Working Paper: How can we make teaching attractive and raise the status of teachers?: A review of international evidence

Prof Beng Huat See; Prof Stephen Gorard; Dr Mark Ledger; Dr Rebecca Morris; Dr Nada El Soufi; Kulwinder Maude; Dr Nicole Ivarsson-Keng

The teaching profession appears to be in a crisis with growing teacher shortages across many countries in the world, increasing difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers (Ovenden-Hope 2022).  Concerns about the shortage of teachers are not new. What is worrying is that it has now become a global phenomenon with an increasing number of countries reporting difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers.  The ageing teaching population and the ongoing challenges with respect to retaining younger teachers in the profession are a cause for concern even in countries such as Finland, which traditionally do not report a shortage (OECD 2019). The Eurydice report (Birch et al. 2018) highlighted that many countries within the European Union are struggling to attract sufficient numbers of students into initial teacher education. This paper presents the findings of a synthesis of international evidence on ways we can support teacher wellbeing and improve teacher job satisfaction and retention in the profession.

How can we make teaching attractive and raise the status of teachers?: A review of international evidence