Subjective Social Class and the Retention Intentions of Teachers from the Publicly Funded Normal Students Program in China: The Dual Mediating Effect of Organizational and Professional Identity

A stable teaching force is an important guarantee for the sustainable development of education. Teacher turnover is one of the reasons for the teacher shortage in rural areas. Although studies have examined the influencing factors of teachers’ turnover intention, little is known about the effect of subjective social status on teachers’ turnover intention, especially for publicly funded normal students program (PFNSP) teachers who play a vital role in improving the quality of education in less developed regions of central and western China. A questionnaire survey was conducted, which returned a total of 16,731 responses (8141 public recruited teachers and 1498 teachers from PFNSP). The study explores the influence of subjective social class on PFNSP teachers’ retention intention and the mediating role of organizational and professional identity on this impact. Except for organizational identity, the subjective social class, professional identity, and retention intentions of PFNSP teachers were significantly lower than those of publicly recruited teachers. There was a significant association between subjective social class and retention intentions of PFNSP teachers. In addition, organizational identity and professional identity had a significant positive relationship to PFNSP teachers’ retention intention, and played partial mediating roles in the relationship between subjective social class and retention intentions.