Understanding Teacher School Choice Preferences: What Matters Most for Teacher Deployment in Sierra Leone?

This exploratory mixed-methods study investigates the factors that shape where teachers want to work in Sierra Leone. We identify five dominant factors: monetary incentives, school conditions, opportunities for professional development and support, school location, and relationships with the school and the community. Importantly, these factors combine to push and pull teachers to different locations. Moreover, the factors interact with individual teacher characteristics such as gender, family status, and experience to influence school choice preferences. This set of factors — and their interaction with certain teacher characteristics — continues to shape preferences as teachers move up the career ladder. Keywords: Teacher deployment, teacher preferences, Sierra Leone, teacher supply, remote schools An output of the EdTech Hub, https://edtechhub.org