Three years ago, I had a problem. I had been a primary school teacher for four years before taking two years away from the classroom to care for my children and begin studying for a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education.
When I was ready to return to work, I knew that it wouldn’t be feasible to do so full time. Anecdotally, I knew plenty of colleagues who had jobshares - indeed Department for Education research shows that one in four primary teachers work part time. I thought it would be pretty easy to find a jobshare that fitted in around my responsibilities as a parent, and believed that, despite my time out of the classroom, I could show how I’d continued to develop my skills. How wrong I was.
Part-time jobs were few and far between. Once I started chatting to teachers in the area I was told they were “gold dust” or that I would need to do supply work or volunteer in a school to “get my foot in the door”. I applied for the few jobs advertised but was not even shortlisted. I was told, anecdotally, that was because I wasn’t known by the school.
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A role came up in a school I knew well and had done my training at. After being asked to apply I was not even shortlisted, and after requesting feedback the response was that I didn’t have enough experience.
My self-esteem took a huge knock. I began to question all the excellent lesson observations and feedback I’d had in my career and couldn’t understand why, if there was a national teacher shortage, I could not get work.
This experience always stayed with me, and when it came to choosing a research topic for my master’s degree, I decided to examine the experience of primary school teachers who jobshare. I spoke to seven teachers from five schools and I found that, like me, many primary teachers want flexible working: and more often than not, they want to do this through a jobshare. But, it seems that the desire from leaders isn’t there.
Wider research tells us that this is a common issue. A report published by Timewise in 2019, found that one of the biggest barriers to implementing flexible working in the teaching profession is the attitude of leaders.
So why do teachers want to jobshare? The reasons are varied and include having caring commitments (young children or elderly parents), nearing retirement, pursuing other voluntary work or undertaking further study.
Sustainable career
Many of those I spoke to suggested that their jobshare was the key to a sustainable career in teaching.
“The only reason that I’m still teaching now is because I’ve been part-time for quite a long time,” one teacher told me.
Participants felt that workload and other pressures meant that unless they were part-time, teaching was not a job they could sustain until retirement.
Working in a jobshare can ensure teachers stay in a profession they love, and balance it better with other commitments. If managed well it can reduce workload, develop teachers’ practice by sharing two sets of skills, expertise and experience - and of course, reduce stress.
However, job shares can, if not well supported by leadership, cause teachers to work many unpaid overtime hours. “My part-time job was pretty full-time,” one teacher commented.
But despite some negative side effects, the participants of my study felt that jobshares overwhelmingly had a positive effect on pupils’ progress and experience of education. They are able to constantly share ideas, and therefore improve their practice. Their pupils, they added, really benefited from having two different personalities and skillsets, and new energy coming in partway through the week.
So with the benefits of job-sharing clear - and the desire there from the staff - how can we make it really work for teachers, and for schools? Personally, I think we need a three-pronged approach, and changes need to come from teachers, leadership teams and policymakers.
Teachers
Teachers need to network with others who jobshare. This could be through Facebook groups such as The MTPT Project - Connect! and Make An Impact Education - supporting teachers and leadership hub. You could also contact organisations like The Shared Headship Network, or even put out a call on Twitter for teachers in a similar position to you.
All of these conversations will allow you, whether you are considering entering into a jobshare or are already in one, to gain a better understanding of what can work well, common problems, ways to set up clear systems and boundaries that will prevent you from working unacknowledged and unpaid overtime hours.
You can see what is happening in other schools, take ideas back to your own workplace and work out exactly what it is you want from a jobshare role. Where are you willing to give extra hours or resources and what will be your non-negotiables?
Leaders
Leaders need to use technology and innovative timings for meetings and communication time to suit the needs of their staff. Post-pandemic this should be possible as most schools have experience of using Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams.
Teachers told me that having early mornings before school in-person, or “after-bedtime meetings” i.e. 7pm once they had put their young children to bed, had been “quite a revelation”. Why not have evening meetings, or planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time during the evening or weekend if that is what suits the teachers best? It just needs to be acknowledged and paid as it would be if it were taken on-site during school hours.
Although it is subject to budget, it is essential that all job-sharing staff are allocated paid time to communicate. This ensures continuity of practice, a chance to discuss the children, time to plan together, to explore new approaches and develop their philosophy for education. When this communication and PPA time happens should be flexible and meet the needs of each individual job-sharing partnership. However, it must always be paid.
Policymakers
Policymakers must disseminate examples of good practice, case studies and high-quality flexible working policies more widely. Why not send out documents to all academy chains and local authorities? Or publicise events like the current DfE webinar series on flexible working in schools on teachers’ networks where teachers and leaders are more likely to see them?
The development of an app or specialist platform on which teachers and leaders in regional areas can network would provide a more effective model than the current patchwork use of word of mouth or Twitter.
Teachers and leaders need to be able to meet talent partners (jobshare partners) prior to the application stage so that they can form a strong, professional relationship that will ensure the success of the future jobshare. Many jobshares currently dissolve because teachers are thrown together to fill a gap rather than a jobshare being a carefully thought through arrangement.
As I’ve said, the desire is there from the teachers - and with the benefits around retention, recruitment, morale, and skill-sharing obvious - we need to come together as an education community to make them work for all.
Hannah Duncan is a lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University in the School of Teacher Education
