NEW TEACHERS WANT 'OUT'
I've noticed a
lot of media attention over the last few days regarding some research published
by the Hunter Institute of Mental Health. Briefly, the institute's studies have
found that up to 50% of new teachers (a 'new' teacher being anyone in the first
ten years of their service) leave the job within five years and that one
important factor is a perceived lack of time for adequate preparation and
planning.......in other words, that workload associated with being a teacher.
Now this is
where my confusion begins. Firstly, a high attrition rate with new teachers and
extended periods of service has always been a feature of the profession. The
alluded to 50% was as accurate for the seventies when I commenced teaching as
it is now and, further, it has remained remarkably constant for the forty odd
years in between. We are definitely NOT talking about a new trend but, rather,
an enduring marker.
Secondly, whilst
workload may play some role in new teachers leaving, we're wetting our toes in
very murky waters if a simple solution is to be sought or, worse still,
ordained. Straight up, any rationalisation of a teacher's classroom work is
very near impossible because so much of that work is based on what each teacher
brings to the job. Most teachers- and I stress 'most'- are intimately aware of
the fuckload of work that comes their way just by being a teacher in a
classroom. Fortunately or unfortunately, hours of work at home on weekday
evenings and on weekends are quite normal for teachers and, again, they always
have been. I can count on the fingers of my left hand the number of colleagues
I worked with (and I'm talking about hundreds) who didn't commit to this. It's
part of what teachers do- they know it and they accept it.
Please don't
misunderstand. Anything that the 'system' can do to ease administrivia for
teachers should be pursued strongly but lesson preparation, programming,
reporting, marking, resource gathering and assessment form part of any
competent teacher's DNA. This is what good teachers do........ both individually
and in teams. Yep, it involves heaps of paid and unpaid time.
Thirdly, what
respondents nominate as an 'issue' in a study may not necessarily be the
touchstone for leaving teaching. The reasons for the high attrition rate in the
teaching profession are numerous and complex. Salaries, probity, discipline,
child-rearing, welfare (staff and student), working conditions and professional
support are but a few of the many factors which might preface a young
colleague's decision to pull up stumps.
Finally, is all of the above stuff and the
institute's findings peculiar to teaching? I'm sure that both the nurses and
the coppers could produce similar narratives from their industries.
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