A profession in crisis? Teachers' responses to England's high-stakes accountability reforms in secondary education

Emma Towers; Sharon Gewirtz; Meg Maguire; Eszter Neumann

doi:10.1016/j.tate.2022.103778

A profession in crisis? Teachers' responses to England's high-stakes accountability reforms in secondary education

Emma Towers^*, Sharon Gewirtz, Meg Maguire, Eszter Neumann

^*Corresponding author for this work

Centre for Social Sciences, MTA Centre of Excellence, 1097, Budapest, Tóth Kálmán U 4, Hungary

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

There has been a tendency to construct the teaching profession through a narrative of ‘crisis’ which places particular emphasis on high rates of attrition and poor wellbeing driven by a demanding work culture. Drawing on qualitative data from a mixed-methods study, this paper examines teachers' responses to reforms to English secondary education. It presents evidence that supports a ‘profession in crisis’ narrative with many of the research participants expressing negative attitudes towards the reforms and concerns about staying in teaching. However, the paper also illuminates a counter-narrative that highlights teachers' job satisfaction and their desire to remain in the profession.

Original language	English
Article number	103778
Number of pages	10
Journal	TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION
Volume	117
Early online date	27 May 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103778
Publication status	Published - Sept 2022

Keywords

Profession in crisis
Teacher attrition
Secondary school reforms
Teacher wellbeing

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10.1016/j.tate.2022.103778

A profession in crisis?_TOWERS_Published2022_GOLD VoR (CC BY)Final published version, 373 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "A profession in crisis? Teachers' responses to England's high-stakes accountability reforms in secondary education",

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AB - There has been a tendency to construct the teaching profession through a narrative of ‘crisis’ which places particular emphasis on high rates of attrition and poor wellbeing driven by a demanding work culture. Drawing on qualitative data from a mixed-methods study, this paper examines teachers' responses to reforms to English secondary education. It presents evidence that supports a ‘profession in crisis’ narrative with many of the research participants expressing negative attitudes towards the reforms and concerns about staying in teaching. However, the paper also illuminates a counter-narrative that highlights teachers' job satisfaction and their desire to remain in the profession.

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A profession in crisis? Teachers' responses to England's high-stakes accountability reforms in secondary education

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Keywords

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