Early career teacher attrition in Australia: inconvenient truths about new public management

Abstract Early career teacher (ECT) attrition data are often challenged by those outside of the profession. Attrition rates can only be interpolated from existing data, but fall somewhere between 8 and 53%. The Australian workforce data on ECT attrition are problematized at the outset, before presenting a collective case study examining early career male teachers’ reasons for leaving. Male teachers were chosen as the sample of convenience as they are the most sought after candidates to join the profession. We analysed their sense-making. Interviews ranged between 2 and 3 h to gain their rich descriptions and interpretations. Analysis revealed that new public management practices were the major contributor to early exit. This finding makes a new contribution to the literature on early career attrition.