BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.13, No.2, 2023 1719 

 

 

 

 

Turnover Intention in Chinese Rural Teachers: 

An Empirical Study Based on a Survey of 

5,342 Rural Teachers in Yunnan Province 

By Wang, Y. L., Wen, Z. M., & Zhang, H. 
Correspondence to: Yanling Wang, Eastern China Normal University, China. E-

mail: ylwang@cte.ecnu.edu.cn  

HE shortage of teacher supply and high teacher mobility have long been 

severe issues in rural China. The State Council’s Rural Teacher Support 

Project (2015-2020) set the goal of building a rural teaching force that are 

professionally competent and willing to teach in rural areas and initiated 

comprehensive support measures. This article focused on group differences 

in turnover intention among rural teachers in an effort to discern what kinds 

of rural teachers are more likely to quit, and which rural teachers are more 

sensitive to the new policies. 

In this study, factors influencing rural teacher turnover intention were 

examined in five dimensions: individual characteristics, job characteristics, 

location characteristics, salaries, and professional experience. The survey 

was performed in Yunnan Province, combining stratified sampling and ran-

dom cluster-sampling. The electronic questionnaire “Rural Teacher Mobility 

and Turnover Intention Survey” was distributed to every rural teacher in the 

survey area with the help of county-level educational research staff, person-

nel with teacher training institutions, and school principals. Teachers could 

choose to respond or not on a voluntary basis. The survey lasted from April 

to May 2021. A total of 5,342 valid questionnaires were retrieved.   

The survey results showed that 26.7% of the polled rural teachers had 

a strong turnover intention and would quit whenever there was a chance; 

51.8% of them had a moderate or above level of turnover intention; 37.8% of 

them had a weak intention of teaching in rural schools for a long term (over 5 

years). Rural novice teachers and those who were separated from their 

spouses or partners had a stronger intention to quit their teaching jobs in rural 

areas. From the perspective of job characteristics, rural teachers with junior 

secondary schools, or in special positions, or holding multiple concurrent po-

sitions were inclined to quit. Regarding school location characteristics, the 

farther the school was away from the urban area and the teacher’s hometown, 

the more determined the teacher was to leave. The lower the salary, the 

stronger turnover intention the teacher had. In terms of professional experi-

ence, teachers with higher work pressures and lower levels of professional 

T 

mailto:ylwang@cte.ecnu.edu.cn


 

Vol.13, No.2, 2023 1720 

identity were more ready to leave. The research findings demonstrate that ru-

ral teachers’ turnover intention varies according to their gender, length of 

service, and marital status; teachers in special positions, or with large-scale 

boarding schools , or holding multiple concurrent positions had stronger in-

clination to quit; length of service, school location, salaries, and professional 

experience can effectively predict rural teachers’ turnover intention. 

 

 

Source: Teacher Education Research, 2022; 34(5):98-107.