Public Servant Lifestyle

A new book from a leading think tank that looks at ways of replacing the ageing workforce.

From Victims of Change to Agents of Change

The challenge to replace an ageing teaching force is as great as ever, despite a raft of government initiatives, warns a policy thinktank, in a major new book on the future of the teaching profession.

Neither the introduction of extra support staff nor ICT will reduce the future need for teachers. However these new resources will aid pupil achievement and rationalise teacher workload, making the job more attractive.

The new book, From Victims of Change to Agents of Change, is the result of a year-long study of the teaching profession, by leading thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

The book makes a number of recommendations to improve the retention and recruitment of teachers. It suggests that the central imposition and rigorous multiple policing of narrow targets demoralise the profession, and deprive it of the qualified autonomy expected in graduate jobs. The current curriculum and testing regime should be replaced by standards agreed locally between schools and their communities.

“The whole target setting process needs to be reversed," says project leader Joe Hallagarten. "In partnership with pupils, parents, and the wider community, teachers should devise their own priorities and targets, and seek to negotiate with the Government (and in particular the Treasury) on their adoption as public service agreement targets.

"Teachers could be the first to develop a new model for giving public servants and service users ownership of the success criteria by which they are judged. Teachers have felt victims for too long. We want to give them the confidence to discuss the future and help shape it”.

Co-editor Martin Johnson added: “To make the job more attractive, the Government must relax a bit, and restore greater autonomy. It is right to to take action on unnecessary workload and poor pupil behaviour, and improving the management of staff. Then we must target new recruitment pools, such as potential returners, career changers, and under-represented gender, racial and class groups.”

Book Summary

From Victims of Change to Agents of Change is the outcome of a year’s study of the profession led by Joe Hallgarten, research fellow in education, with Martin Johnson, education researcher. Responding to teacher shortage publicity, the project sought to establish an accurate picture of teacher supply, and to answer the question: how can the profession be transformed to improve recruitment, retention, and morale?

Throughout the year, government policy moved continuously to meet the challenges. In November 2001, the Secretary of State accepted that there was a shortfall, and sought to remodel the content of teachers’ work. The Government aims both to resolve the teachers’ workload problem, which is now widely identified as a significant dissatisfying factor, and also to reduce demand for teachers, both by the transfer of some routine aspects of the job to other staff.

The project conclusions, as set out in the opening chapter by Martin Johnson and Joe Hallgarten, would support a description of the above approach as necessary, but insufficient. The authors of the book come to a number of conclusions about likely or desirable trends:

Teachers will lead lessons, other staff will undertake admin and pupil support. However, neither the increase in support staff nor the development of IT will reduce radically the requirement for teachers; these, together with a more appropriate contract, will rationalise teacher workload. Increases in staffing will enable greater flexibility in deployment, but create a challenge for management requiring significant training.

Teachers will be recruited more widely from ‘non-standard’ pools: other school staff, returners, career changers, and under-represented groups.

Central command and control over curriculum and pedagogy, together with excessive and overlapping performance accountabilities, have demoralised teachers. The future teacher must have more autonomy and accountability must be rationalised.

Teachers, working with other stakeholders, should devise Public Service Agreement targets for schools, and negotiate with the Government for their adoption. Teaching must become a learning profession, with professional development both a right and a duty.

Curriculum, standards, and school culture and values should be a matter for negotiation between school staff and the communities they serve. Teachers could become key agents in social and civic regeneration.

Chapter two by Martin Johnson reviews the statistics of recruitment and retention, and the literature around teacher motivation and job satisfaction. Johnson explains why both the number of teachers in post and the number of vacancies are rising quickly and simultaneously. Long-term, recruitment remains a problem. Over the next 15 years, some 45% of teachers reach retirement age. To recruit and retain sufficient teachers, the job must become more attractive, and recruitment methods must become more targeted.

To attract returners and deter leavers, job satisfaction must be improved. Teachers are satisfied by intrinsic features of the job, working with children, working with colleagues, opportunities for creativity and autonomy. Major dissatisfiers must be reduced. In reverse order of importance, these are: public criticism; poor quality management; pupil behaviour; workload. The network of multiple accountabilities must be reviewed in a context of rebalancing central prescription and local initiative.

Pay is not a major factor in the attractiveness of the profession, although it must remain comparable with graduate occupations generally.

In chapter three, Gill Penlington investigates how to encourage returners to the profession. Approximately 40% of the total teaching intake in recent years, 10,700 in 1998-9, has consisted of qualified teachers who have spent a period of time outside the classroom. A sample of teachers on ‘refresher courses’, preparation for re-entry, was surveyed to build a picture of the motivations and characteristics of teacher returners.

Women tend to return to teaching between the ages of 35-49. Over half leave the profession aged 25-34, suggesting that family considerations are influential. Men return over a greater age range, although a comparatively high percentage re-enter teaching aged 45 and over.

Returning teachers have spent an average of 12 years out of the classroom. 35% of women who take a break from teaching become full-time parents. 21% take jobs in education or childcare. Almost a quarter (23%) go straight into business and professional careers. Almost half of male teachers leave the classroom for jobs in the business or scientific sectors. 21% become full-time parents. A pay premium is attached to subject specialism and teaching sector.

Primary teachers who leave the classroom earn less than their secondary counterparts. Science and Maths teachers, meanwhile, earn more in a non-teaching career than their colleagues who taught English or History. 39% of returning teachers took a career break from the classroom because of family considerations. 48% of returning teachers agreed that working in the public sector is important to them. 36% disagreed.

Penlington makes seven policy recommendations to improve recruitment of returners.

In chapter four, Joe Hallgarten and Dara Barlin point out that definitions of ‘supply teacher’ are confused, and need to be settled. Nevertheless, the trend is clear; the numbers of pupil hours taught by supply teachers has increased and this growth is likely to continue. One recruitment analyst estimates that schools are now spending more than £600m annually on supply teachers, including both agency and non-agency teachers. If this estimate is accurate, it would amount to 3.4% of the entire expenditure of LEA maintained schools in England.

Lack of regulation and more flexible working practices give private supply agencies an advantage over LEAs, one which the LEAs seem unlikely to close. Although some LEAs are attempting to reintroduce their supply pools, public private partnerships (PPPs) may be a more realistic way forward, and some LEAs and agencies are already working in this way.

What alternatives to supply teachers are available? Floating teachers, internal teacher cover, or staff without QTS but these need to be properly regulated and qualified. Improvements in the quality, professionalism and retention of the permanent teaching profession needs to be extended to supply teachers. They would also benefit from the extension of CPD opportunities.

Elle Rustique-Forrester and David Haselkorn describe in chapter five the ageing teacher force and increasing pupil numbers in the United States. The number of new teachers prepared in America’s universities and colleges is more than enough to satisfy this demand, but there are too many people seeking jobs in ‘good’ schools with ‘nice’ kids; and too few seeking jobs where the circumstances, particularly the students themselves, are more challenging. Finding a way to attract teacher candidates to places and subjects that aren’t appealing is where the challenge of dealing with teacher shortages really lies.

They describe four strategies for improving recruitment and retention:

1: Recruit teachers aggressively, using a range of incentives. One method is to target and support students at college or even high school.

2: Improve teachers’ salaries, career benefits, and rewards

3: Improved Professional Development

4: Improve teachers’ working conditions in schools

A key lesson from the US is that whilst the pressure for change can be exerted at a national level, the ultimate impetus must come from the ground up. In the US, the assumption underlying most current teacher policy reforms is that national resources and direction are needed. However, there is clear recognition that solutions must be developed locally, professionally supported, teacher-driven and most importantly, sustained by key institutions, such as teacher unions, school districts and teacher preparation programmes. The authors discuss a number of other policy implications for their findings.

In chapter six, Alistair Ross argues that teaching is a profession in which it is particularly important that the workforce across the country represents the full range of ethnic diversity in the country. The character, ubiquity, pervasiveness and duration of school make it particularly important that schools reflect the population of multi-ethnic Britain. Racist and xenophobic attitudes will be more effectively challenged by a professional force that shows in its composition and behaviour that all groups are represented in the teaching profession.

Teachers from the ethnic minorities are certainly under-represented. About 13% of the school population in England are from ethnic minorities. A 1983 survey found 2% of teachers from the ethnic minorities; a 2000 survey (in areas of ethnic minority settlement) found 8.9% ethnic minority teachers.

The TTA reports current recruitment to training courses is 6.7% across England. Higher proportions of ethnic minority students are entering Higher Education than the teaching profession. In the teaching force, ethnic minority teachers are less likely to be in the position of head or deputy than White teachers, even when allowance is made for length of service. Ethnic minority teachers are more likely to be on the basic scale.

There appears to be institutional racism in the promotion of teachers from the ethnic minorities. The systems work in a way that the outcomes are clearly discriminatory. Ethnic minority teachers report examples of racism in their training and in their employment. These include expectations that they should be particularly responsible for dealing with ethnic ‘difficulties’ and issues in pupil behaviour, and that they will specialise in ‘ethnic’ areas of the curriculum.

Thde book recognises a need to recruit ethnic minorities to 15% to 20% of the places for teacher training over a period of a decade or two to address this. Areas where there are many ethnic minority pupils should have a teaching force that reflects their local community, and areas where there are few ethnic minority pupils should have a teaching force that represents the national community. Recommendations cover the ways schools work, and the training, nurturing and promotion of teachers.

Merryn Hutchings argues in chapter seven that increasing the number of men teachers, particularly in primary schools, is important - but not for the reasons often argued. Fewer than 12% of primary class teachers are men. In both primary and secondary schools the proportion of men has decreased by 12% over the last ten years and most men teachers are older, so the situation is set to worsen.

However, there is no evidence to support the general assumption that children, and particularly younger boys, need male role models in class, and there is confusion about what kind of masculinity should be modelled. Indeed, research suggests that pupils value good fair teachers regardless of gender.

The other side of the gender coin is the continuing relative preponderance of men in management positions. In primaries, 41% of heads are men; in secondaries, 16% of experienced men are heads or deputies, but only 9% of experienced women. Men teachers are more ambitious, they are less put off by work-life balance issues, and a career break disadvantages women.

The third prong of the problem is the persistence of gendered subjects in the secondary curriculum. ‘Male subjects’ have more male teachers and higher status. Since these tend to be the shortage subjects, it is impossible to prioritise recruitment by gender.

These three prongs are linked and are all very resistant to change, despite the best efforts of the Teacher Training Agency and others. They contribute to a structure of gender relations in schools which reflect those in society, where working with young children remains ‘womens work’.

Hutchings makes a number of recommendations, concluding that the shortage of male teachers is just one factor within a school culture which must be changed.

In chapter eight, Steve Haines and Joe Hallgarten investigate the propensity of students from ‘elite’ universities to become teachers. Data on the destinations of graduates from the Russell Group universities was collected through their careers’ offices and then compared with data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. PGCE is undertaken by 3.7% of graduates, but only 2.7% of those from the Russell Group. However, there is a large range, with both Oxford and Cambridge falling short of the HESA average by over a half. London universities similarly produce low numbers of teacher trainees.

Turning to the reasons, the authors show that the profession is viewed by many who might otherwise consider it as a career as a low status/low reward occupation. Another possible factor may be that a larger percentage of these students are privately educated and many of these who wish to teach at private schools may not take a PGCE first.

This shortage has impacts on the overall quality of the profession. In addition, it deprives many schools of the school-university networks which can encourage pupils to raise their aspirations and knowledge about elite universities. Haines and Hallgarten make five recommendations to improve recruitment from this source.

In January 2002, IPPR in collaboration with the Future Education Network launched an on-line survey, a ‘call for visions’ on the future of the teaching profession. In chapter nine, Jodie Reed and Joe Hallgarten describe the 500 responses. The majority of respondents were current or former teachers, but some were other school staff, parents, governors and students.

Many respondents painted a picture of a profession in crisis. When questioned on the three most important things which could be done now to transform the teaching profession, the issue of pay was most frequently the first thing mentioned. Many respondents commented on the need to take action on poor working environments, the deluge of paperwork and insufficient non-contact time in which to deal with this paperwork. Frequently respondents did not attribute failings to teachers but laid blame primarily at the government’s door for engendering a collective crisis of confidence. This was seen as both an obstacle to their educational capacities and to their ability to project out a positive image of themselves.

Yet a considerable number of respondents felt that the standing of teaching had turned a corner and was beginning to improve. Some foresaw a rolling back of crisis management and decreased emphasis on mechanisms for testing standards which would have a number of benefits for future teaching. They anticipated a profession that has time to be more child-orientated or even child-led, with time and space for continuing professional development, to enable necessary constant renewal. There were calls for teachers to be empowered to undertake radical curriculum and pedagogical development.

The chapter by Chris Yapp was first published by IPPR in 2001, but remains a stimulating analysis of the impact of ICT on teaching. He describes three key characteristics of the successful deployment of ICT systems. The first is a move from supply-side push to user-pull, so that the needs of pupils will drive schools. Second, there is frequently a move away from the individual to small teamwork: a re-organisation of work. Finally, there is a move increasingly towards fuzzy boundaries instead of silos, so that schools will become interconnected with other institutions in the community. For all these reasons, the equation: New teacher = Old teacher + ICT is a great fallacy.

Yapp suggests that teaching will be developed into a series of teaching roles, with some specialisation. There are great demands on training, with the greatest change in professional development rather than initial teacher training.

In the final chapter, Tony Breslin offers a challenging analysis of the concepts of professionalism. Teachers have been subject to three processes - routinisation, marketisation and casualisation - with an environment characterised by increased surveillance. This has undermined both the perceived public status and the personal self esteem of teachers.

The distinction between ‘professionality’ and ‘professionalism’ is explored. The former relates to ‘a job well done’, the latter to an attitudinal outlook, with its code of ethics, but also with a vulnerability to charges of self-interest. In a society in which professionals are losing their popularity, by clinging to the pursuit of a ‘professional’ identity, teachers themselves may damage rather than enhance their claims for a different status. Instead, the need is to consider new and progressive models of professionalism.

One aspect of the secondary teacher’s professionalism which must be abandoned is the commitment to the ‘subject’. It deskills them and constrains their activity. Schools will move to a less age related, ‘just in time’, graduation based accreditation structure that lays the foundation for learning in later life. Ultimately, it offers some escape from the dominance of a single examination. Teachers must be located as the legitimate experts at the centre of this exercise as facilitators and coordinators, celebrating and supporting their professionalities in the process. Opening up networks, access to support services and parental information systems and the like offers a positive alternative future.

Finally, Breslin discusses the potential for citizenship education to fundamentally change the ethos of the school, both as a community and in the community. As such, the school becomes a different place to teach and to be a teacher.

From Victims of Change to Agents of Change is available now, from the IPPR.

More information available in Careers, Books, Job Centre