Programme "The Great Resignation" - Symposium "Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Attrition: Systemic and/or Individual “Crises”?"

Les chercheur.e.s du programme The Great Resignation porté par le CeDS (UR-7440) ont le plaisir de poursuivre leurs travaux pour l'année 2024-2025 à l'occasion du congrès de la World Education Research Association à Manchester du 10 au 12 septembre. Elle y organise un symposium intitulé:

Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Attrition: Systemic and/or Individual “Crises”?

Across occidental countries, the notion of educational systems in crisis has become prevalent across political, media, and some educational research contexts in reference to growing educational challenges, including those related to educator recruitment, retention, and attrition. “Educational crises” are nothing new, however, crises around teacher recruitment and retention have taken on increased urgency, including in countries for which these issues have not historically been a challenge. This proposed panel brings together researchers from the United States, Britain, and France, countries with distinct histories and challenges related to teacher recruitment and retention to unpack and discuss ideas of “educator crises” across the two contexts. The panel will focus specifically on: 1) (r)evolving notions and definitions of “educational crisis” and “educator crises”; 2) the nature, roots, and development of potential “educator crises” related to teacher recruitment, retention, and attrition; 3) differential individual and systemic vulnerabilities and their relationship to “educator crises”; and 4) the importance of considering individual educators’ identities and experiences in understanding larger systemic crises.

Teacher burnout, with stress, school reform, and deprofessionalization as root causes for attrition, has been a concern in the US for over 25 years (Vandenberghe & Huberman, 1999), particularly for teachers serving racialized and low-income students (Achinstein et al., 2010, Ingersoll et al., 2019). A 2022 survey by the National Education Association indicated that over half of current educators are considering leaving the profession, moving American education towards a crisis point for the educator workforce (Garcia et al., 2022). In the UK, the realities of teacher workload (Perryman & Calvert, 2020) combined increasing accountability through Ofsted have negatively impacted teacher well-being, working conditions and retention (Bousted, 2022). In France, while systemic structures prevent a crisis on a similar scale, a different type of crisis is emerging, one in which the suffering of French teachers in the wake of a set of reforms implemented at a sustained pace over the last 20 years in France, has pushed teachers to petition to leave the profession at exponentially growing rates, with many taking extended medical leaves before being granted the right to leave their posts, without sufficient replacement teachers.

These distinct but important educator crises impact both educational systems and teachers as individuals. On a systemic level, one example of impact is the popularization (across both countries) of alternative forms of “fast-track” teacher certification (which certify teachers sometimes in a matter of weeks) and short-term teaching positions (rather than permanent or tenured positions) as ways to address recruitment issues, leading to deprofessionalisation of teaching. While these types of solutions may initially get more people into teaching, research in the US indicates that long term retention of alternatively certified teachers is worse than that of teachers who are fully certified through traditional teacher education programs (Zhang & Zeller, 2016). Further, non-permanent teaching positions, while providing more flexibility for teachers in highly restrictive teacher attrition countries like France, remove one of the few benefits to teaching (job stability) in the United States.

On an individual level, the impact is striking. In the UK, 76% of survey respondents believed accountability measures negatively impacted teacher retention (and impacted their own well-being) due to “toxic and brutal” demands of inspection. In France, multiple teacher surveys indicate that 93% of teachers believe there to be a “malaise enseignant” (Castets-Fontaine & Tuaillon-Demésy, 2017), a suffering caused by a general lack of consideration for teachers’ professionalism across multiple groups (e.g. parents, politicians, media, administrators) and the psychological “overload” created by repeatedly changing (and increasing) reforms, in France. In the US, 83.5 % of teacher respondents to a survey (N=917) indicated that they have personally experienced mental or physical health challenges that they attribute to their work in teaching (Chopin et al., in press), citing similar stressors including a lack of professional regard and changing reform efforts. For female teachers and teachers from working class backgrounds in France, achieving work-life balance was a greater challenge than for their male or non-working-class colleagues. For racial minority teachers in the US, racialized trauma added an additional layer of stressors to their professional environments.

Based on individual and collective research, the proposed panelists will discuss the similar and diverse challenges faced by the educational system(s) and educators themselves in each country in the face of “educator crises” and how distinct vulnerabilities put some educators (and by extension some groups of students) at greater risk within these particular forms of educational crisis.

References
Achinstein, B., Ogawa, R. T., Sexton, D., & Freitas, C. (2010). Retaining teachers of color: A pressing problem and a potential strategy for “hard-to-staff” schools. Review of Educational Research, 80(1), 71-107.
Bousted, M. (2022). Support not surveillance: How to solve the teacher retention crisis. John Catt.
Castets-Fontaine, B., Tuaillon-Demésy, A. (2017). Le mal-être enseignant en France, Recherches & Éducations, 18, http://journals.openedition.org/rechercheseducations/4338
Chopin, M-P., Croizier, C., Hsieh, B. & Tourneville, J. (in press). Crises et usages de la crise dans l’enseignement: Enjeux d’une comparaison France/ États-Unis. In S-A. Alix (Ed.)
García, E., Kraft, M.A., & Schwartz, H.L. (2022, August 26). Brown Center Chalkboard: Are we at a crisis point with the public teacher workforce? Education scholars share their perspectives. Brookings Institute. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/08/26/are-we-at-a-crisis-point-with-the-public-teacher-workforce-education-scholars-share-their-perspectives/
Ingersoll, R. M., May, H., & Collins, G. (2019). Recruitment, employment, retention and the minority teacher shortage. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27(37), 1-37.
National Education Association (2022, February). Survey: Alarming number of educators may soon leave the profession. https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/survey-alarming-number-educators-may-soon-leave-profession
Perryman, J. & Calvert, G. (2020). What motivates people to teach, and why do they leave? Accountability, performativity, and teacher retention. British Journal of Educational Studies, 68(1), 3-23.
Vandenberghe, R., & Huberman, A. M. (Eds.). (1999). Understanding and preventing teacher burnout: A sourcebook of international research and practice. Cambridge University Press.
Zhang, G., & Zeller, N. (2016). A longitudinal investigation of the relationship between teacher preparation and teacher retention. Teacher Education Quarterly, 43(2), 73-92.