Teacher training admissions should be revised to ensure graduates from a wider range of backgrounds can teach shortage subjects like maths, according to the latest research.
The suggestion comes as England’s schools face severe teacher shortages. Labour has pledged to provide 6,500 extra teachers.
One measure to tackle the shortage would be if government and Initial Teacher Training (ITT) providers widen the pool of candidates for shortage subjects, says Jack Worth, school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).
This would apply to candidates who meet other selection criteria and can demonstrate good subject knowledge, Mr Worth says in a blog examining teaching workforce trends.
However, he concedes that “relevant subject knowledge may not be directly obvious from the degree subject they hold”, potentially making it challenging for ITT admissions staff to assess.
“For example, the quantitative content of a psychology degree is likely to be highly variable, but some applicants may have acquired enough knowledge to be good maths teachers.”
Modest growth over a decade
Graduate numbers in the feeder subjects for four Stem (science, technology engineering and maths) shortage subjects - physics, maths, chemistry and computing - have grown modestly since 2014-15, the blog states.
Graduate numbers in the feeder subjects for physics, maths and chemistry teaching rose by between 5 and 8 per cent between 2014-15 and 2022-23, while the number of graduates in feeder subjects for computing teaching rose by 27 per cent.
“This suggests that the pool of potential graduates has not shrunk for these subjects, implying that this is not an explanation for the recruitment difficulties in these subjects.”
He suggests a focus for policy attention should be degree subjects that are large and growing, but where there is currently a low relative likelihood of entering teaching.
For example, attracting more business graduates from quantitative disciplines such as accounting and finance could contribute to filling maths teacher shortages, he suggests.
Likewise, engineering is a large degree subject, has grown in recent years and is a key feeder subject for physics.
The Department for Education recently launched a pilot aimed at attracting more engineers into physics teaching on the basis that the subject background is similar, but not many engineering graduates tend to become teachers.
The NFER analysis finds that 18 per cent of physics teachers have an engineering degree, suggesting that it is already a good source of potential teachers.
However, engineering is also a considerable feeder subject for maths teaching: 45 per cent of the engineers who become teachers teach maths. “Driving harder to attract engineering graduates into teaching could therefore benefit maths as well as physics,” Mr Worth writes.
Supporting teachers to gain more subject knowledge
Enabling teachers to gain further subject knowledge as they train should also be supported with funded subject knowledge enhancement courses.
Mr Worth says that the government and ITT providers should consider how courses are marketed to ensure “that students on a wide range of degree courses, with relevant subject knowledge for shortage ITT subjects, are made aware of the attractiveness of a route into teaching”.
He adds: “ITT providers may gain some benefit from establishing links with key university departments in non-ITT subjects, which could generate new pathways for interested graduates.”
Responding to the blog, Ian Hartwright, head of policy at the school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “It is worrying that severe difficulties in recruiting teachers exist even in subjects which are growing in popularity among university undergraduates.”
The challenge for the new government is to “better tap” this potential source of recruits, he said.
Emma Hollis, chief executive of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers, said ITT providers are always open to supporting applicants from a range of backgrounds.
The report highlights a “common challenge” in candidate selection: the variability of course content across undergraduate programmes, “which can then mean it is difficult to identify the quantity of relevant content that a candidate has engaged with”.
This also has implications for where subject knowledge enhancement funding can best be channelled. Ms Hollis said candidates with similar degrees from different universities may benefit from differing levels of additional support, depending on the content of their degree.
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
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