Teacher turnover is a persistent policy concern in public education. Researchers have documented negative impacts of turnover on student outcomes; yet we know little about the causal mechanisms by which turnover influences, or disrupts, schools’ efforts to improve. In our longitudinal qualitative study, we examined how turnover affects relationships, trust, and shared knowledge in organizations—that is, organizational social capital—in ways that can impede school improvement efforts. We found that teacher turnover depletes organizational social capital by disrupting networks and relationships between teachers working in teams, weakening shared meanings and goals in schools, and impeding teachers’ ability to collectively engage in problem-solving and learning. We illuminate the hidden ways in which instability undermines improvement efforts and strains organizations.
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