Practitioner research by a UK teacher, Effimia Stavrea. She explored teacher professionalism, perceptions, as well as factors that impact upon their performance and the role of leadership in the enhancement of teacher effectiveness. As the teaching profession has been through harrowing times and the recruitment and retention issue has been the major focus of the public attention in the U.K., this study further investigated factors that led to the crisis and sought potential solutions to alleviate the problem. In this study, a focus group interview of six primary school teachers was conducted in order to examine teachers’ viewpoints on four key areas: a) teacher professionalism, values and perceptions; b) teacher motivation, commitment and retention; c) teacher professional learning and development; and d) teacher effectiveness, performance and emotions. 2019
2. Purpose of the study
To explore:
teacher professionalism
teacher perceptions
factors that impact upon teachers’ performance
the role of leadership on the enhancement of teacher
effectiveness
3. The issue
Recruitment and retention crisis in the educational
sector.
The Department for Education (2018) published the
school workforce census 2017, which shows that the
greatest attrition in teacher numbers happens year-on-
year in the first three years of teaching career
(approximately 7 percent) and has been consistent for
20 years.
4. Study design
Overview of literature.
Focus group interview:
- 6 primary school teachers
- school in an area of significant deprivation
- school in ‘Special Measures’ for 2 years and currently
assessed as ‘Requires Improvement’.
5. The sample
The participants have different experiences: 5, 8, 14
and 24 years of teaching experience and two Newly
Qualified teachers.
6. Focus based on literature
Four key areas:
Teacher professionalism, values and perceptions.
Teacher motivation, commitment and retention.
Teacher professional learning and development.
Teacher effectiveness and dealing with emotions.
7. Key Questions
What does teacher professionalism mean to you?
What are the values each teacher should bear?
How do you think people perceive teachers and their profession? Does
this have an impact on you?
What is effective professional development? Is it important?
What motivates you as a teacher?
Have there been any differences in your performance during the different
stages in your career? (focus on commitment and motivation)
Why do you think there is a crisis in the profession?
What approach/model of leadership would be beneficial for teacher
retention?
What kind of emotions do you have to deal with on a daily/weekly/termly
basis? How do emotions impact upon your effectiveness?
9. 1. Teacher professionalism,
values and perceptions
The subjects of the interview described teacher
professionalism as in not allowing personal or
external influences to affect them as individuals.
Teachers agreed that they have to maintain that
focus which occasionally seems arduous.
Not letting feelings on a situation influence how
you carry out your job, is what professionalism
means to me. We all, as teachers, have times
when we don’t agree with what we are asked to
do in the classroom, however, we have to
maintain that professionalism and follow
instructions (Teacher A).
10. Teacher professionalism is…
Doing your best within capacity.
Following school policies and societal conventions.
Appropriate use of language, appearance, professional
conversations within context.
Being truthful and able to bring up concerns appropriately.
Developing strong relationships with parents/maintaining
contact and establishing a culture of communication.
Teaching as well as nurturing children.
Being inquisitive, inclusive, thoughtful, respectful, fair,
patient, responsible, compassionate.
11. The negative perceptions:
Personal experiences of the interaction with parents described a
negative situation where the former often accuse or blame teachers for
their profession or for not teaching their children appropriately whereas
teachers argue that education is a collective process and parents have
to take some responsibility as well.
The group agreed that the impact of those perceptions is huge. The
vast majority agreed that these perceptions have negative impact and
they often lead to frustration.
Parents cannot think that in order to spend time with the
children at school, you need to carefully plan and prepare
your teaching, sort out the classroom etc. They don’t
seem to understand that your job is not just physically
spending the time with their children. They don’t think that
we teach enough (Teacher B).
12. As a result of these perceptions, stats on working hours are
regularly discussed, and teachers seem to have been
demoralised by some aspects of media. Over the last year,
the appreciation of teachers appears to have increased.
As the subjects of the interview were in different stages in
their career, they were asked whether these perceptions had
more or less impact on their effectiveness over the years.
Most of the subjects agreed that the impact of those
negative perceptions hasn’t increased or decreased their
performance over the years, however, they have developed
stamina in order to disenable them influence their motivation
or effectiveness.
13. 2. Teacher motivation,
commitment and retention
The teachers agreed that pupil outcomes alongside the
ability to instill great values and knowledge are what
inspire them the most. Encouraging children’s curiosity
and idea of self-worth as well as the idea of doing
something with meaningful impact to the lives of people
you can interact with, appear to be driving them
forward.
Love for learning and the children as well as the
creativity of the profession are the drivers to becoming
a teacher.
14. The ideal professional environment and the
characteristics of the ideal colleagues:
Understanding, appreciation, encouragement and
support are qualities teachers are seeking in their work
partners.
Praise and recognition of effort and outcome.
Personalised feedback and support.
For me, it always has to be personal. So the motivation for the
children is because I know the children and they are not like
faceless customers like you would have in other jobs. They are
in front of you and you know everything about them and the
thanks also has to be personal. If it is a generic thanks, it
doesn’t mean anything to me (Teacher F).
15. What demotivates teachers:
“Things that you do not being noticed.”-Lack of appreciation or recognition of hard
work.
The amount of workload.
The changes and reforms.
Top down approaches.
Teachers’ voice is not always heard.
Role of leadership-judgment based on snapshots.
Children’s behaviour (in schools located in certain areas of socio-economic
disadvantage)
Accountability not for everything but for what happened within the teacher’s
capacity.
Career stage-motivated mostly in the beginning of their career or when they don’t
have family responsibilities.
16. Recruitment and retention
Constant changes and reforms have a huge impact on
teachers’ effectiveness, resilience, motivation and
willingness to stay in the profession.
Every year you think that next year is going to be better and it is
going to be more steady but it is a lie because you get to July and
you say “oh, what has changed again”, whether that would be
curriculum or staffing. And this has an impact on my effectiveness.
And you can’t help anyone else because it is new to you as well
(Teacher D).
17. Fear of the unknown.
Levels of exhaustion due to workload.
Stress-related issues/anxiety.
Mental, emotional and physical tiredness.
Pressure.
No financial incentive for this amount of workload.
People feel undervalued or experience negative
behaviour.
18. 3. Teacher professional
learning and development
Continuous Professional Development (CPD) relevant
to individual needs and differentiated.
Follow up sessions and reflection.
Peer learning is effective.
We still learn daily, especially if you change year groups or
Key stages and in the same idea of different children learn in
different ways, different adults learn in different ways. Some
days I learn nothing, other days I learn loads. (Teacher B)
19. 4. Dealing with emotions
There is a variety of positive and negative emotions
that teachers experience daily, all of them inevitably
impact upon their performance:
frustration, curiosity, happiness (when children
achieve their targets), annoyance, being upset,
excitement (in the beginning of a new topic),
exhaustion, worthlessness (sporadically, when
other people or themselves feel like they are not
effective enough).
22. Discussion and conclusions
Reward, praise and development of strong
relationships within the professional community impact
upon teacher effectiveness.
Although the teachers are able to identify the
professional aspects of their job, they feel that their
status is subverted when they do not feel valuable
there is lack of respect and ownership over their job
(Hargreaves et al., 2007).
Teachers perform better when they feel trusted, valued
and are able to be more creative and autonomous,
(Macbeath, 2012)
23. The extensive workload, the exposure to high levels of
stress, pressure and anxiety as well as the
management of constant changes and reforms seem to
be factors that demotivate teachers (Macbeath, 2012).
When the context changes, the level of commitment
alters as well (Huberman, 1995).
Dealing with change that increase workload has a
negative impact on teachers’ emotions and well-being
(Day, 2004).
Teachers who are motivated, stay in the profession and
perform better (Beiler et al., 2016).
Teachers at later career stages tend to find challenging
to maintain commitment (Sammons et al., 2007).
24. The continuous professional learning and development
is vital to the effectiveness of the teachers, leaders and
ultimately school (Lieberman and Miller, 1999).
Finally, leaders’ role constitutes a key component to the
effectiveness of the institution. Teachers consider
certain factors that could reduce the negative feelings
and support teacher retention:
(a) facilitating an emotionally intelligent and supportive
culture (Beatty, 2011), and (b) promoting a positive
culture where relationships are based on trust,
personal and professional support as well as
individualised and bespoke approaches (Stoll, 2011).
25. References
Beatty, B. (2011) From crayons to perfume. Getting beyond contrived
collegiality. Journal of Educational Change 12(2): pp.257-266.
Day, C. (2004) A passion for teaching. London: Routledge.
Department for Education (2018) Text: school workforce census 2017
[Online]. Available at:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/719772/SWFC_MainText.pdf [Accessed 23 March
2019].
Hargreaves, L., Cunningham, M., Hansen, A., McIntyre, D. and Oliver, C.
(2007) The status of teachers and the teaching profession in England: views
from inside and outside the profession. Final report of the Teacher Status
Project. London:Department for Education and Skills. [Online]. Available
at:http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.edu
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March 2019].
26. Huberman, M. (1995) Networks that alter teaching. Teachers and
teaching 1(2): pp.193–221.
Lieberman, A. and Miller, A. (1999) Teachers – Transforming Their
World and Their Work. Columbia University: Teachers College Press.
MacBeath, J. (2012) The Future of the Teaching Profession. Brussels:
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Sammons, P., Day, C., Kington, A., Gu, Q., Stobart, G., and Smees,
R. (2007) Exploring variations in teachers’ work, lives and their e ects
on pupils: Key ndings and implications from a longitudinal mixed-
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Stoll, L. (2011) Leading professional learning communities.
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