TRR0066

Written evidence submitted by Emily MacLeod, PhD Researcher at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education & Society

Introduction

This submission addresses the following questions set by the Committee’s inquiry:

This previously unpublished evidence comes from doctoral research[1] (due to be examined in summer 2023), which uses data tracking young people’s teaching aspirations and career plans from age 10/11 to age 21/22. This submission thus relates specifically to teacher recruitment amongst young people.

Research evidence

The evidence in this submission comes from the first research study to track potential teachers into, or away from, teaching. The data here stem from the ASPIRES research project at IOE, which has tracked young people’s science and career aspirations over 11 years using large-scale national surveys (over 60,000 young people surveyed to date) and longitudinal in-depth interviews (over 700 interviews conducted to date).

The evidence here includes analyses of four national surveys (conducted in 2012/13, 2014/15, 2016/17, and 2020/21) of young people, and analyses of 146 in-depth interviews with 13 young people who were tracked via the ASPIRES project from the age of 10/11 to age 20/21, and whom I interviewed again at age 21/22. All 13 of these young people expressed an aspiration or interest in teaching in at least one of their earlier interviews and were thus considered ‘potential future teachers’. Of these 13 young people, 3 were pursuing teaching by age 21/22 and 10 (5 of whom had an undergraduate degree in science) had decided against teaching by age 21/22.

Research findings and recommendations

What are the main factors leading to difficulties recruiting qualified teachers?

  1. A review of the international literature indicates that relatively little is known about why people do, or do not, become teachers in England.

Currently, the majority of research on teacher recruitment 1) explores current or pre-service teachers’ individual motivations for choosing the profession, and 2) is not specific to England. Existing teachers report joining the profession because they want to work with children and/or help others. Such research fails to tell us why others chose not to teach, and how policies and/or contextual influences in England may influence people’s choice of whether or not to become a teacher.

DfE data indicates that most people who pursue teaching are under the age of 25. The evidence presented here explores who aspires to become a teacher, and whether or not—and why—young people pursue teaching as a first career. This research considering teacher recruitment from the perspective of young people therefore offers a unique perspective from the largest pool of potential future teachers in England.

  1. Data from surveys with over 30,000 young people between the ages of 10/11 and 21/22 indicate that more than one third of young people are open to becoming a teacher. This openness to teaching does not translate into teacher recruitment, which suggests that teaching is a ‘backup’ career aspiration for many young people.

The ASPIRES project asked its survey respondents at ages 13/14, 15/16, 17/18 and 21/22 whether they would like to be a teacher or work with children. Figure 1 shows that, on average, 36% of the 32,139 young people across the four age groups surveyed responded positively to this question.

This evidence suggests that many young people in England are open to teaching. Previous analyses of these data show that young people were more open to teaching than working in the fields of art and design, celebrity, law, inventing, science, sports, medicine, engineering, science, manual trades, and hair and beauty.

Figure 1 Proportion of ASPIRES survey respondents who agreed that they would like to be a teacher or work with children

Although over one third of young people are open to becoming a teacher, this ‘openness’ to teaching is not reflected in teacher recruitment data, which show that the DfE’s postgraduate teacher recruitment target has only been met once since 2015/16.

The reason for this difference between openness to teaching and low teacher recruitment seems to be because teaching is a common ‘backup’ career aspiration; meaning that young people would prefer to try and work in other careers before pursuing teaching.

The finding that teaching is a common ‘backup’ aspiration was not only found in survey data but was also supported by findings from qualitative data tracking 13 young people from age 10/11 to age 21/22 who expressed an interest in becoming a teacher. A key influence upon why teaching is a common ‘backup’ aspiration is that young people perceive Initial Teacher Education (ITE) to be more accessible than entry into other professions (see Finding 3).

  1. Young people who expressed an interest in teaching saw it as a career where they could make a difference, and which was more accessible than other careers. Nevertheless, young people who were interested in teaching were not often aware of different Initial Teacher Education (ITE) routes.

Young people tracked via the ASPIRES project who reported an interest in becoming a teacher often valued that teachers make a difference to the lives of their students. Young people who aspired to teach also valued that teaching is a secure or ‘safe’ career, and viewed teaching as easy to access. The view that teaching is accessible meant that young people thought that they could easily become a teacher if other careers did not work out.

Despite the perception that teaching (and specifically ITE) was easy to access, most young people who were interested in teaching were not aware of all of the different ITE routes available to them. In 2022/2023 there are seven main routes to becoming a qualified teacher in England[2]. However, there are regular policy changes in the teacher recruitment landscape which mean that the number of routes into teaching changes regularly. It can therefore be difficult for potential teachers to keep up to date with all of the different ITE routes available.

  1. Longitudinal analyses suggest that the choice of whether or not to become a teacher is a long-term trajectory influenced by multiple factors.

Analyses of interviews tracking young people interested in teaching between the ages of 10/11 and 21/22 showed that the choice of whether or not to pursue teaching is not a one-off or straightforward decision that can be pinpointed to a specific time and/or influence.

Instead, the choice of whether or not to become a teacher was found to be a long-term ‘trajectory’ which at different times turned towards or away from teaching for each young person. These trajectories were a complex series of choices made over time and informed by multiple factors including young people’s identities (e.g. their gender and ethnicity – see Finding 8), their experiences of school, their experiences of work, their perceptions of teachers’ work, and the other career opportunities that they felt were available to them.

  1. The trajectories of those who became teachers show that long-term support and encouragement from existing teachers can be a key influence upon the choice to pursue teaching.

Two of the three young people tracked since age 10/11 who were pursuing teaching as a first career by age 21/22 received long-term support and encouragement from existing or former teachers (e.g. their own teachers or teaching family members). Analyses suggest that this long-term encouragement from those inside the profession was a significant factor in these young people’s decision to pursue teaching.

However, ongoing teacher retention difficulties cast doubt upon whether there are enough willing ‘insiders’ to teaching to provide the encouragement which may be needed to fuel young people’s trajectories into teaching. For example, the current ‘leavers rate’ in teaching is close to 10% of the profession. And, in recent research published by the DfE, 25% of teachers and school leaders reported that they were considering leaving the profession in the next year for reasons other than retirement.

Which subjects are most affected?

  1. Teacher recruitment in secondary science is especially low. Longitudinal research with science undergraduates who were interested in teaching but had dropped their teaching aspirations by age 21/22 indicates that this may be because teaching is more likely to be a ‘backup’ career aspiration for science specialists.

DfE data show that in the last year only 86% of the new chemistry teachers needed were recruited, only 85% of the new biology teachers needed were recruited, and only 17% of the new physics teachers needed were recruited.

Longitudinal data tracking five young people from the age of 10/11 who went on to pursue science degrees, and who had dropped their earlier interests in teaching by age 21/22, suggest that teaching may be more likely to be a ‘backup’ career (rather than a first-choice career) for science specialists. For example, three of these five science graduates had applied to ITE before dropping their teaching aspiration and pursuing other careers. This was in part because they saw teaching as more accessible than non-teaching science careers. 

  1. Research with science undergraduates who had been interested in teaching but had dropped their teaching aspirations indicates that they did not see science teaching as high in status compared with non-teaching careers in science.

The five science graduates tracked from age 10/11 who had dropped their teaching aspirations by age 21/22 did not they did not see science teaching as high in status. One overarching influence upon this perception is likely to be that all came from economically advantaged and/or middle class backgrounds, as reflects who is likely to pursue science at university.

There were multiple reasons why these science graduates did not see teaching as high in status compared with non-teaching careers. These reasons included;

1)      science graduates expected to do postgraduate study after a science undergraduate degree, and they did not see ITE as equivalent to postgraduate study in science,

2)      science graduates did not think that teaching science offered sufficient opportunity to practice, or work ‘in’, science,

3)      science graduates saw teaching as repetitive and mundane compared with non-teaching science careers which they saw as “cutting-edge”.

All five science graduates also reported that they had not received careers information about becoming a teacher whilst at university. In addition, whilst differences in salaries did inform the view that science teaching is not high in status compared with non-teaching science careers, pay was not the most significant factor in the decision not to teach for any of these five young people.

What particular challenges exist in recruiting teachers from different demographic backgrounds?

  1. Survey responses from with over 30,000 young people between the ages of 10/11 and 21/22 demonstrate that young women are significantly more likely to be open to teaching than young men. The data also show that young people who identify as White are significantly more likely to be open to teaching than those who identify as Minoritized Ethnicities.

According to the DfE’s school workforce data over 75% of England’s teaching workforce identify as women. As shown in Figure 2, this pattern is also reflected in who is open to becoming a teacher. More girls or young women than boys or young men agreed that they would like to be a teacher or work with children at all four ages surveyed between 13/14 and 21/22 for the ASPIRES project. Additional analyses illustrated that girls and young women were significantly more likely to report that they were open to teaching at ages 13/14, 15/16, 17/18 and 21/22 than boys and young men surveyed at the same ages.

Figure 2 Proportion of ASPIRES survey respondents who agreed that they would like to be a teacher or work with children, by gender[1]

DfE data also show that over 90% of England’s teaching workforce identify as White. Figure 3 shows that more young people who identified as White than those who identified as Minoritized Ethnicities[2] agreed that were open to teaching at all four ages surveyed. Analyses also showed that, at ages 13/14, 15/16 and 17/18, respondents who identified as White were significantly more likely than those who identified as Minoritized Ethnicities to be open to teaching.

Figure 3 Proportion of ASPIRES survey respondents who agreed that they would like to be a teacher or work with children, by ethnicity (White v Minoritized Ethnicities [ME])

The statistical significance of these findings show that a young person’s gender and ethnicity act in subtle or ‘invisible’ ways to influence their openness to teaching. The reasons why young people are (not) open to teaching are not purely informed by individual motivations such as wanting to work with children.

What action should the Department take to address the challenges in teacher recruitment?

  1. To encourage more of those who are open to teaching to pursue teaching, the Department should increase teaching careers information, advice and guidance (CIAG) for young people. The evidence presented here suggests that increased CIAG about different ITE routes could support more young people who have teaching as a ‘backup’ aspiration to become teachers.
  2. This research shows that the choice to become a teacher is a long-term trajectory rather than a one-off decision. This finding indicates that CIAG about the teaching profession should not be targeted at only one age group, but should span across secondary, further, and higher education.
  3. These analyses found that a key influence upon some beginning teachers’ decision to teach was the encouragement they received from existing teachers. One implication of this finding is that in order to increase teacher recruitment the Department should take additional steps to increase teacher retention, so that the current workforce can (continue to) encourage future teachers.
  4. To increase science teacher recruitment amongst young people science teaching needs to be seen as high in status compared with non-teaching science careers. This research implies that raising teacher pay may increase the status of teaching, but that pay alone is unlikely to improve science teacher recruitment. The data imply that science graduates may be more likely to consider teaching if: 1) ITE is seen as equivalent to postgraduate study, 2) if science teaching is seen as a role which uses science, and 3) if science teaching is represented as a challenging and varied career.
  5. The data presented indicate that the teaching workforce will continue to remain dominated by those who identify as women and those who identify as White without targeted efforts to change this status quo. Whilst the data show that gender and ethnicity visibly impact teaching aspirations, to diversify the teaching workforce resource should be directed at understanding how gender and ethnicity invisibly influence teaching aspirations and trajectories.

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[1] In Figure 2girl’ is used to refer to those who identified as girls or young women, and ‘boy’ is used to refer to those who identified as boys or young men.

[2] Respondents who identified their ethnicity as Black, South Asian, East Asian, Other, or Mixed are here collectively considered as ‘Minoritized Ethnicities’.


[1] This work has been supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), along with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) [grant number 2229509] and supervised by Professor Louise Archer and Dr Mark Hardman (IOE), and Annette Farrell (RSC).

[2] The current routes into teaching (gaining QTS) are: 1) University-led undergraduate route, 2) University-led postgraduate route, 3) School Direct Unsalaried, 4) School Direct Salaried 5) School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT), 6) Teach First, 7) Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship.

 

April 2023