Technicians and technical staff are making increasingly significant contributions to the teaching and learning of undergraduate and postgraduate students in the UK. This paper reports on a survey of 1766 technical staff regarding their roles within teaching and learning environments, and a series of follow-up focus groups with 44 technical staff…

Between June 2018 and November 2020, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) conducted an evaluation of the Tailored Support Programme (TSP) on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE). The aim of the evaluation was to explore perceptions of the TSP and, in particular, gather data on: reasons for engagement; what was delivered;…

Teacher shortages have intensified across several OECD countries, making this an urgent priority for education systems. Between 2015 and 2022, the share of students whose principals reported shortages rose from 29% to 46.7% on average across the OECD. Simultaneously, rapid technological advances, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and broader…

This book provides significant information regarding the policies and provisions for early childhood teacher education programs in universities in fourteen different countries. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is expanding rapidly across the globe with unprecedented numbers of children attending EC centres, requiring the investment in…

This article sketches one line of march for the counter-offensive to current education policy called for in the previous issue of "FORUM." It highlights three key areas where, in his drive to "revolutionise" the education service, the Education Secretary has over-extended himself and become vulnerable. It calls for sharp and…

From September 2013, the UK government has shifted the balance of initial teacher training (ITT) provision from higher education to 'School Direct', a school-centred and employment-based route. The National Association for the Teaching of English has conducted an online survey of professional opinion on these changes. 730 individual educators…

There is a chronic international shortage of mathematics and science teachers, particularly physicists. The study reported here examines why physicists become teachers and why they stay in teaching. Physicists from seven preservice teacher training cohorts from three English universities were invited to answer an online survey with follow-up…

Private schools have historically played an important role in the reproduction of the ruling classes in Britain. They continue to do so, but there is surprisingly little modern research as to how these schools impinge on the economy. In this paper we analyse the role of independent schools in the teachers' labour market. Teacher shortages in…

Globalisation has allowed people with scarce skills to cross national borders with ease. Given their specific skills base professionals are prone to trans-national migration. The trend is for professionals from developing countries, such as South Africa, to fill gaps in the labour market in developed countries such as the United Kingdom. The…

In this article Hong Kong's policy on initial teacher training is used as a case study of the interplay between international trends and local policy. Traditionally initial teacher preparation in most countries has been based in higher education institutions. In recent years alternative routes for initial teacher education have proliferated in the…

We analyse the role of private schools in the teachers' labour market. Private schools employ an increasingly-disproportionate share of teachers in Britain, relative to the number of their pupils. Their teachers are more likely than state school teachers to possess post-graduate qualifications, and to be specialists in shortage subjects.…

This paper considers recurrent alarms in England, Wales and other developed countries concerning shortages of teachers. It summarises the conclusions from a mixed-methods international study of teacher supply, quality and retention. The research used large-scale secondary data sets from a variety of sources, at both the individual and aggregate…

This paper is based on our studies of teacher recruitment and retention. Using official statistics from a variety of secondary sources, it builds on our previous work on the changing demand for teachers by exploring issues of teacher supply in the UK. Our findings suggest there is no overall shortage of applicants to initial teacher education and…

This is one of a series of studies on the training, recruitment, and utilization of teachers in member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This volume deals with Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. The section on Germany (129 pages) has chapters on the German educational system, trends in the demand for…

Successive administrations have responded to the serious shortage of competent mathematics teachers by trying to 'make do', adopting short-term strategies which fail to address the underlying problem. A sense of urgency, the will to act, and the imagination to see a way forward have been absent. The situation is now worse than ever. This paper…