Worldwide there is a growing shortage of teachers. The number of teachers leaving the profession was observed several years ago and the number of people drawn to enter the profession is also on the decrease. Finding substitute teachers is difficult, which places pressure on teachers to not take sick or personal leave when needed.
What lies behind this huge change in what was once a leading career choice for many people, especially women?
Educators and teachers are sensitive to ongoing and constant cycles of the latest and greatest innovative improvements, with differing teaching methodologies and trending pedagogies. These latter aspects are also partly the response to government requirements of what type of graduate the education system should be producing. To this end increasing pressure is placed on teachers to be continuously engaging in professional development to keep up with the latest trend.
A level of complexity has become apparent within the current model, as the quotient of planning, programming, collection and analysis of data, and evaluation of the teacher’s output, has increased significantly in the last decade or so. Many teachers feel that they are constantly under the microscope, needing to justify their unique teaching style and prove their worth and value within the system as measured by multiple external standards.
A key part of accountability is observed in the process and procedure for teachers to become and remain accredited. Current global systems value and promote high performance and academic attainment, and these are considered fundamental for a successful and productive life or indeed even to survive in life. External standards for teachers are an integral part of these globally held values and are largely defined by the teacher’s knowledge and application of current educational pedagogy. There is a perceived linear development of expertise as teachers progress through the various levels of attainment.
For a teacher to maintain accreditation they need to collect a body of evidence demonstrating their ongoing progression and that they are up to date with the current trends. Naturally, checks and balances within any system are important. However, to maintain accreditation or to move to the next level can often be an unnecessarily arduous and lengthy task. Such complexity can undermine the process of a teacher truly appreciating what they have to offer to the profession. Exclusively emphasising the functionality of a teacher’s role offers limited scope for a teacher to confirm and appreciate the inner qualities that they bring, not only to the children they serve, but also to the profession at large.
Whilst standards are required in any profession to ensure that there is accountability and, to a certain extent, equality in what each educational setting can provide, the complex process of gaining, maintaining or upgrading one’s level of career status, means that many educators can fall into the trap of delivering lessons or instigating new initiatives in an effort to tick the box of a particular standard that is missing from their evidence base. The push behind going for higher levels of professional accreditation can stem from a need for greater recognition, the ability to climb the career ladder or to maximise the financial rewards that come with a higher level of accreditation.
While teachers in some cases are focussing on ticking all the boxes, they are moving away from what they know within themselves as a true teacher. Rather than a natural flow in response to what the students in the classroom are calling for, which may be either academic or social, we are moving away from the simplicity of being a teacher and responding instantly, moment by moment, to what a student needs.
To know students and how they learn is a natural professional requirement and one all teachers would endorse. In the education system as it currently stands, we are asked to ‘know’ students predominately by what we gauge is their intellect and their ability to meet certain benchmarks across a very limited range of what was once termed ‘basic skills’. We learn to function as a human being by exploring and experimenting with the body we inhabit. We learn how to be with every situation that presents in life, largely through the reflection or influence of key people in our lives. There is a huge level of systemic control in the way young people are asked to engage in learning. Within the confines of a classroom setting, this is seen in the seeming simple organisational structures of how young people sit, stand and move within that environment.
Although, giving students a choice about what and how they learn is given some acknowledgement, it is all still within a model that has an increasingly narrow view of what it is to be a human being. It is generally the everyday experience of teachers that the young people in their classrooms are more than blank slates to fill with knowledge, that they are often multi-faceted beings, each with their own set of life experiences and inner qualities that can be nurtured by the classroom environment and by the personal and inner qualities of their teachers.
Rather than an exclusive emphasis on academic achievement and surviving in life by getting a good job, do we need to expand our definition of success to include a grander purpose to life? In that expansion, would there not also be a need for including other professional qualities for teachers – qualities that could well arrest the mass exodus away from the teaching profession?
What are the qualities and standards that would support teachers to remain vital and purposeful within the profession and how would this encourage others to consider teaching as a worthwhile career? There are many qualities that are generally valued and held in esteem across many societies; qualities such as integrity, responsibility and acceptance of others. Is it possible that we all innately hold inner qualities that can be given expression if and when they are confirmed?
When these qualities are expressed through teachers connected to their own inner essence and free of unnecessary complexity, the teacher is an access point for the young person in their class to be able to also feel their own inner qualities and to connect to, confirm and appreciate these qualities as being of their own essence.
Is it possible for a teacher who is true to their profession to begin to set standards for themselves in the quality and way they work? Rather than exclusively relying on external standards of what makes a competent teacher, we can set the tone for how we work. This goes beyond the hours of the school day.
How a person is in their every moment will influence the quality that they then bring to the classroom or school that they are working in. Developing a rhythm that feels true for each person requires deep reflection and consideration to many aspects of life, such as the space we allocate for lesson planning and preparation, how we support our selves nutritionally, the quality and depth of sleep we experience and how we support our bodies with exercise and movement. There can be a greater level of integrity and responsibility brought to all of our waking and restful moments to check in with the quality of our thoughts and notice if those thoughts are nourishing, supportive and confirming of the true standards and essence of our innermost being.
When coming from this perspective, there is so much more to being a person of integrity and true standards and it is this which can determine the quality and presence that we bring to our workplace, offering a reflection of the fullness of us in human expression, rather than a reliance and emphasis on what we can achieve intellectually, through effort.
When taking a much deeper and broader view of what it means to be a true teacher we can connect to a much more profound level of purpose. Through the standards that we accept for our self in our lived way, we can set the tone for those we work for and with, to also come into alignment with.
Rather than a system that is based largely on competition and comparison – by honouring the deeper aspects of ourselves, we can initiate a deeper connection with everyone whose paths we cross in our working day.