Tackling the teacher recruitment and retention crisis: lessons for the new government
The teacher recruitment and retention crisis in England will only be addressed by more radical and ambitious government action, two University of Manchester academics have argued in a newly released article based on their own research.
In their piece, published by Policy@Manchester, Dr Louisa Dawes and Professor Andrew Howes welcome the Labour government’s manifesto pledge to recruit an additional 6.500 teachers.
But, underlining the scale of the challenge facing Ministers, they warn that teacher attrition rates in England are currently higher than in comparable countries, with average attrition rates at 9% and trainee numbers in 2023-24 down by a quarter since 2019.
They also highlight the restrictive impact on teachers’ autonomy of “authorised” approaches in classrooms and professional development frameworks.
“Currently, there are threads of conformity wrapped around the education system, restricting opportunity for proactive and responsive actions by teachers and leaders in schools and academy chains,” Dawes and Howes write. “Our research has found that teachers and school leaders are obliged to adhere to generic ‘what works’ evidence-based practice from a limited range of sources, rather than engage in activities based on their own professional judgement and contextualised knowledge of their own students. As a result, children’s and young people’s experience in school is all too often limited, repetitive and uninspiring.”
Their research on the Early Career Framework (ECF) has also uncovered the negative effects of “the narrow ‘one size fits all’ curriculum alongside authorised ‘legitimate’ forms of teaching practices.”
They write: “Our findings indicate a lack of autonomy for those inducting and mentoring teachers in their early career, along with an excessive bureaucratic workload for both mentor and mentee throughout the process. The competing demands of complying with ECF requirements, alongside the complex realities of their specific classroom settings, leads to disenchantment, frustration and burn out.”
The academics caution against the “high-stakes accountability that works in a vice-like manner at all levels of the sector” which, they argue, “has become overburdened and de-professionalised by the unintended consequences of external accountability.”
But they add: “In contrast to centralised accountability systems, University of Manchester researchers have shown how place-based school-led partnerships can foster collective accountability for the learning of all children, reduce the polarisation of schools within a local area, and benefit pupils who are often marginalised at the edges of the system.”
Based on their research, Dawes and Howes offer a series policy recommendations aimed at boosting recruitment and retention rates of teachers.
These include the development and implementation of a new model of external inspection for schools. They explain: “This model should be based on professional dialogue and not rely on the threat or promise of a high-stakes single word judgement or a scorecard, but instead offer a clear, readable narrative describing the school – how the school is placed; the local, regional and national issues the school is addressing; how the school is working; and indications of change and development.”
The authors advocate the rolling out of recruitment campaigns “centred on celebrating and building on the many strengths of the teaching profession across the country.” They add: “The new government should both overhaul recruitment and also demonstrate their commitment to improving areas identified as of concern for teachers’ workload, self-worth and wellbeing.”
And they call for greater investment in professional development for teachers. The academics argue: “The Department for Education should move away from setting expectations of professional development through a centralised framework or thread, and move towards an approach that identifies opportunities for teacher learning in and across schools, working with centres of research and scholarship in universities, and with institutions such as the Chartered College of Teaching.”
‘Re-professionalising teaching: addressing authorisation, accountability and attrition’ by Dr Louisa Dawe and Professor Andrew Howes is available to read on the Policy@Manchester website.