Teacher Recruitment

It is our professional and individual responsibility to face the challenge of foreign language teacher recruitment now. The profession must seek solutions to the shortage through multiple avenues such as foreign language professional organizations, the preK-16+ education system, and society at large. In order to recruit new foreign language teachers...

er than 3.5. This jumps to 94% when we consider those who have a GPA higher than 3.25. In addition, while a significant number of respondents were also concerned with instructional abil- ity, pedagogy is currently well covered in many teacher recruitment programs. Many respond- ents had already received instruction in this area or were confident based on their research into teacher preparation programs that they would be well trained in this area. While significantly fewer respondents noted career advancement as a concern, those that did generally planned on spending less time teaching. Six of eight individuals that noted career advancement as a concern also reported that they would be teaching for less than 15 years. While this is not a significant concern for programs like TFA, programs that are looking for longer-term teachers may also be well advised to emphasize varied paths for career advancement and other ways teachers in the classroom can be recognized for their commitment to the profession.

The report stated that maintaining teacher supply had become more difficult in recent years and that this is “particularly concerning” given that demand for teachers is expected to rise as a result of increases in pupil numbers. It added that relative pay trends, whereby “significant gaps” had developed between the pay of teachers and the earnings available in other gradate professions, are “important contributory factors in the recruitment and retention problems facing the teaching profession in England and Wales.” While noting that pay is not the only factor affecting teacher recruitment and retention, the report argued that “a competitive pay system will help schools to maintain the effective workforce of good teachers and school leaders…”

Prior to consideration of our study into the salient teacher recruitment and retention issues in select First Nation schools, it is essential to understand the broader context informed by historical factors in the delivery of Western education services for and within First Nations communities. Since the arrival of newcomers, the delivery of Western education services for First Nations students has been a matter of both concern and ongoing conflict (Charters-Voght, 1999). The British North America Act of 1867 (see Creighton, 1970) created two separate education systems in Canada: (a) provincial authority for education within their boundaries, and (b) federal jurisdiction for First Nations education. In 1876, the federal government enacted the Indian Act which outlined Canada’s administrative responsibilities for First Nation education. Constitutionally, First Nations were excluded from developing and delivering educational policy and practice for their own people (White & Peters, 2009). This formal and legal exclusion resulted in the development of distinctly European, ethnocentric education systems for First Nations people that “reflected the European linguistic and religious beliefs of the settlers” (Carr- Stewart, 2011, p. 75). Residential and missionary schools became the standard model for educating and assimilating First Nations students (White & Peters, 2009): Such colonial initiatives constituted “dramatic failures in policy” that precipitated significant challenges (Steeves, 2009, p. 22).

Ideally, the teaching profession would like to have a system that ensures the very best teachers it possibly could hire are employed. The system would reassure there are not systematic barriers preventing or discouraging the entry into teaching of certain groups of individuals who would likely make fine teachers. Not only are factors such as gender, race or ethnicity, and intellectual proficiency a concern, but also beliefs, values and attitudes. Of course, different strategies of teacher recruitment and retention result in attracting and retaining the kinds of individuals who would be highly desirable as teachers but are not currently well represented in the profession. Similarly, has every reasonable effort been made to recruit from all different populations of potentially effective teachers? And if various individuals have misperceptions or attitudes about teaching that are unwarranted and deter them from pursuing teaching careers, can corrections be made to those misperceptions to make teaching a more viable option for them?

In April 2018, the Education Policy institute published an analysis of the pressures on the teacher labour market. The analysis outlined the challenges in teacher recruitment, including growing pupil numbers and the Government’s ambition for 90% of pupils to be entered for the EBacc by 2025, before noting “worrying signs” on exit rates and on entrants. The problems look worse in secondary schools, it said. Examining the impact on schools, the analysis argued that in some subjects schools have been relying on staff with lower qualifications. While the proportion of teachers with a relevant degree has increased over time in most subjects, the report noted that the two subjects where there has been a decline – physics and geography – were both EBacc subjects and where recruitment targets had been missed.

The report stated that maintaining teacher supply had become more difficult in recent years and that this is “particularly concerning” given that demand for teachers is expected to rise as a result of increases in pupil numbers. It added that relative pay trends, whereby “significant gaps” had developed between the pay of teachers and the earnings available in other gradate professions, are “important contributory factors in the recruitment and retention problems facing the teaching profession in England and Wales.” While noting that pay is not the only factor affecting teacher recruitment and retention, the report argued that “a competitive pay system will help schools to maintain the effective workforce of good teachers and school leaders…”

The report stated that maintaining teacher supply had become more difficult in recent years and that this is “particularly concerning” given that demand for teachers is expected to rise as a result of increases in pupil numbers. It added that relative pay trends, whereby “significant gaps” had developed between the pay of teachers and the earnings available in other gradate professions, are “important contributory factors in the recruitment and retention problems facing the teaching profession in England and Wales.” While noting that pay is not the only factor affecting teacher recruitment and retention, the report argued that “a competitive pay system will help schools to maintain the effective workforce of good teachers and school leaders…”

In a 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey, Ingersoll (2006) found 58 percent of all schools reported at least some difficulty filling one or more teaching job openings, in one or more fields. According to that same survey the following were cited as reasons why teachers leave the profession: retirement, school staffing action, family or personal reasons, to pursue other jobs, and teachers’ dissatisfaction. It should be noted that teachers’ dissatisfaction accounted for 50 percent of those leaving. Guarino, Santibanez, Daley, and Brewer (2004), in their paper for the Rand Corporation, A Review of the Research Literature on Teacher Recruitment and Retention wrote “in the face of a growing school-aged population, schools and districts must struggle to maintain standards for teaching quality while continuously recruiting bright new teachers and seeking to retain their most effective existing teachers” (p. 1). As a result, school districts must develop a plan to attract, hire, and retain the most qualified and most promising educators for their students.

According to 2007-08 data released by the National Center for Education Statistics, 16.9 % of U.S public school teachers were minorities while 44 % of U.S students were minority (NCES Staff and Schools Survey, 2007-08). As the nation continues to become more diverse, this gap is likely to widen. To eliminate the gap, states and districts have developed programs to increase the number of minority teachers. The programs fall into 4 categories: High School “Grow your Own Programs”, University/College Programs, Non-traditional or Alternate Route programs, and Scholarship/Funding Incentives. A limitation to this review is that there seemed to be a spike in funding and research related to minority teacher recruitment efforts in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Therefore, some of the data and program information in this review is several years old. Key themes found during the review of these programs include: strong university partnerships, community colleges as an underutilized pathway, common barriers to entering the teaching profession, and the attrition and retention of minority teachers.

The report stated that average teacher salaries “remain considerably lower for teaching than other graduate professions.” It added that trends in teacher recruitment and retention “continue to face substantial pressures”, with the number of qualified teachers leaving the profession for reasons other than retirement continuing to rise, teacher retention rates deteriorating, and the number of schools reporting vacancies and temporarily-filled posts increasing “markedly over the last five years.” There is a “real risk”, the report stated, that the cumulative impact of these factors will mean that schools “will not be able to recruit and retain a workforce of high quality teachers.” The report noted that this was a particular concern given the projected increase in pupil numbers.

We are also working with ITT providers to increase part-time ITT to complement our wider work to increase part-time working in schools. We know that there is a significant pool of potential teachers willing to move to England. In line with the government’s white paper on the future skills-based immigration system we will focus on the very highly skilled and those migrants who bring the most benefit to the UK. The government remains committed to reducing net migration to sustainable levels. The Home Secretary has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee to review the Shortage Occupation List. This will now include consideration of whether there is a case for extending the teacher occupations that are on the Shortage Occupation List beyond maths, physics, general science,

Since the study was only carried out in Mombasa County the researcher recommends that a similar study be done " in other Counties to examine challenges facing school- based teacher r[r]

Recruitment agencies were said to handle most of the visa issues for international recruits, with Tier 5 being the most common route. Schools reported that not having to deal with visa and immigration issues meant the process was more straightforward from their perspective, and this therefore made using agencies more attractive. From our sample, this mainly applied to Australian and Canadian teachers (and New Zealanders to a lesser extent), with schools generally preferring younger teachers (under 30) from these countries with 2 years on their Tier 5 visa for this reason. Even better were those with ancestry visas or dual nationality who had no or fewer issues with visas and expiry. Most international recruits left their school before or by the end of their youth visas expiry period (see discussion of contracts, section 4.5). However if the selected candidate or established recruit was approaching 30, or their two year Tier 5 visa was due to expire, schools would be responsible for ensuring the CoS application process was followed as the sponsoring employer.

In February 2017, the Education Committee published the report of its inquiry into teacher supply: Recruitment and retention of teachers. The report concluded that “schools face increasing challenges of teacher shortages, particularly within certain subjects and regions” and that rising pupil numbers and changes to accountability, such as the focus on English Baccalaureate subjects, “will exacerbate existing problems.” It stated that the Government is aware of the issues but “needs to identify a strategic, long-term plan to effectively address them.” The “failure of the National Teaching Service”, had, it added, left “a gap in the Government’s plans to tackle regional shortages.” 95

From a holistic review of the data from this evaluation, the most telling distinction between the reported perceptions of project stakeholders and student perspectives appeared in open-ended survey data regarding the goals of the curriculum. When stakeholders were asked to describe key topics of study for students in the Teacher Pipeline Project, they acknowledged broad conceptual issues related to: urban teaching, race, culture, and the influence of these prospective teachers on their com- munities. More frequently, though, stakeholders cited practical skills, academic rigor, and training on how to be successful college students as critical topics for the Teacher Pipeline Pro- gram seminar.

Public sector unions seek higher wages, better benefits, and job protections for their members, which are costly for governments to provide. Promotion within a grade or to a higher grade typically is accompanied by a salary increase. And because unions can mobilize money and manpower in ways the unorganized cannot, there is good reason to believe that government workers will exercise greater power when they are unionized, resulting in higher costs (Freeman and Medoff ,1984). For example Machin (1999) states: “Trade unions have traditionally been seen as defenders of egalitarian pay structures. This is reflected in ‘equal pay for equal work’ notions and the standardisation of pay setting mechanisms, often in the form of rigid pay scales attached to jobs rather than individuals.” Teachers have voiced their concerns about promotional opportunities in their career via the National Union of Teaching Profession (- NUTP Presents 9-Point Memo to Ministry, 2012). These grouses arose despite the government‘s announcement earlier in the same year to allocate of RM934 million for teacher promotion exercise and about 60,000 teachers were being promoted or recognized for promotion progressively (Dermawan, 2012).

In the teacher recruitment process, graduates and senior students with the qualifications to teach apply to ÖSYM to take the exam generally conducted towards the end of June each year. In the meantime, schools report the vacancies to the Ministry of Education, the number of positions available considering the required teaching hours. Then, the Ministry announces the number of positions for each teaching position and the minimum scores to be appointed as a teacher for each teaching subject. These scores change from one teaching subject to another as in some subjects, there are more teachers available than needed. It is not rare that a candidate who has scored over 99 out of 100 in the exam is not recruited simply because there is no position available that year due to the huge number of teachers in the schools available, while another candidate can be recruited with a score of 17 as there is a lack of supply in that subject matter. Once the results are announced, the Ministry of Education accepts candidates’ application for the positions through the Internet, including their choice of cities and schools where they would like to work. Then, the applicants are ranked according to the results. Based on the rankings and the applicants’ preferences, they are appointed to the schools. If a candidate declines the appointment or does not start work in the required time, s/he cannot apply for another teaching position in public schools for a year. For the positions left unfilled after the recruitment process, a new recruitment process can start, or until the position is filled, schools often assign teachers or persons mostly outside of the field in which they have been trained. According to the recently published audit report (MEB, 2010), the current number of teachers in public schools is 584,507; however, the education system needs 133,317 teachers more, taking the required teaching hours into consideration (15 hours a week for a month salary and 6 hours of extra teaching).

Ashley and Empson (2016) seeks to break down the recruitment process in elite companies by employing a structured job interview, case interview, tests and assessment centre. The most common type of interview is a structured competency-based interview, where everyone who is called in pretty much gets the same questions. The companies usually use between two and four people (Ashley and Empson, 2016). The next step which is common in the recruitment process is to include various forms of case assignments (Ashley and Empson, 2016). When employers choose to use a case on graduates, it is because it gives a competent applicant with no relevant experience a good opportunity to show up. This is identified as an essential part in the process of hiring a graduate consultant (Bulger et al. 2016).

E recruitment gives the more facilities to the organisation but apart from that it has many disadvantages or limitation. E recruitment loss the personal touch. The lack of human touch is also a pitfall of e-recruitment. As a consequence, qualified candidates can be eliminated by the procedure. Sometime potential applicants do not use the Internet or are less familiar with it. Due to this organisation loss their capable candidates. E recruitment also arise the privacy issue.