Aug 01 2024 22 mins 3
Why are all our teachers quitting?
From 2021 to 2022, straight after the pandemic 40,000 teachers in England left the profession before retirement, the highest number in a decade. Figures from the Department of Education also show unfilled teacher vacancies were at a record high and sick days taken were up 50 percent on pre-pandemic levels.
But why?
Trust, Risk and Responsibilisation. These are the main findings that emerged from research conducted during the pandemic via audio diaries. Primary school teachers were asked to record their everyday experiences into an MP3 player allowing them to express whatever concerns or observations they had, whenever they wanted. The result is a first-hand account of life as a primary school teacher on the front line.
In this three part podcast we will hear what their lives were like at the time, the pressures they were under and what they personally sacrificed to do the job. The findings of the research showed just how these three key areas contributed to the low rate of teacher retention, then and now.
In order to maintain the anonymity of the people and the schools included in this research, the excerpts you hear have been re-recorded with other people’s voices, but these are their words and their stories.
Hosted by Judith Koch, a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of International Relations at Sussex University, she will be speaking to Dr. Dinah Rajak, Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex, Dr. Sarah-Jane Phelan, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and Dr. Jenny Hewitt, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Queen Mary University of London who collaboratively designed and undertook this research.
The first episode focused on the methodology used to conduct this research, exploring how audio-diaries accessed real-time insights on teaching staff’s own terms, and practically how this research was able to be done during the lockdowns.
This episode delves into the findings of this research and identifies the three keys issues that impacted hugely on how teachers did their jobs and still do – Trust, Risk and Responsibilisation.
The final episode will look at future implications and policy recommendations.
Host: Judith Koch
Interviewees: Dr. Dinah Rajak, Dr. Sarah-Jane Phelan and Dr. Jenny Hewitt
Dr. Sarah-Jane Phelan
Dr. Jenny Hewitt
Dr. Dinah Rajak
Producers: Elisa Kennedy and Judith Koch
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