In recent years, there has been growing concern about the recruitment and retention of teachers in state schools where there are unprecedented numbers of teacher vacancies, particularly in inner-city schools. Teachers leaving the profession tend disproportionately to be female and approaching retirement. This research considers the factors that influence the career exit of women teachers in their fifties. Three themes were chosen to investigate why some teachers do, and others do not, retire early: the work/life balance, the changing context of early retirement, and educational and social change. Semi-structured interviews provided data from teachers, aged between 50 and 60, either working in, or recently retired from, primary and secondary inner-city state schools. Findings from the research indicate that three key factors are evident in women teachers’ retirement decisions: choice, change and challenge. These three strands are intertwined with one another.

Retired teachers had made their decision in the context of financial security, enabling them to choose early retirement, whereas working teachers indicated that their financial circumstances were less favourable. Education policy changes, particularly school inspections, the National Curriculum, and disciplinary issues had created a working environment cited by retired teachers as a ‘push’ factor from the profession. Teachers who had continued working possessed a more positive attitude to change in both their personal and professional lives. On leaving full-time teaching, the retired teachers had chosen a new work/life balance, with primary teachers often influenced by non-work ‘pull’ factors and secondary teachers taking up new career challenges. Paradoxically, those teachers who had no early retirement plans regarded recent social and educational change as part of the challenge of remaining in teaching. The teachers’ retirement decisions were made in the context of earlier lifecourse experiences and demonstrated the heterogeneity of women as individuals, as teachers and in early retirement.