TTR0088

Written evidence submitted by Dr Kathryn Spicksley, University of Birmingham and Professor Alison Kington, University of Worcester

Author information

Dr Kathryn Spicksley

University of Birmingham

Kathryn is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Her current project is focused on the Early Career Framework. Using innovative methodologies borrowed from corpus linguistics, Kathryn is developing a gamified mentoring intervention to support and extend dialogue on professional identity between new teachers and those supporting them in schools and universities.

Professor Alison Kington

University of Worcester

Alison is Professor in Psychology of Education and Lead for the Social Psychology of Education Research Group at the University of Worcester. Her research, which is cross-disciplinary in its theoretical and methodological approaches, focuses on the nature, quality and dynamics of educational relationships and identities. Alison has a particular interest in the influence of teacher and pupil characteristics on social interactions within the classroom.

Summary

Research which has informed government policy on promoting teacher retention has focused primarily on what causes teachers to leave, rather than what sustains teachers in the profession. In our response to this timely and important call for evidence, we:

• Identify two sustaining factors for teachers - the construction of a positive professional identity as a classroom teacher, and the development of supportive relationships with colleagues - which can enable teachers to maintain motivation and commitment during challenging times;
• We highlight stories of individual teachers who have managed to sustain commitment in the profession, illustrating how these sustaining factors can have a positive impact on teacher retention;
• We make three key recommendations on how to improve existing frameworks and legislation in order to raise awareness of the importance of these two sustaining factors, and to position them as more central to teachers’ continuing professional development.

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

Recent policy responses to the teacher retention and recruitment crisis have addressed three main issues: 

•       Workload (for example, the 2014 Workload Challenge); 
• Pay (for example, the Government’s commitment to increasing starting salaries to £30,000 by 2024); 
• Support for ECTs to improve their skills and knowledge (through the Early Career Framework). 

Such initiatives are welcome and indicate that the Government is responsive to teacher supply issues, and committed to improving the working lives of teachers (and particularly those new to the profession). In particular, we feel that the Early Career Framework (ECF) has a great deal of potential, given the well-known issue of ‘praxis-shock’ amongst new teachers and long-standing concerns about the variability of provision for Newly-Qualified Teachers (NQTs). However, these initiatives have not fully accounted for the fundamental role of school-based, context-specific factors which are critical to the recruitment and retention of staff. 

Qualitative findings drawn from several interlinked research projects we have conducted indicate two significant (but often neglected) issues within education policy, which have an impact on teacher recruitment and retention:

•       Supportive peer relationships amongst teachers;
•       The development of a positive professional identity.  

We refer to these two issues in our response to the present call for evidence as sustaining factors.

Supportive peer relationships amongst teachers are regularly highlighted in qualitative research studies as a factor which enable teachers to sustain their commitment, particularly during challenging times. This was evident in a recent research study we conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, which indicated that teachers who developed a collective self-identity with teaching peers were more likely to respond positively and with resilience to the crisis.

Research conducted in Australia has highlighted how ECTs who are able to construct and maintain a robust sense of professional identity are more likely to remain resilient despite the challenges they face as beginning teachers. This aligns with our research which indicated that ECTs work hard to discursively negotiate the structural conditions around them, in order to present a positive professional identity as a new teacher. Our research indicated how central constructing a positive sense of self as a teacher was to ECTs.

The importance of these two sustaining factors is illustrated in the following stories of two ECTs, who we call Julia and Isabella.[i]

Sustaining factors in education policy post-2010

Despite these key sustaining factors having a significant impact on teachers’ working lives, and on their capacity to remain committed to the profession, it is rare to find them explicitly discussed by policymakers with regard to recruitment and retention. This is well illustrated by a content analysis we conducted in 2019 of several key policy documents (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Content analysis showing frequency of key social actors in post-2010 education policy documents

As Figure 1 shows, teachers are the social actors most frequently discussed in these policy documents. It is notable that terms like colleague(s), peer(s), and mentor(s) enter policy discussions in these documents far less frequently. We recognise mentoring has recently received more attention as a result of the ECF and changes in ITT. However, we feel it is important to recognise how the absence of terms such as colleague, peer and mentor indicate the paucity of attention paid to collegial relationships between teachers in education policy over the past 13 years.

Our analysis of post-2010 education policy has also shed light on why some ECTs may find it difficult to develop a positive sense of professional identity as a classroom teacher. Around the publication of the White Paper The Importance of Teaching, high expectations were placed upon ECTs, who were positioned as a panacea for educational underperformance in England. In contrast, experienced teachers were often constructed as having limited agency. Policy constructions of the dynamic young teacher may cause some ECTs to develop unrealistic expectations of what they can achieve in their first few years in the classroom. Negative constructions of experienced teachers may contribute to a belief amongst ECTs that they need to quickly climb up the career ladder in order to retain professional value. In a research study we conducted in primary academy schools, one teacher told us that she didn’t want to ‘be, you know, just a classroom teacher forever’, indicating the perceived low status of remaining in the classroom. Another ECT told us ‘I’m biding my time in the classroom I don’t see myself in the classroom forever – in the space of five years my ambition is to be Senior Leader, Headteacher.’ These career progression expectations held by ECTs appeared to have a negative impact on teacher retention in the school, with their Headteacher saying that ‘we try and retain here by giving opportunities but sometimes you can only have so many deputy heads!’

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

Previous government initiatives to improve teacher retention and recruitment have not attended in enough detail to the two sustaining factors we have discussed in this document. Both sustaining factors encompass significant aspects of teachers’ working lives and have the potential to impact on teachers’ retention decisions. We therefore propose three key recommendations to better foreground the importance of these two sustaining factors within the teaching community.

Given the economic challenges which are currently being experienced, we have made three recommendations which can be built into existing frameworks and legislation, thereby providing a financially considered and cost-effective response to the teacher retention crisis.

Recommendation 1: Revise Standard 8 of the Teachers’ Standards to foreground the importance of professional identity and collegial relationships

Standard 8 requires that teachers ‘develop effective professional relationships with colleagues, knowing how and when to draw on specialist advice and support.’ We recommend that this standard be revised to reflect the importance of developing supportive and trusting relationships with colleagues, recognising that sustaining relationships between teachers in schools are often reciprocal rather than instrumental.

The Teachers Standards currently have no specific reference to the development of a robust professional identity. We recommend that this standard is revised to include reference to the importance of developing a strong sense of purpose and commitment, informed by biographical, social and cultural influences.

Including these two sustaining factors within the Teachers Standards will ensure that they receive increased attention within schools and teacher training providers.

Recommendation 2: Embed knowledge and best practice around professional identity and relationships through the ‘golden thread’ of the Core Content Framework (CCF), Early Career Framework (ECF), and relevant National Professional Qualifications (NPQs).

We recommend that statutory materials to support trainee teachers and ECTs should be revised to reflect the importance of developing a) a robust professional identity and b) supportive relationships with colleagues.

The evidence base which supports guidance associated with Standard 8 should be updated and revised to include peer-reviewed research which provides evidence around the importance of the two sustaining factors previously discussed. Evidence on the mentoring of ECTs should reflect a diversity of mentoring approaches, including dialogic approaches (such as Hobson’s ONSIDE Framework). Currently, the evidence base provided for Standard 8 in the ECF highlights Instructional Coaching, a directive approach which we are concerned may not provide the best atmosphere to encourage honest and meaningful dialogue between teaching peers.

There appear to be growing concerns amongst school leaders and education researchers that the ECF appears to be replicating the content of the CCF - albeit in a different format - thereby significantly increasing ECTs’ workload for limited benefit. This is unlikely to have a positive impact on teacher retention in the long term. We recommend reviewing the ECF content so that ECTs are provided with new knowledge and skills that will help them to maintain commitment and motivation in the profession. Such content could include an introduction to Critical Language Awareness, which has a history of being used within Initial Teacher Training to raise new teachers’ awareness of the impact of language. Introducing ECTs to Critical Language Awareness would provide them with skills to navigate negative language around the teaching profession, which may cause damage to their developing professional identity.

Recommendation 3: Change the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 to include a requirement that schools provide a communal space for school staff

We strongly recommend that school leaders provide a communal space for school staff, for example, a staffroom. This space should be intended to facilitate informal social interaction amongst staff, encouraging the development of supportive relationships amongst colleagues. We note a recent trend in school leadership and management (particularly in the academy sector) around removing staffrooms in schools. The removal of staffrooms is undertaken in the belief that this will increase the productivity of staff, and to minimise the development of ‘cliques’ amongst different staff groups. However, removing the staff room has the effect of limiting interaction between staff, thereby damaging relationships between colleagues. Furthermore, removing staffrooms sets the expectation that teachers are expected to work throughout the day without taking up the rest breaks they are legally entitled to if they are working for longer than 6 hours in a day. Providing a dedicated, socially-oriented space for teachers to take a break and interact with colleagues is therefore important in safeguarding teachers’ health and wellbeing, alongside facilitating dialogic interaction between colleagues.

We are aware that some schools may not be able to provide a permanent, dedicated staffroom, but in these cases arrangements should be made to ensure that staff are provided with a space to relax and meet colleagues in an informal setting. This could involve, for example, repurposing another area for set times during a lunch break, or during set times during the week when teachers and other staff are encouraged to rest, socialise and interact with other colleagues.