A status-based crisis of teacher shortages? Exploring the role of ‘status’ in teacher recruitment and retention.

Ovenden-Hope, Tanya (2022) A status-based crisis of teacher shortages? Exploring the role of ‘status’ in teacher recruitment and retention. Research in Teacher Education (RITE), 12 (1). pp. 36-42. ISSN 2046-1240 (paper) 2047-3818 (online)

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Abstract

There is an international crisis in teacher supply. Recruiting and retaining enough teachers to meet school needs has been challenging the agencies that control teacher supply for many years. The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Sustainable Development Goal 4.c is to ‘substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers’ to support an equitable education system. In England in 2021, 40 per cent of teachers left the profession by year ten, 23 per cent by year three; while recruiting teachers in 2022 was 50 per cent below the target for trainee teachers. In the United States Education Secretary Miguel Cardona warned of disruptions caused by teacher shortages with the National Education Association reporting that 55% of educators are ready to leave the profession in 2022. In Australia, states are reporting that Covid has worsened existing teacher shortages. The OECD concur with international reporting on the impact of Covid in worsening existing challenges in teacher supply. Schools appear stuck in a cycle of struggling to recruit teachers to plug the gaps of those that leave. Governments attempt to support schools by focusing on financial packages to attract new teachers (especially in subjects perceived in the previous year to be falling short of required teacher numbers), while failing to secure the retention of experienced teachers. Teaching is not a preferred graduate profession and those that do enter teaching continue to leave in large numbers. This paper offers a theory of status-based teacher shortages. It is argued that teaching and teacher status is complex, developed in multiple objective and subjective contexts, and is impacted by a number of social factors. The agencies that control teacher recruitment and oversee teacher retention have not realised the importance of ‘status’ in establishing a set of circumstances that contribute to declining trainee teacher numbers and increasing teacher attrition.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Teacher recruitment, teacher retention, teacher attrition, status, teacher supply
Depositing User:	Ms Raisa Burton
Date Deposited:	29 Sep 2022 12:31
Last Modified:	17 Jan 2023 16:38
URI:	https://marjon.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/17716
Related URLs:	https://www.uel ... vendon-hope.pdf

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