Giving up the lottery ticket: Finnish beginning teacher turnover as a question of discursive boundaries

Teachers leaving the profession is an increasing trend also in Finland, which is interesting because many of the explanations found in other international contexts do not apply. The Finnish context, in which teachers are not controlled officially in any way, offers a unique context for investigating implicit control mechanisms and their relationship to teacher turnover. The research shows how intersecting discourses work in ways that may lead to self-exclusion of beginning teachers who cannot find a subject position within school. This happens unofficially and implicitly in a context that explicitly emphasizes teacher freedom, autonomy and societal appreciation. Teacher turnover provides tool for making visible the discursive boundaries that might otherwise stay hidden.