Teachers' Recruitment and Retention Issues in the UK - Research Paper Example

Teachers Recruitment and Retention Issues in the UK Introduction It is estimated that around 50% teachers inthe UK leave their profession in less than 5 years of practice, while this may not be entirely accurate and the figures has been claimed to be smaller of bigger (Burns, 2012). The ultimate implication is that teachers are often more likely to leave their job than most professions. Retrospectively in England, and Wales the shortage of teachers continues to baffle many and for the last two decades, it has been a high profile area of scrutiny. The most affected subjects were mathematics English and sciences; the government select committee on education has severally admitted to encountering considerable difficulty in providing qualified teachers for these disciplines (Hutchings et al., 2000). Today, it is estimated that around 404,600 teachers who are under 60 are no longer practicing, considering that only half a million are teaching, the high teacher turnover is self-evident. This is unfortunately only likely to get worse, in 2010-2011, 47,700 teachers quit teaching; an increment from the 40,070 in the previous year (Burns, 2012). The reasons why teachers are so motivated to leave their profession are numerous and complex and before one seeks to understand these, they must examine the motivation for their joining the profession in the first place. This research paper examines the issue of teacher retention and attrition in the UK; it will focus on determining the factors and challenges that motivate teachers to join or quite the profession and then make recommendation on what can be done to reduce the high turnover among teachers. Literature Review To be able to make sense of the problem it is important that one establishes what information they can about it and this can be achieved by undertaking a literature review on retrospective works and studies on the same. This literature review was carried out primarily through online databases, at first information was sourced using the search words, Teacher, Retention, Attrition. All the results that had information that looked relevant for the paper were flagged and their abstracts reviewed, out of the 45 works that had their abstracts read, 20 proved to be pertinent to the paper and they were retrieved. In an examination of the teacher training systems in the UK, Sir Steward Sutherland (1997), proposed an assessment of the current arrangements under which teachers were recruited as well as the need for the introduction of incentives for teachers in the most affected areas. Further analysis of literature by Moran et al. (2001) reveals that most teachers enter the profession out of altruistic and intrinsic motivation (Grace, 1991). A study carried out in by Carrington and Tomlin(2000) in which the surveyed students from ethnic minority groups concluded that when teachers trainees are asked about their reason for choosing the job, they cite intrinsic reasons rather than monetary ones (Menter, 2002). Most trainees claimed the wanted to help people work with children give back to society etc. (Jones, 2002). While some teachers cited monetary rewards these were very few with the only major extrinsic reason being attraction to the long holidays enjoyed by teachers (Kyriacou and Coulthard, 2000, Rawlinson et al., 2003). Barmby (2006) proposes that when it comes to leaving the profession, teacher often cited pressure; student attitude and workload issues were the main reason for the high turnover rates. Lepkwoska (2012) argues that in some of the schools in the UK, teachers, especially new ones are bullied by their seniors who give them a great deal of work and put them under pressure especially when they are not in a union (Lepkwoska, 2012). Hutchins et al. 2000 also finds that school management is an issue as well as the fact that teachers do not always have good promotion prospects, furthermore, they tend to be overburdened with too many responsibilities. Findings Why Teachers Join Teaching There is a fundamental point of reasoning that has for many years held that individuals are attracted to the teaching profession because of their personal philosophy of education (Ornstein & Levine, 2006). This is based of ex post factor studies that claim that in classical and pre-classical civilizations, education was encouraged as a means through which human excellence could be calculated. Even in contemporary schools, many of the practicing teacher were drawn into it because of their philosophical ideals (Sutherland,1997) this can be described by considering a situation where the teacher believes that helping a child gain knowledge is the their destiny in life (Thornton et al., 2002). Nevertheless, most studies have focused on extrinsic and intrinsic reasons for joining the profession; a common intrinsic one is that teachers enter teaching for the joy and fulfillment that comes about as a result of working with children and imparting knowledge to them (Reid & Thornton, 2001). It has also been proposed that the act of teaching in which the teacher inspires and imparts knowledge to the learner brings about intellectual fulfillment in teachers (Owen and Davies, 2003). In fact, most studies into the motivation of teachers have found that people join the profession mostly out of altruistic reasons, a desire to teach and provide a positive role model for children. However, a lower albeit significant number is attracted to the employment conditions such as the pay of vacation time. (Kyriacou & Coulthard, 2000; Reid & Thornton, 2001). Admittedly, teacher get to enjoy more vacation time than most other permanent employees with anything between 2 to 3 months in which they can pursue other interests as well as spend quality time with their families and this has been cited by many teachers as a major extrinsic motivator for joining up (Hood, 2001). There was however a unique relatively new reason that kept arising especially in current literature and newspaper articles, teachers are increasingly joining the profession with the intention of using it as a stepping stone to something else (Sturman, 2002). Apparently employees tend to respect perspective employers in the corporate world when they have teaching experience since it means they can be effective managers and trainers (Kyriacou and Coulthard, 2000). When this was the motivation for their joining the profession, their leaving is inevitable and may not be influenced by the other factors since these particular teachers enter the profession intending to leave after a specified number of years irrespective of the challenges of lack of whereof. Why Teachers Leave Teaching The reasons why teachers leave the profession were found to be many and diverse; either personal characteristics or interests of conflicting demands determine them and reduction in the motivation levels (Ornstein & Levine, 2006). In addition, there are teachers who leave because they realize that their professional goals are in conflict with the goals and objective at the place of work. Many teachers cited the working conditions as a reason for quitting the profession; these include the compensation structure as well as levels of support by the administration (Evans, 2001). Salaries have also been found to be a contentious issue especially in view of the fact that starting salaries for teachers tend to be misleading. When a teacher commences their profession, they are paid more or less the same as many others, however after 10 of 11 years, they reach the top of their salary scale and often run out of options for promotion. This compares negatively with other professions who often have higher salary increases and more chances for promotion in the course of their practice (Hood, 2001). This tends to encourage teacher attraction since 10 years down the line, they realize they cannot get any higher than they are at the moment so they either have to keep teaching at the same level or opt for administrative positions (Whitehead et al., 1999). Teachers also cite the fact that they are not involved in decision making by the administration as cause for attrition (Spear, 2002), this is especially in view of the fact that most of what they teach in class is dictated from above considerably reducing their autonomy (Owen and Davies, 2003). The workload, more so marking is however, the most frequently cited reason for attrition; this is closely followed by the fact that a teacher has a family that they are struggling to find time for. Furthermore, the behavior of students often tends to influence how teachers behave towards, them, for example a teacher dealing with students who display low discipline levels is likely to get stressed and this will invariably affect they capacity to deliver. Barmby (2006) interviewed several teachers in an attempt to find out why they were discontented or would like to leave the profession; he also asked them what changes they would like to see instituted in the same. The most commonly cited response was; less government initiatives, salaries based on performance improved working conditions and more opportunities for progress. However, the most highly rated solutions were a reduction in teacher workload, especially marking and an increase in pupil discipline. Discussion Considering that most of the teachers cited intrinsic motivation for joining the profession, one is tempted to ask why so many of them would want to leave the profession so soon after joining up and why the intrinsic motivation does not appear to encourage them to stay (Hammond, 2002). However irrespective of what made them chose to become teacher, they had expectations of a positive and supportive working environment, in addition, although not motivated by money, it is inevitable that one relates their performance with their compensation and if they are not proportional, it will be evidence that they are not appreciated as professionals (Burns, 2012). Smithers and Robison, (2003) carried out interviews with 102 teachers who had resigned from the profession, they found out that the main factors that would motivate them to go back would be improved pay, student discipline and a reduced workload (not necessarily in that order). Critics may accuse teachers of being unable to control their students hence resulting to low discipline levels, however in contemporary education where student centered teaching emphasized on, the teacher can achieve very little if the students do not cooperate (Evans, 2001). In addition, student have been given considerably more autonomy and avenues for punishment limited so the teacher is often powerless to deal with indiscipline cases which they are in many cases obligated to referred to the dean of principal. Teachers are in many situations forced to operate under highly bureaucratic systems that require considerable paperwork but which fail to acknowledge the needs of the teacher (Whitehead et al., 1999; Lepkwoska, 2012). While applauding the shift of education from teacher centered in to student-centric, it is apparent that teachers stand the risk of being relegated to the peripheral position by a system that is more interested in using their skills and time and is less concerned about their welfare, personal and professional growth. Recommendations and Conclusions The various literature sources discussed for this paper made different recommendation based the approach through which they addressed the issues or their objectives. It is however worth noting that despite the different time and data sources, some of their recommendations were shared which goes to prove that the solutions proffered can apply to a variety of situations. Drawing from, these recommendations and the other information gathered, this paper will also propose as set of its own proposed recommendations towards reducing teacher attrition in the long term. It is incumbent upon the decision makers in the education department to come up with ways to support the intrinsic motivation of teachers so that they do not become disillusioned as soon as they have settled into the profession (Hammond, 2002). Some of the ways through which this can be achieved include; Reviewing the teacher’s terms of services in so as to provide them with opportunities for growth and promotion as well as ensuring that their salaries are competitive. Allowing teachers autonomy that is more professional so they can play a part in decision making in as far as the content and teaching methodologies are concerned Schools need to decisively address the issue of student displace by coming up with more practical ways of correcting unruly behavior or giving teachers more power to discipline and punish students (Carrington and Tomlin 2000); because no teacher likes to work with students who may disobey of even humiliate them The high teacher turnover has resulted in a shortage of teachers and one of the consequences is an increase in the workload especially when they have to mark hundreds of scripts during exam time under a great deal of pressure (Sturman, 2002). This should be addressed by hiring more teachers so that the few already in the field do not leave for being overwhelmed, ultimately this will only be done if the education department follows the aforementioned recommendations so that it can be able to both attract and retain teachers References Barmby, P, W.,2006. Improving teacher recruitment and retention “The importance of workload and pupil behavior” Education Research. 43 (3) 247-265. Burns J. (3 December 2012) “Numbers of teachers who quit up by a fifth in a year” BBC NEWS. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/education-20585457 Carrington, B. and Tomlin, R. 2000. Towards a More Inclusive Profession: teacher recruitment and ethnicity. European Journal of Teacher Education, 23, 139-157. Evans, L., 2001. Delving Deeper into Morale, Job Satisfaction and Motivation among Education Professionals, Educational Management & Administration, 29, 291-306 Grace, G.,1991. 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