Personal Development
FIVE REASONS WHY TEACHING IS NO LONGER A JOB FOR LIFE
Gone are the days when a young person leaving university and deciding to become a teacher wants to do the job for their entire working life . In years gone by , teachers would say things like ; “ teaching is a calling ” “ I will dedicate my life to my job ” but that ’ s not the case anymore . It is now quite strange to find a teacher who wants to remain in the classroom for their entire career . In the last issue of the magazine , we looked at ten career choices for teachers who have had enough of the classroom , and that article was one of the most popular articles of the issue . Why was that article so popular ? Was it because the issue was published in January , when most people are reassessing their lives or setting goals for the new year or could it be because most teachers have a vision for themselves , which includes only doing a set number of years in the classroom and then moving on ? In this article I want to put forward four reasons why teaching is no longer seen as a job for life .
Lack of autonomy :
The idea of teacher autonomy refers to the professional independence of teachers in schools , especially the extent to which they can make autonomous decisions about what they teach to students and how they teach it . This idea of teacher autonomy no longer exists , as the profession has become increasingly controlled , often times by persons who have no knowledge of or experience in the education sector . What is taught and how it is taught are often politically motivated and manipulated . Policy makers often argue that the teacher has control over how the curriculum is delivered but educators know better , because there is very little that can be done to change the delivery of a curriculum , which is designed to help students pass a standardised test or attain a predetermined benchmark .
This lack of autonomy is driving younger teachers out of the profession . Not being able to be creative and to co design the learning with your students and being forced to hit certain targets by a given date , sucks the joy out of teaching . Having gained their qualifications , teachers want to be trusted as capable professionals who are able to design and deliver a programme of learning that is most suitable for their students within certain guidelines . It is understood that there has to be some stipulations on what is taught , but the overly prescriptive nature of modern curriculum , leaves little room for teacher input . Younger teachers who want to express themselves creatively tend to leave the profession to find other ways of doing so .
Lack of trust :
This goes hand in hand with the lack of autonomy , but it also goes deeper . It seems recently , that everyone is looking over the teacher ’ s shoulder . Government , society , school administration and parents and even students , all seem to believe that