & Jammal (2013) discussed the leadership concept and Lindahl (2015) discussed the working environment.

The Ratio between Pay and Return

One interviewee in Lindahl ’s research (2015) named Elsa shared her experience of salary increase when she changed to become a primary school teacher. Compared with primary teachers, kindergarten teachers are required to deal with more small tasks, which makes the ratio between kindergarten teachers’ pay and reward unreasonable and unfair. “For many teachers, it is the amount of work rather than its level of difficulty that is overwhelming” (Buchanan et al., 2013). As a natural consequence, kindergarten teachers normally feel frustrated and not satisfied because the efforts they devote to the work are not compensated correspondingly when compared with teachers of other levels.

Leadership

No matter for profit or charity organizations, private or government organizations, leadership is an essential factor determining the organization’s success (Ghamrawi & Jammal, 2013). Generally, it is generally believed that school leadership should be supportive of kindergarten teachers. One of the interviewees in Lindahl’s study (2015) mentioned that “The head teacher often stands between the teachers and parents and because she works in the child group with us every day, she fights for us when there is a problem.” However, when leadership is not supportive of kindergarten teacher, it will result to helpless and resenting feelings among teachers.

Working Environment

The factor of working environment can be considered from the class size and the relationship with colleagues. Lindahl (2015) concluded that group size was important for 80% of the teachers who received the interview. If the group incorporated a relatively large number of students, teachers demonstrated proneness to hopelessness and disappointment. As for the cooperative relationship with colleagues, it seemed to be not that obvious in affecting teachers’ choice of staying or leaving (Lindahl, 2015).

The Individual Reasons

It is undeniable that job satisfaction, which is from the individual perspective, is an essential factor to discuss. However, how to define job satisfaction is not easy, as it may vary depending on gender, experience, and position (Dinham, 1994). The independent variable summarized by DAĞLI (2012) which belong to individual reasons include Teacher’s Race and Gender, Teachers’ Age, Highest level of Education, and Total Years of Experience. The subjects teachers teach, such as math and science, are mentioned in Ingersoll’s research (2001). In addition, physical and psychological health should not be neglected (Lindahl, 2015).

Teacher’s Race and Gender

The race factor is neglected in the present research and the reason is that compared with America, China is less diversified in race. As for gender, DAĞLI (2012) found that male kindergarten teachers were more likely to move another school but less likely to leave the teaching profession, which were opposed to the previous studies conducted by Guarino et al. (2006). In order to get a clear understanding of the situation in China, more studies should be conducted to analyze female and male kindergarten teachers’ choice of continuing or discontinuing their teaching profession.

Teachers’ Age

Researchers have found that age obviously influence a teacher’s decision to leave or to stay and younger teachers’ rates of departure are consistently higher than older teachers (Ingersoll, 2001). The previous research found that the relationship between teachers’ age and their leaving the profession showed a U-shaped curve (Strunk & Robinson, 2006). However, researchers have not reached an agreement as for the reasons behind the formation of the U-shaped relationship.

Highest level of Education

DAĞLI (2012) found that teachers with higher degrees had higher probability of moving to another school but lower probability of leaving the teaching profession, which were inconsistent with the previous research results (Strunk & Robinson, 2006). It could be possibly explained by higher educators’ devotion and commitment spirit.

Total Years of Experience

The factor is more or less in line with teachers’ age. Therefore, it is more reasonable to combine these two factors – total years of experience and teachers’ age in further research.

Subjects

A very limited number of studies have analyzed the factor of teaching subjects. According to Ingersoll (2001), math and science teachers are less likely to depart than are other subject teachers. But this finding was not supported by solid reasons.

Physical and Psychological Health

As kindergarten teachers work very long time and their job is involved with very trivial tasks, their job can cause very large physical and psychological pressure. Because of possible physical and psychological illnesses, some teacher were redirected towards other fields of profession even though they had the intention of continuing the teaching work (Lindahl, 2015).

The Measures Suggested to Deal with the Issue

After having reviewed the reasons behind the kindergarten teacher turnover, it is necessary to discuss what measures have been proposed and adopted to deal with the issue. As individual factors vary significantly, measures should be suggested from the perspectives of organization and society. From the organizational point, it would be advisable for kindergartens to have yearly salary increments and year-end bonuses increased in order to motivate them to stay in the teaching profession (Greer & Wallace, 2017). It is also suggested that school administration should provide more support to teachers in discipline matters as well as with problems with parents (McKee, 2003). In order to make teachers have higher level of job satisfaction and make them feel values, school administration should incorporate teachers’ opinions into decisions and policies making process (Ghamrawi & Jammal, 2013). At the society level, through the enhancement of the kindergarten teachers’ professional level and increasing the number of authorized kindergarten teachers, their social status will also be elevated correspondingly (Yu, 2014). Therefore, the reform of kindergarten teaching curriculum is essential.