Seven Reasons People no longer Want to be Teachers( continued)
ARTICLES
Seven Reasons People no longer Want to be Teachers( continued)
In Australia, departments of education provide explicit guidance for classes well ahead of time. This means the teaching approach and content is in place even before a teacher meets their students. This undermines the ability for teachers to be responsive and tailor teaching to learners’ needs. And so, the professional responsibility of Australian teachers is compromised- making the job seem rather unattractive.
4. Work intensification
Work intensification refers to the increasing range of duties and responsibilities that have now been attached to the role of teachers. Teachers report the rewards of teaching are obscured by this, along with the crowded curriculum. They are stressed by the range of things they’ re required to teach, and the snowball effect that emerges from increased requirements.
Intensification is due to many factors, not least of which is the expansion of teacher responsibilities to include social skills development previously addressed at home. Teaching is well known to be hard work, however, hard work without appreciation or respect is a powerful disincentive.
5. Negative public image
An audit of newspaper stories in Queensland over the past year shows a strong tendency to report negatively on teachers. In the 12 months examined, 11 months featured more negative stories.
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7. Teachers’ salaries are poor
The final nail in the coffin: poor salaries. A graduate dentist from a five year course earns A $ 130,000. The majority of secondary teachers have also completed a five year program, but the starting salary is A $ 65,486 reaching A $ 71,000 after 5-10 years.
No wonder people don’ t want to be teachers
It’ s not surprising, then, that numbers of applicants for teacher education programs have slumped. The programs are long and intense, the creativity and relationships aspect of the vocation has been eroded, there is pervasive negativity in the media, and also comparatively poor salary and working conditions.
It’ s hard to know where to start, but appealing to the vocational drive of those who love leading others to achieve by raising the profile of these additional attributes in teacher education programs might help. This would require a gentle review of the national program design and accreditation guidelines. Or perhaps we need to be better at reporting teacher success in the mass media.
Nan Bahr is Pro Vice-Chancellor( Students)/ Dean of Education, Southern Cross University Jo-Anne Ferreira is Director, Teaching & Learning, Education, Southern Cross University.
This article was first published in‘ The Conversation’ on 16th April, 2018. SEN and the Science Teachers’ Association of NSW are grateful to‘ The Conversation’ for its generous policy of encouraging the republishing of its numerous fine articles. We also thank the authors, Nan Bahr and Jo-Anne Ferreira, for supplying this article, thereby supporting‘ The Conversation’ policy.
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6. Teacher bashing
Teaching as a vocation is publicly scorned. This is commonly called‘ teacher bashing’. As a career, teaching is tolerated as a convenient backup pathway for people, but not endorsed as the main game. There have been reports of teachers, and even principals, being actually physically bashed.
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