What would you like to research about education, so that you could make ‘teaching’ a better place?
From 2017 to May 2019, over 8,900 academic articles were published on ‘teacher attrition in England’, yet we still haven’t found the solution. Teacher applications are down, recruitment targets have been missed for a sixth year and next month, I suspect more teachers will leave teaching for a second year in a row.
These are a number of specific research questions I would pose to the Department for Education regarding teacher retention – here are a small sample that features in my new book, Just Great Teaching, published in September 2019.
- Do teachers leave the profession after a school inspection?
- Do we know if the current inspection framework is applied fairly to all schools?
- Why are so many qualified teachers not teaching in schools?
- Why are there not enough headteachers?
- Why is diversity seriously lacking in the workforce?
- Why does the fifth largest economy in the world a) have 4 million children living in poverty and b) not have enough doctors, teachers and police?
- What can cognitive science and neuroscientific developments tell us about effective teaching approaches?
- How could these techniques then go on to improve teacher wellbeing?
- Could a cross-political party be created to protect education policy? If so, how could it operate?
More importantly, how do we find these answers so that we can design a better solution for teachers, parents and our students. My new book tackles some of those issues listed and offers a range of solutions from some of our schools getting it right …
I do wonder with the rise in technology, teachers can now ‘teach in other ways’ and make a living …
