Reaching Your Peak: will you stay long enough to find out how good a teacher you could be?

The rate of early departures from teaching in England are a regular cause for concern in the press. Most of the news stories – and accounts of research – place the drop-out rate at between 40% and 50%, depending on the year, the rigor of the source and the desired slant (Busby, 2016)

Where there is more agreement is the point at which teachers actually leave the profession. The most common departure time is the period between the end of the initial period and the arrival at a comfortable (and perhaps resigned) plateau of performance – which may happen, for example, if the need to support a young family provides a very strong external incentive to “put up and shut up”.

But this need not be the case. I spent 34 years as a teacher and deputy head, only becoming a university lecturer for the last few years of my career. What follows is a mix of personal experience, research evidence and conversations with post-graduate students, most of them practicing teachers in England and across the world.

In its simplest form, teaching has always been a lonely profession. Although Eraut (1994) describes teaching as a “performance profession”, teachers do not work alongside their colleagues, as do actors and musicians. It is still, by and large, a solitary workplace (apart from the ever present “audience” of pupils, of course). So what might this mean, for the newly qualified teacher?

During the initial training phase, the learner-teacher is constantly accompanied, observed and mentored. Their classroom is nearly always shared with other, better qualified, professionals. Once qualified, there is often – and inevitably, given the enormous demands on school management structures – a withdrawal of this support structure. Some enlightened schools will retain a “recently qualified” support system, but often the teacher is out on their own. Small wonder that teachers talk “shop” so much – how else can you be reassured that your tales of the classroom are falling within the professional norms?

This isolation is penetrated of course, but by “leadership walks”, mock inspections and a constant stream of reminders and improvement initiatives from the school leadership team or from a more distant academy head office, local authority of government department. It is suddenly impersonal, remote and, as a result, distancing in its effect.

Happily, there are a few ideas and suggestions that may help:

– Teaching is, by its nature, a job that will never ever be finished. However hard or long the individual teacher works, there will always be more to do. This, although depressing at first reading, provides a great incentive for every teacher to practice and develop the art of the possible, by strictly prioritizing the necessary. Why trek home with airline pilot style bags stuffed with work, which is brought back in the morning, often unopened? This is, in effect, just actualizing your guilt. A new teacher should work very hard at creating space by being realistic about their own capability and being forensic in their analysis of the work load.

– Some of this space needs to be used on retaining enthusiasm – mainly by getting into some form of useful professional learning (Hargreaves and Preece, 2014). This need not be exclusively formalized, accredited courses, valuable though they are. Just spending time to keep up to date with developments in your subject (in gene theory for example, if you are a teacher of Biology) is quite easily acquired online through sites that will “push” information to your inbox – avoiding the need to keep having to remember to search – will keep classroom teaching (and the teacher) relevant and interesting.

– In terms of the isolation, professional conversations beyond the school are vitally important (Hargreaves, 2014). Teachers (who may also be part-time students) gathering to share their experience and question them in a non-threatening – and genuinely enquiring) environment were often visibly challenged and also inspired to take action as a result of these discussion. Adding an international mix to the group of teachers makes for an even sharper focus. It is most instructive to hear and see the reaction of English teachers upon hearing from teachers from other regions across the world. Suddenly, their experience is not necessarily the most depressing or extreme example in the room.

It is possible, of course, for external help to be given in support of this idea. Scotland has for many years been noticeably ahead of England in its approach to teacher development (Menter and Hulme, 2012). Recently, the Teaching Council in Scotland has introduced the idea and expectation that every practicing teacher should maintain a personal portfolio of their own professional learning. This may seem a punitive measure, to a teacher in England, but it is indicative of the value that government, headteachers, unions and universities in Scotland place on professional learning and on the continued engagement of its teaching force.

And when should teacher start this practice? Key work in the Vitae project (Day and Gu, 2007) suggests that well before the fifth year as a qualified teacher is the best time to start (or continue) on a life-long professional learning path. Reviving interest in the profession and occasionally taking the time to raise your gaze from the local and lonely towards a reminder of the greater ideals that brought so many of us into this work has the potential to revive determination and support retention.

References

BUSBY, 2016, Overworked, overtired and over here – but not for long, TES, 22 January

DAY, C. & GU, Q. 2007. Variations in the conditions for teachers’ professional learning and development: sustaining commitment and effectiveness over a career. Oxford Review of Education, 33, 423-443.

ERAUT, M. 1994. Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence, London, Falmer.

HARGREAVES, E. & PREECE, S. 2014. The value of the personal in teachers’ professional learning: a case study. Professional Development in Education, 40, 130-146.

MENTER, I. & HULME, M. 2012. Teacher education in Scotland – riding out the recession? Educational Research, 54, 149-160.

Author

Bob Burstow

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