Abstract
The recruitment and retention ‘crises’ in US and UK teaching have major and negative implications for the future of education. This pilot study uses extended conversations with Asian and African teaching staff to examine the role of values in helping teachers sustain positive contributions to children’s lives and world. In five elementary schools, the researcher asked: What is the role of personal values in recruiting, retaining, sustaining and building the creative capacity of teachers? The study found that a close alignment of institutional and individual values generated strong positive impacts on teacher fulfillment and resilience. It further suggests that by using their own autobiographical ‘values-stories’, teachers could advance personal values and build their capacity to contribute. The article proposes implications for all education departments, universities and schools seeking to address declining rates of teacher recruitment and retention. Recommendations include greater attention to the values that bring individuals to education, a steer towards using values-stories across the curriculum and a focus on ‘Big Issues’ in Initial Teacher Education.
Highlights
Each school in this study aims at values-creation
The high profile of values may seem exotic but it is proposed the schools offer models transferrable to foundering education systems in the west. Chosen for their un-representative qualities the subject schools demonstrated through their established teachers, the potential positive impacts of values-centric approaches
Discussion, peer appraisals and reputation provided multiple examples of teacher resilience, energy, positivity and creativity that arose from consistent values
Summary
ITE and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) strategies focus on implied values like separation, competition and compliance (see Alexander, 2010) This mismatch between initial motivations for teaching and the realities of training and teaching life is concerning. Teachers that stay in education point towards a solution They cite friendship, recognition/appreciation from management, witnessing/facilitating the holistic development of children and opportunities for creativity as keeping them fulfilled and resilient (Booth, 2012; Kell, 2018). Such evidence suggests that paying greater attention to teachers’ initial, inclusive, values and ideals might help address the retention crisis
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