Teacher Attrition Beyond Exit: Semi-Attrition and Intra-County Mobility in Rural China

Engineering notes

Key topics: autonomous driving. See the paper for implementation details and experimental results.

Chinese explanation / 中文解读

中文解读待补充：本站会优先为端到端自动驾驶、BEV感知、3D目标检测、轨迹预测、路径规划、LiDAR感知等高价值论文补充中文说明。

Original abstract

Teacher attrition in rural China is commonly framed as exit from schools or the profession. This framing obscures a more consequential form of mobility: the stepwise internal movement of teachers from remote village schools to township and county-seat schools within county governance systems. This study conceptualizes such patterned movement as semi-attrition and examines its mechanisms and consequences in a formerly poverty-designated county in southwest China. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 14 participants and county-level administrative records, and integrating teacher labor market theory, spatial inequality theory, and life-course theory, we find that semi-attrition is directional, normalized, and invisible in official statistics, yet produces cumulative staffing instability in remote schools. Geographic isolation, subject mismatch, and unequal access to career advancement create structural push–pull dynamics, while marriage, childcare, and strategic title-accumulation strategies intensify individual mobility pressures. Together, these mechanisms reproduce spatial inequality through a Matthew effect: county-seat schools accumulate experienced teachers while remote schools cycle through successive early-career cohorts. We propose the County-Based Mobility Ecology Framework (CMEF) to explain how internal redistribution—rather than outright exit—drives staffing inequality in county-based governance systems. Findings call for policies that track internal mobility, address structural root causes, and equalize career advancement opportunities across school types.

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