« Celui qui ouvre une porte d’école, ferme une prison » : The importance of school as a forge of lifelong learning habits

Abstract

The current issue of the International Review of Education (IRE) is mostly concerned with schools, their students and teachers. It is not that we have decided to change the course we announced in our last general issue (59:2, July 2013). On the contrary, having published two very well-received special issues in the meantime – on Lifelong Learning and Learning Cities – we are more confident than ever that the future of our journal lies in a focus on education and learning as lifelong endeavours. However, we also recognise that primary and secondary schools are where most people’s learning habits are formed. Failure to enter or remain in school – both by students and teachers – is therefore a cause of great concern. We begin this issue with an article (in French) by three Canadian researchers – Thierry Karsenti, Simon Collin and Gabriel Dumouchel – that seeks to get to the bottom of what the influential American magazine The Atlantic recently called ‘‘one of teaching’s most significant problems’’ – the high dropout rates among teachers in North America. In the United States of America, for example, almost half a million teachers leave their schools each year. Only 16 per cent of this so-called ‘‘teacher attrition’’ is due to retirement; the remainder is the result of teachers transferring between schools or leaving the profession entirely (Alliance for Excellent Education 2008). So far, growing numbers of new entrants to the profession – perhaps spurred by an anaemic job market – have prevented the problem turning into a crisis. But for how long can a profession withstand such a talent drain? And what impact does it have on the morale of those who remain? The authors embark on a comprehensive analysis of 69 research papers published over the last two decades. Their primary aim is to identify recurring factors in the literature on teacher attrition, particularly of new teachers. They also consider the cost of high teacher turnover, and its longterm implications, both in North America and internationally.