When we think of all the heavy burdens weighing down our teachers - everything from the latest systemic change, to meeting professional teaching standards, to an ever-increasing administrational workload - it’s no wonder they feel overwhelmed, with some choosing to leave the profession for good.
How do we tackle this crisis? After all, our students’ failure and lack of opportunities will be the consequence if we fail to act.
Perhaps the TV adverts promoting the profession hold the key - not because they help attract new teachers into the profession but because they show us what the job should be, even if the reality is somewhat different.
We’ve all seen the advertisements promoting teaching as a career. The teacher - we’ll call him Mr Davidson - proudly scribes his name across a whiteboard before an eager and impressionable class of children. Then up pops the inspirational message, usually something along the lines of “Change their future; grow their minds: teach!”
Now, if that doesn’t capture hearts and minds, then I can’t think what will - and lots of teachers are desperate to believe that the advert is a true representation of the impact they can have on humanity. They still cling to the belief that teaching is a calling, not just another purposeless, operational job.
But too many times, a teacher’s first day at a school consists of health and safety handbooks and suites of prescribed lesson plans. They are greeted by friendly faces but they also have to instantly grapple with a fearsome pile of policies, progress report templates and spreadsheets.
The upshot is that before the new aspirational and purpose-driven teacher meets their students, they are already terrified that they won’t be able to keep up with the bureaucratic demands and deadlines of the job.
The solution? Follow through on the advert.
There’s no depute headteacher standing in the corner of the classroom in the television advert. There’s no school inspector looking down through the hallway. There’s just Mr Davidson taking full ownership of the classroom, making his students aware of all that he has to offer: top-class pedagogy, support and opportunity.
Mr Davidson speaks with passion and delivers with authority. He believes that his school leaders trust him and will do whatever it takes to help him shape his practice to change lives and open doors for students.
We school leaders must empower our teachers. We must support and challenge them to become the best they can be. Outstanding continuing professional development, robust and reliable self-evaluation and, most of all, the space and opportunity to grow are the ingredients that will ensure our teachers bring their A-game to work everyday.
Then, and only then, will we again hear the chat in the staffroom about the huge sense of satisfaction a teacher gets from playing a part in shaping young lives.
Ed Carlin is a depute headteacher working in a secondary in the north east of Scotland
