Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 disruption on the quality and retention of trainee and newly qualified secondary school teachers
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: SSPP School Office
Abstract
This project documents the impact of the substantial changes and sustained disruption caused by COVID-19 to the development of trainee and new secondary school teachers and will produce a set of recommendations to enhance teacher quality and retention. Failure to respond now means that 60,000 teachers, working in secondary schools across the UK, will not have sufficient expertise and may rapidly leave the profession. A lack of expertise and high numbers of teachers leaving the profession will have a serious impact on the educational outcomes of young people who have already faced significant disadvantage through school closures and ongoing COVID-19-related disruption.
Even before the current global pandemic, the Department for Education recognised the need for teachers to receive sustained and integrated professional development opportunities across the first two years of teaching to improve the quality of support and therefore increase teacher quality and retention. This has been implemented in the newly established Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework.
New teachers have faced challenges to developing their teaching practice as schools have had to restrict the movement of teachers and student around classrooms and school sites to comply with COVID-19 safety requirements. Trainees have also been affected as they have had to predominantly access university education through online teaching and learning and have had reduced time in school placements due to the widespread closure of schools during March - July 2020 and September 2020 - March 2021.
Research findings will be generated through analysis of responses gathered from questionnaires and remote interviews with teachers, school leaders, and teacher education staff who are part of the teacher education network of King's College London (KCL). The project timeline includes interviews across 18 months so that teachers' experiences are captured during their year as a trainee and their first year working as a qualified teacher.
This project will provide rich understandings of the impacts of COVID-19 on teacher quality and retention that will have relevance for policy makers, school leaders and ITT providers across the UK. As such, this proposal seeks both to extend existing UKRI funded research into the social impacts of COVID-19 on education, as well as enhance current policy commitments to strengthen teacher quality and retention across the education sector. This will both alleviate the current challenges posed by the pandemic and ensure better preparedness for future extreme events.
Even before the current global pandemic, the Department for Education recognised the need for teachers to receive sustained and integrated professional development opportunities across the first two years of teaching to improve the quality of support and therefore increase teacher quality and retention. This has been implemented in the newly established Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework.
New teachers have faced challenges to developing their teaching practice as schools have had to restrict the movement of teachers and student around classrooms and school sites to comply with COVID-19 safety requirements. Trainees have also been affected as they have had to predominantly access university education through online teaching and learning and have had reduced time in school placements due to the widespread closure of schools during March - July 2020 and September 2020 - March 2021.
Research findings will be generated through analysis of responses gathered from questionnaires and remote interviews with teachers, school leaders, and teacher education staff who are part of the teacher education network of King's College London (KCL). The project timeline includes interviews across 18 months so that teachers' experiences are captured during their year as a trainee and their first year working as a qualified teacher.
This project will provide rich understandings of the impacts of COVID-19 on teacher quality and retention that will have relevance for policy makers, school leaders and ITT providers across the UK. As such, this proposal seeks both to extend existing UKRI funded research into the social impacts of COVID-19 on education, as well as enhance current policy commitments to strengthen teacher quality and retention across the education sector. This will both alleviate the current challenges posed by the pandemic and ensure better preparedness for future extreme events.
Publications
Rushton E
(2022)
Reflecting on 'classroom readiness' in initial teacher education in a time of global pandemic from the perspectives of eight university providers from across England, UK
in Journal of Education for Teaching
| Description | Although the project is still in progress there are some emerging findings from the data. These include: Early Career Teachers (ECTs) have reported some positive impacts of training during the pandemic, such as the use of IT to support teaching and learning and a heightened sense of professional community. Going forward, these positive impacts should be embraced and developed. For ECTs, there is a tension between the need for personalised support in response to their varied training experience and the prescribed content of induction programmes. The wellbeing of ECTs is impacted by the pressures of the Early Career Framework (ECF), exacerbated by varied training experiences Schools have experienced time and resource limitations in providing mentoring for trainees and ECT induction simultaneously. The growth and retention of ECTs benefits from the provision of formal and informal support, including through collaboration with other professionals and/or ECTs and in different learning and/or social spaces Opportunities for reflection, which are not linked to assessment, have a positive impact on ECTS' identity formation, professional experiences and growth The teacher training experience during the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in reduced opportunities for pastoral practice, limited parental engagement and a reduced involvement with extracurricular activities. Experience and skills gained from previous careers outside of teaching proved beneficial for ECTs in the context of pandemic related uncertainty and in their ongoing professional development. ECTs have found engagement with research empowering but have been frustrated by induction material that is repetitive of their training experience The experience of training during the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced opportunities for ECTs to work with a diverse range of students. The experience of training during the Covid-19 pandemic has served to broaden perspectives and has led to innovative practice from ECTs (e.g. including addressing global issues) in their teaching |
| Exploitation Route | Schools and other providers of initial teacher education would be best placed to take forward the outcomes in their work with trainee teachers and early career teachers. Policymakers might also make use of the outcomes. |
| Sectors | Education |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/sustaining-teacher-quality-and-retention-post-pandemic |
| Description | Although we do not have the evidence to make substantial claims around impact yet, given that the project is ongoing, there is some anecdotal evidence emerging that the guide we published for schools and launched in September 2021 has some influence on school induction of Early Career Teachers. The guide can be found here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ecs/assets/guide-for-schools-august2021.pdf We are currently carrying out a consultation exercise to gain evidence of impact and should have more to report in this area at the next submission. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | Dr Simon Gibbons contributed to an online event 'Advancing Teacher Training and Development', hosted by the Institute of Government and Public Policy. 20 January 2022. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a conference to discuss developments in teacher education and training. I spoke as a panel member and drew extensively on the emerging project outcomes in my words. There were in excess of 50 delegates from across the teacher education sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://igpp.org.uk/event/Advancing-Teacher-Training-and-Development-2022 |
| Description | Keynote presentation of Phase 1 findings at King's College London Initial Teacher Education Partnership Conference, Dr Elizabeth Rushton and Dr Simon Gibbons, June 2021. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The annual partnership conference at King's College London is an event to which all partner schools involved in our initial teacher education are invited. We presented a keynote talk at the event on the first phase of the project and emerging findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Presentation of Phase 1 findings at British Education Research Association Annual Conference, Dr Elizabeth Rushton and Dr Simon Gibbons, September 2021. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a presentation as part of a symposium at the 2021 BERA conference. We shared the emerging findings with other educators in the sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.bera.ac.uk/conference/bera-conference-2021 |
| Description | Presentation of reflections on phase 1 findings in the context of wider discussion with colleagues from other PGCE ITE programmes based in England as part of the Universities' Council for the Education of Teachers Annual Conference 2021, with Dr Elizabeth Rushton, Dr Simon Gibbons, Dr Claire Ball-Smith (University of York), Dr Lisa Murtagh (University of Manchester) and Dr Kate Ireland (Warwick University), November 2021. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a workshop session we ran in collaboration with other Russell Group partners where we shared emerging findings from phase 1 of the project and discussed these in the wider context of the landscape of teacher education in the post-pandemic period. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.ucet.ac.uk/12859/ucet-annual-conference-2021 |
| Description | Roundtable event with stakeholders from across the education sector to share Phase 1 findings, hosted by Dr Rachel Hesketh, Dr Elizabeth Rushton and Dr Simon Gibbons, July 2021. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was a roundtable policy event coordinated by the King's Policy Institute. We invited policymakers, representatives of professional associations, representatives of interested groups and colleagues from a small number of schools to hear about emerging findings from the project and to contribute their thoughts and ideas on the outcomes emerging. A policy briefing paper was published in advance of the event. The URL for this is included below. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ecs/assets/projects/policy-briefing-july-2021-rushton-et-al.pdf |
| Description | Workshop at King's College London Initial Teacher Education Partnership Conference, Dr Jane Jones and Dr Emma Towers, Should I stay or should I go? Factors affecting early career teacher retention', June 2021. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | This was a workshop session run by two members of the project team at the annual King's College London partnership conference. A group of 12 school colleagues participated in the event which focused on teacher retention, drawing on emerging findings from the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |