Time for change: addressing the crisis in staffing our schools
In light of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's recent announcement of education reform, Dr Carrie Adamson explores what will really help to address the teacher recruitment and retention crisis in schools.
In his recent speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to introduce compulsory teaching of maths and English for sixth form students as part of the ‘Advanced British Standard’ qualification. In acknowledgement that this may be difficult to achieve, he stated that teachers in “key subjects” will receive up to £30,000, tax free, over the first five years of their careers as “our teachers do one of the most valuable jobs in our society and we should reward them for that”. Clearly, the financial incentives of up to £27,000 already in place to attract teachers into shortage subjects have not addressed the shortages, as new entrants are still not being drawn to choosing teaching. Postgraduate teacher recruitment as measured by the Initial Teacher Training census was 41% below target for secondary trainees and 7% below target for primary in 2022/23.
The statistics look even more bleak if we consider less advantaged schools. Research has shown that not only do disadvantaged schools have more difficulty filling positions (especially in shortage subjects like physics where children outside of London have only a 17% chance of being taught by someone with a degree in the subject) but schools are more likely to experience teacher absences due to stress. On average, teachers in the most disadvantaged schools outside London are absent for 5.2 days per year, compared to 3.5 days per year in the least disadvantaged schools. This results in approximately 100 extra days lost to sickness in a secondary school of 60 teachers. The effect of this crisis on the most vulnerable children cannot be under-estimated.
In Spring 2023, the UK Parliament Education Committee issued a call for evidence to “investigate the current state of teacher retention and recruitment, the main factors causing difficulties, and the impact on students”.
Our submission to the inquiry included evidence from pilot studies and teacher comments collected during our education innovation lab meetings (which involved focus groups and activities with representatives from eight case study schools). Early themes gleaned from responses to the questions posed in the call for evidence suggest that workload and pay are not the only concerns of teachers. The inspection system, Ofsted, was also frequently mentioned as was the negative portrayal of teachers in the media.
“Workload is increased due to teachers not being trusted and doing things to prove what they are doing and ticking boxes for Ofsted.”– Primary Teacher
“The main factors are pay in relation to the number of hours worked. If this was worked out as an hourly rate, it would be very low for the accountability of the role. Workload is another issue – staff feel they are unable to lead a ‘normal’ life during term time, not attending events or making arrangements during the week.” – Primary Assistant Headteacher
The first stage of our research project about ‘decentring the resilient teacher’ involved sending an online survey to teachers across England via the National Education Union. When asked “how likely are you to leave the profession in the next five years?” 64.3% of the 2636 respondents who answered the question replied that it was either somewhat or extremely likely.
Strikingly, 68% of teachers cite workload as the main reason for thinking about leaving and according to Mary Bousted in her analysis of the 2018 TALIS survey “England is an outlier in its treatment of teachers-and not in a good way. Other high-performing nations treat their teachers better and take positive action to protect them from excessive work”. Primary teachers responding to the 2018 survey worked an average of 52.1 hours a week. The only country reporting higher working hours was Japan.
Two-thirds of teachers (66%) reported that they spent over half of their working time on tasks other than teaching. 75% felt they spent too much time on general administrative tasks. Other time-consuming duties included data input and following up behavioural issues.
In 2021 the government introduced the Early Career Framework (ECF) a two-year teacher induction programme facilitated by a variety of providers. It aims to provide:
The intention of the ECF is that early career teachers will be better able to cope with the demands of the job. Early evaluations suggest that mentors are appreciated by early career teachers, but they are not provided with enough time to carry out the tasks the programme requires.
We are concerned that this approach frames the issue as lying within individuals rather than the multi-faceted environment in which they work.
How can we address the teacher retention crisis?
Our research aims to develop a more nuanced critical engagement with the concept of teacher resilience and to create more resilient environments for teachers at local, regional, and national levels. It builds on an exploratory study which suggested, “that the way teachers experience their professional role is more strongly associated with their environment than by their individual characteristics.”
Visual depiction of the social-ecological model of teacher resilience
We will develop a bank of resilience strategies, drawing upon existing research as well as the academic and professional expertise across the project partner team. Participating teachers at the 8 project partner schools will develop interventions tailored to their individual needs and school contexts, which will draw upon and extend this bank of strategies. The schools will implement the interventions and evaluate the impact that they have on teacher resilience using a mixed methods approach.
Taking immediate action
In addition to commenting on workload, pay, flexible working and perceptions in the media, we outline immediate priorities for the Department for Education in our call for evidence submission. These are:
- That a new accountability system is developed in place of Ofsted. This should be supportive rather than punitive and adopt a pedagogical approach to school improvement, with a focus on professional learning rather than judgement. If actioned immediately, this would reduce workload, the immense pressure experienced by school leaders, and make a significant difference to the way that teachers are perceived and valued.
- That the grading of schools is abolished, in favour of a focus on formative assessment, conducted with the school as part of a supportive, developmental approach to school improvement with a ‘school development adviser’ rather than an ‘inspector’.
- That a collaborative and supportive approach to school improvement is developed, where schools work together and with school development advisers to share good practice and create innovative strategies to address areas for development.
In addition to these recommendations at the macro level, our research suggests that school leaders can have a significant impact on how staff within their schools experience their roles. This research suggests that teachers thrive best in schools that have organisational cultures underpinned by trust, autonomy and nurturing relationships.
Final thoughts
“Teaching is very much viewed as a vocation, not a profession. Until the Government start to demonstrate a trust and genuine respect for the pedagogical skills and understanding of teachers, high calibre graduates will not be drawn to the profession.” – Classroom teacher
In order to make a substantive improvement to retention and recruitment, we need to create a climate for teachers, which is underpinned by trust and recognises teachers as skilled professionals.
We agree with the 2019 teacher recruitment and retention strategy’s ambition to harness the ‘energy and purpose’ of teachers by ‘deepening expertise and professionalism and exciting teachers about teaching’, but our research suggests that this would be best achieved by redirecting the resources that are currently used to monitor and grade schools into developing a supportive community of professionals who work together to develop their practice further with a shared aim of providing each child with an excellent education. Finally, whilst pay is an important aspect of providing teachers with recognition, working conditions have a greater influence on retention of staff. Before implementing further reforms to the qualifications and curriculum on offer, the Prime Minister must ensure that schools and colleges have a stable and satisfied workforce who will then have greater capacity for change.
This research has been conducted by Dr Steph Ainsworth, Dr Jeremy Oldfield, and Dr Carrie Adamson.
Dr Carrie Adamson is currently a research associate in the Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). She has previously worked at The University of Sheffield and before that was a high school and college biology teacher. She has carried out mixed methods research with teachers, parents and children. Her research interests include teacher resilience, pupils at risk of exclusion and alternative education.