Three Keys to Retaining Talented Teachers in the UAE - Leadership, Community, and Work-Life Balance - A Phenomenological Case Study in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Aran

Exploratory qualitative case study examining how job satisfaction relates to expatriate public-school teachers’ length of stay in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. Six in-depth semi-structured interviews were analyzed through an interpretive approach, yielding three selective codes: leadership and community as key drivers, leaders’ engagement in behavior management as a potential lever, and positive work-life balance as an influence on retention decisions. Findings aim to guide school leaders and policy-makers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction and Background of the Problem

Aim of the Research

Job Satisfaction and Teacher Turnover Context

International Stressors and Moderating Factors

Three Keys to Retaining Talented Teachers in the UAE: Leadership, Community, and Work-Life Balance – A Phenomenological Case Study in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah By Troy N. Herrera ∗ & Alexandria Proff± The United Arab Emirates hires many teachers from abroad to work in both the private and public school systems. Recruiting foreign teachers can be exceedingly costly, especially when one considers the financial investment associate with airfare, health insurance, housing, transportation, and a competitive salary, along with the substantial processing time involved in issuing work visas, professional and intercultural training. One way organizations may be able to save on additional expenditures is to retain the teachers who have been hired and are already settled in the country. Naturally, a substantial part of the decision for the teacher to remain working and living in the UAE lies with the expatriate teacher. This exploratory, case study employed a qualitative approach in which descriptive data was collected from six in-depth, semi-structured interviews exploring job satisfaction as one, of what may be other, indicators associated with of lengthof-stay among expatriate teachers in the UAE. These descriptive data were analyzed using an interpretive analysis, which culminated with three selective codes: (1) Leadership and community are key to expatriate teacher’s job satisfaction; (2) School leaders’ engagement in improving behavior management would improve satisfaction; and (3) Positive work-life balance may influence expatriate teachers’ length of stay in the UAE. Taken collectively, this data may assist decision-makers, school leaders, and policy-makers on how to foster environments that promote retention among expatriate teachers in the UAE. Keywords: expatriate teachers, UAE, job satisfaction, work-life balance, school leadership Introduction and Background of the Problem While job satisfaction has been researched thoroughly amongst teachers in abundance, there is disagreement on the best way to measure job satisfaction; leading to a balkanization of the research (Pepe, Addimando, & Veronese, 2017, p. 397). When measuring job satisfaction of teachers, researchers have gone to great lengths to mitigate different confounding variables, or at least explain them; whether it is age and/or gender differences (Ma & MacMillan, 1999), emotional and stress level differences (Parveen & Bano, 2019) or differences in the country of practice ∗Mathematics Teacher, American University of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. ±Assistant Professor, American University of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. (Pepe, Addimando, & Veronese, 2017). Although job satisfaction among teachers is a well-researched area, there is limited empirical data concerning the job satisfaction of expatriate teachers in public schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) . As such, it would be beneficial to have a higher retention rate of those teachers, especially given the substantial cost of recruiting and relocating expatriate teachers, and their families, to the UAE. Additionally, in order to keep employees in any field satisfied with their job, a successful onboarding phase is necessary, and this is especially true for international employees (Bauer, 2022). The aim of this research is to understand the influence job satisfaction may have on the length of stay of expatriate public-school teachers in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. The reasons for which job satisfaction continues to empirically intrigue managers, practitioners, and researchers are easily listed, and are mainly linked to the awareness that “happy employees” can lead organizations to prosper more (Pepe, Addimando, & Veronese, 2017). This leads to the corollary that unhappy employees do not lead organizations to prosper more, with a direct connection to multiple motivation theories. The cost of turnover to organizations in the UAE that hire teachers from foreign countries is more than that of schools that hire teach

FAQs

What is the study trying to understand about expatriate teachers in Ras Al Khaimah?

The research aims to explain how job satisfaction influences expatriate public-school teachers’ length of stay in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.

How was the case study conducted?

The study used a qualitative exploratory design with six in-depth, semi-structured interviews, followed by interpretive analysis.

What are the three key factors identified for retaining expatriate teachers?

The study concludes that leadership and community support job satisfaction, leadership engagement in behavior management can improve satisfaction, and positive work-life balance may influence teachers’ length of stay in the UAE.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Aran