When you google the current state of education, it won’t take you long before you come across headlines that speak to a shortage of teachers in the profession. This of course creates a variety of problems in both delivering a solid education to students, but also the added stress on teachers. 

To help address this there has been a focus on Recruiting more teachers to come to the profession. To be clear, it is a wonderful profession, but it is certainly not an easy one. Unlike our counterparts in other countries or other districts, many teachers in Canada are compensated fairly well in the profession so there are very few who are leaving because of the salaries. This instead points to other reasons, which anecdotal accounts have more to do with working conditions, unreasonable demands and a lack of support. A focus on Recruitment does very little to alleviate any of these reasons, as such, a more effective strategy may be a focus on Retention. 

Retention in many ways is a much more important factor in the sustainability and longevity of educators. Depending on the country and region, the statistics show that 30-60% of teachers leave the profession in the first 5 years of their career. This means that for every 3 teachers we are able to recruit, we at best keep 2 and are just as likely to keep 1.

Perhaps an increased focus on trying to keep teachers in the profession would be a more impactful approach. Recruitment means convincing people they want to be a teacher, then training them to be a teacher at their own expense, and then getting them to enter the profession. This process takes several years to bear fruit and as mentioned, some will still leave for other careers so the long term effort may not pay off. With a focus on Retention, those steps which are arguably some of the hardest steps, are already done and the pay off is immediate since those teachers stay teaching.

A focus on Retention starts with dialogue with our teachers on why they are leaving the profession. By and large, for many of them it comes down to people who want to do a good job, but cannot due to the many demands of the role. Some of these demands are inherent in the job and it is naive to think that they can be alleviated, however, some of them are fair play. The trick is finding ways to make the job more manageable and have people feel like they are supported in the role. There is a lot of room for improvement in education that can take the same resources and allocate them differently. Similarly, by changing certain policies and practices, we are likely to still deliver quality education without placing undue stress and burnout on our educators.

In reading through some accounts of teachers who have left the profession in recent years, they describe feelings of overwhelm and helplessness. Those teachers that stay tend to cite having strong leaders who supported them as being reasons they stayed. This speaks to feeling supported, valued, and appreciated. The take away from this, is that many people are willing to dig in and do the hard work, if they both think they can be successful and are treated well. These are not systemic or logistical in nature, but they are rooted in how people are treated and this is something well within the control of leaders. 

Strong and supportive leadership with tight professional communities are key factors in preventing educators from leaving. This can easily be facilitated by formal mentoring programs since they are low cost and help to build professional networks that have been shown to be beneficial in helping to insulate against burnout. 

In addition, building leadership capacity at all levels and empowering educators to have autonomy in their role since feelings of powerlessness in your role can be a motivating factor to leave the profession. However, autonomy without skill can be dangerous since too much freedom without the ability and knowledge to make decisions within the context and framework of education can be problematic. As such, a focus on creating strong leaders, who in turn can create strong teachers, should be at the forefront of retention efforts.

Finally, there needs to be a true recognition of the struggles that educators face. WIth society changing as rapidly as it does it is difficult for anyone removed from the school system to truly appreciate the modern day-to-day changes and demands on in-school educators. By the same token, it is difficult for in-school educators to fully appreciate the lens and demands on out-of-school leaders as well. This is where transparency and authenticity come into play. We know that collective efficacy, which includes knowledge of each other’s work, is a factor in school success but we have yet to really adopt it systemically in education. Schools primarily still work in pockets and beyond schools a hierarchy of responsibilities takes over. As such, it is critical that all levels work to discuss and problem solve for solutions that can work for parties involved. This will involve give-and-take from top to bottom and an abandonment of practices or policies that are ineffective, unmanageable or has little impact (as a side note to this idea, research by Peter DeWitt shows that some of these practices are held tightly by educators because they like them and not because they are particularly effective)

It is unlikely that we are going to solve a teacher shortage quickly. An old adage says the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second best time is today. If we don’t start taking steps to address this shortage we will continue to find ourselves in a worsening position until it reaches a breaking point. We can absolutely make improvements right now to keep more educators in the profession, while making it more attractive for others to get into. Retention plays a huge role in Recruitment, but as discussed, the reverse is not necessarily true.