An Evaluation of the Teaching Staff Shortage in London Schools - Essay Example

? An Evaluation of the Teaching Staff Shortage in London Schools Introduction One of the educational problems that have gained remarkable attention over the years is the failure to make sure that elementary and secondary schools are provided with an adequate number of proficient teachers (Smithers and Robinson 2004). There have been mixed results with regards to teacher supply in the United Kingdom. During the past years, there has been a continual lack of teacher recruitment and training although statistics report that majority of schools has adequate numbers of staff members. On one hand, it has appeared that there is a critical issue on recruitment whereas on the other hand, schools may seem very capable of filling vacant job posts. Previous studies indicated that teacher shortages have not been included in actual reports due to the fact that head teachers have been applying a number of strategies that assist them in covering vacant posts (Menter, Hutchings, and Ross 2002). These include reliance on staff members who come from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, increased size of classes, reduction of non-contact time, as well as increased number of teaching staff members who have been asked to teach outside their field, thus a decrease in the compatibility between skills and job. International surveys, such as those of UNESCO, has pointed out that despite the considerable success in the recruitment of new teachers over the past decades, certain factors such as demographic pressures or the unattractiveness of the teaching profession have contributed to the worsening occurrence of teaching staff shortage in numerous countries (Hutchings, Menter, Ross, Thomson, and Bedford 2000). Programs that have been planned to provide education for everyone have been threatened by such teacher shortages, thus the need to further understand and establish effective measures that can address these inadequacies with regards to the provision of quality education. The current study then aims to evaluate the teaching staff shortage that is experienced by schools in London as well as provide recommendations in order to address these deficiencies to ensure that education is successfully provided. Review of Related Literature There has been an increased concern in England as well as in other countries with regards to teacher supply shortages along with the issues on the recruitment and retention of teachers (House of Commons- Education and Skills Committee 2004). For instance, despite a considerable number of 60 million teachers worldwide, there is still a need to employ another 15 to 35 million teachers. Schools have faced considerable shortages in English and Math teachers while there have been a decrease in the number of applicants for teacher training. Teacher applicants for physics, geography, and information and communications technology have also experienced a considerable drop (Eurydice 2002). A large number of studies have primarily delved into the reasons why potential teachers have been attracted to the profession as well as the factors that contribute to their intentions of leaving the profession, including pay and work demands, and turnover patterns (Johnson-Wilder et al 2003). Recent evidence has also associated staffing problems with specific issues that serve as challenges for schools affected, such as the inability of schools to cope with labor market difficulties in order to for them to offer higher wages and attract qualified candidates, the lack of proficient teachers in certain subjects, and the increased number of teachers who are teaching outside of their subjects (Harris and Adams 2007). It has been suggested that institutions for teacher training have not been able to produce adequate numbers of qualified teachers who can met such demands. Other demographic trends, including the increase of student enrollments along with the increased rate of teacher turnover owing to an aging teaching workforce, have also contributed to the school staffing crisis. Owing to the continued shortfall of teachers, many schools have lowered their standards with regards to the filling in of teaching posts, thereby leading to increased levels of underqualified teaching staff and poor school performance (Ingersoll 2001). A number of studies have examined the underlying factors which have contributed to school staffing shortages, such as teacher turnover and job dissatisfaction (Stinebrickner 2001). These have also investigated the kinds of teachers that were more likely to leave the teaching profession. Results have indicated the relationship between the turnover intentions of teachers and their individual characteristics. Turnover has also been influenced by the academic field with which mathematics, science, and special education, have been shown to be the fields with the highest rate of teacher turnover. The decisions of teachers to leave or stay in the teaching profession can also be affected by their age; for instance, younger teachers were found to have higher rates of turnover. Through the middle period of their career, departure rates decrease although these significantly increase during the retirement years. Additionally, there are a larger number of older teachers compared to younger ones; thus, it has been suggested that teacher turnover/departure is caused by a rapidly “graying” teaching force that directly influences school staffing problems (Smith and Ingersoll 2003). Other causes identified include ineffective leadership styles, dissatisfaction with students, inadequate teaching resources, the overall teaching environment, and personal reasons, including family moves and health problems Ingersoll 2001). Nonetheless, the government in England has attempted to invest in certain strategies that have been established to enhance the recruitment and retention of strategies, such as tuition fee remission, training bursaries, increased payments, and diversified routes for teaching (Figlio 1997; Edmonds, Sharp, and Benefield 2002). The government has also still strongly suggested that teacher recruitment and retention be closely monitored to ensure effective outcomes. Methodology The current study will make use of a qualitative approach to research in order to achieve its primary aims, that is to evaluate the staff shortage in London schools as well provide recommendations to increase the insufficient number of teachers in these schools. The qualitative approach makes use of qualitative information with which majority of information can be gathered from the researcher himself with the use of interviews, focused group discussions, and other methods as well (Denzin and Lincoln 2001). Upon using this approach, the results of a research will generate a narrative report that includes a description of the surrounding conditions as well as direct quotations that have been obtained from the research material. Qualitative research assumes a scientific method with which conclusions are drawn from observations. A descriptive research design will be used for the study with which the main focus is to explore a certain observable phenomenon (Creswell 2003) which, in the current study, is the shortage of teaching staff in London schools. Although it follows a simple process, this design requires that the researcher exemplifies remarkable scientific skills, especially in observing and interpreting data. Due to the fact that a descriptive research design is structured and inflexible, it is of great importance that the research problems, data gathering procedures, and type of data gathered are consistent. As cause-and-effect relationships cannot be identified by a descriptive research design, it is limited to describing events, phenomenon or characteristics of individuals. Data gathering procedures was first carried out by collecting relevant secondary data from available literature which included existing journals, books, administrative records, and official statistics. For selecting the sample, 5 London schools were contacted by the researcher to in order to find interested participants. 3 of these were private schools, including Westminster School, Francis Holland School, and Dallington School whereas the other two were public schools, namely Herbert Morrison Primary School and Notre Dame High School. Through a purposive sampling procedure, 10 representatives, 2 from each school, were selected in order to go through interviews which are the primary means of gathering data. The participants who have been chosen have been in the teaching profession for 5 years or more in order to have a more comprehensive view on their experiences with the school. Moreover, they should be school administrators (e.g. principals and vice-principals) who have witnessed the fluctuation of the number of teachers in their schools and have associated such increase and decrease to a wide range of factors. The establishment of trust with the participants was of great importance to the researcher; thus, a consent form was provided to prove their readiness to participate in the study. The qualitative data gathered through the interviews during the research process will be analyzed through a thematic analysis with the findings being analyzed according to themes. The analysis of data may tend to be a continuing process which can also have effect during the actual process of gathering data. The researcher will consequently reflect on the themes which may come about during data gathering, and allow opportunities for modifying the methods if required. Results and Discussion The following sections will then present the findings that the interviews have brought about in relation to the main research objective, which is to evaluate the staff shortages experienced by schools in London. Five themes have been identified with regards to the factors that may contribute to staff shortages- school support, student behavior, salary, school environment, and personal issues. In terms of school support, all of the representatives from private schools along with 2 public school representatives acknowledged their schools’ attempts in providing support for teachers while the other 2 participants from public schools admitted their lack of support and influence on teachers. According to the responses: “We provide our teaching workforce with the necessary learning and mentoring opportunities for every member to learn from experience. As a form of training, the teaching staff can be influenced in a positive way that they will be motivated to teach and learn at the same time. This, I believe, is a very important factor to consider in retaining teachers, especially younger ones”. “Admittedly, there is certainly a lack of administrative support in our school which can be significantly linked to the decrease of staff members and lack of applicants. We have not been able to employ effective leadership styles that can serve as both a guide and inspiration to our teaching staff”. Student behavior was also considered to be factor for influencing staff shortages; all of the public school representatives along with 4 private school representatives agreed that student behavior has negatively affected their teachers’ performance and intentions. Their responses included: “In public schools, we deal with a wide range of students who come from various backgrounds, thus differences exist among them. These differences bring about discrimination and wrong judgment, which have been continuously reported as a stressor to students and teachers alike. Students are more prone to exhibiting violent and unfavorable behavior that contributes to unlikeable experiences especially to the staff members”. “Private schools have been viewed as having a more conservative environment in which students are expected to establish strong and positive relationships with their peers and teachers. However, that may not always be the case and the opposite may often occur with which misbehavior of students can consequently bring about adverse outcomes on their performance as well as on the wellbeing of their teachers”. Salary was also pointed out to be an important factor that can influence the intentions and actual departure of teachers from a certain school or from the teaching profession itself. All of the private and public school representatives agreed that income is an important consideration. According to their responses: “Salaries are a means of rewarding teachers with the commitment that they have towards providing learning and education for students. With an increase in salaries, many teachers can be expected to remain and teach; I think this has been one of our most effective strategies in retaining many members of our teaching force”. Another factor that was considered was school environment that included the available materials and resources, school policies, and curriculum for the students. Only the private school representatives stated the effectiveness of their environment as opposed to public school representatives who were not able to establish a dynamic and strong environment for their staff. “We have a firm control over the selection of textbooks and learning materials along with the topics and content that students should be learning. Managing and facilitating these components can have a favorable impact on the teachers’ experience in providing education”. “You can often expect large class sizes and unsafe environments in public schools; teachers also have inadequate time in preparing and teaching. Because of these, it is most likely that they lose the motivation to teach and switch to another school or even profession”. Finally, personal issues were also viewed as a contributing factor to staffing problems with which a number of individual concerns may influence intentions to depart from teaching. According to the responses of the school representatives who all agreed that personal issues were a significant factor: “Family moves, health issues, influences of spouses and other family members- these are just several reasons as to why teachers switch schools or profession. Many of them have indicated these inevitable factors that should be considered in relation to their teaching departure”. On the whole, the primary findings of the current study based on the interviews highlighted the similarities and differences between public and private schools in relation to the factors that contribute to staff shortages. While both schools may have associated the number and proficiency of their teachers due to personal issues, salary, and student behavior, the effectiveness of their school support and school environment significantly differed. As indicated by previous studies, shortage of school teachers can be brought about by job dissatisfaction owing to various factors (Stinebrickner 2001) such as the inappropriateness of leadership styles among school administrators. They may also be dissatisfied with the behavior and performance of their students, feel insecure of their teaching environment, or perceive inadequacies in learning materials and facilities. Teachers’ intentions and decisions of changing schools or professions have often been associated with their dissatisfaction in these factors that can consequently have an adverse impact on their motivation to teach. Personal and family concerns have also been considered as unavoidable issues that can affect teacher turnover (Ingersoll 2001). Due to such occurrences, the government of England has provided various strategies that have been primarily created to ensure the proper recruitment and enhanced retention of school teachers, such as increased salaries, financial assistance for training, or expansion of teaching routes (Figlio 1997; Edmonds et al 2002). Furthermore, regular evaluation of the ways with which staff turnover in schools increase or decrease should be carried out. Conclusion and Recommendations Private and public schools in London have experienced considerable shortages in their teaching workforce which have been attributed to various concerns. Teachers can either be motivated or discouraged to provide education and learning to students based on a number of factors, including their perceived support from the administration, the overall environment that they are working in, the salary they receive in exchange for their performance, the behavior of students, as well as personal issues. These can all influence the ways with which teachers view their profession as meaningful and valuable and, thus, affect their intentions and decisions for voluntary turnover. Furthermore, owing to the fact that many proficient and competent teachers have either been switching schools or professions, the need to recruit and retain highly capable teachers have become a very important matter for public and private schools in London. Increasing the school’s support and attention towards their staff members should also be demonstrated along with the implementation of strategies that can enhance facilities and teaching performance. Values should also be taught to students by both the school and their families to ensure that these young individuals exemplify favorable behavior towards their peers and teachers. School safety and discipline along with a more professional environment that employs strategies for empowering teachers and boosting their morale may have a positive impact on their recruitment and retention among public and private schools. Future studies should also look into more specific factors that can be experienced by teachers in the primary, secondary, and college level as well, such as racial discrimination or academic field preferences; differences in terms of geographic locations (suburban versus metropolitan schools) or the impact of teachers’ age and gender can also be explored. References Creswell, JW 2003, Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. Denzin, NK, and Lincoln, YS 2000, Handbook of qualitative research ( 2nd ed.), Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. Edmonds, S, Sharp, C, and Benefield, P 2002, Recruitment to and retention on initial teacher training: a systematic review, Available at: http://www.tda.gov.uk/upload/resources/doc/n/nfer-review.doc Eurydice 2002, The Teaching Profession Europe: profile, trends and concerns. Report II. Teacher supply and demand at general lower secondary education, Eurydice European Unit, Brussells. Figlio, DN 1997, Teacher salaries and teacher quality, Economics Letters, vol. 55, pp. 267–271. House of Commons. Education and Skills Committee 2004, Secondary Education: Teacher Retention and Recruitment. Fifth Report of Session 2003-04. Volume I: Report, Together with Formal Minutes (HC: 1057-1), Available at: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sysfiles/Education/documents/2004/09/21/FinalReport.pdf Harris, D, and Adams, S 2007, Understanding the level and causes of teacher turnover: A comparison with other professions, Economics of Education Review, vol. 26, pp. 325–337. 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