This study aims to understand the extent of perceived need-support (autonomy-support, competence-support, relatedness-support) of novice teachers in rural schools and whether need-support is related to a novice teacher’s willingness to stay in the district. Using self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) as the conceptual framework, this research asserted that the social context of the school environment can either support or thwart a teacher’s intrinsic motivation by how they experienced support for their basic psychological needs. To measure the extent that novice teachers experienced support for their needs, and whether that support was related to their intent to stay, this research operationalized autonomy-support by enabling school structure, competence-support by professional development opportunities, and relational-support by faculty trust in colleagues and principals. This study used a cross-sectional, non-experimental, design to address the research questions.
Results indicate that autonomy-support and relational-support were experienced by novice teachers at a high level in rural schools, but competence-support was not experienced at the same level. This study also found that relational-support accounted for nearly 8% of the explained variance in a novice teacher’s willingness to stay in the district. Collectively, the need-supporting conditions accounted for approximately 14% of the variance in willingness to stay. These findings provide school leaders with evidence that controllable social conditions are essential resources for retaining novice teachers .