The conversation about how to improve the image of teaching needs to be had now, before things can just slide back to the status quo ante. Funding is the elephant in the room, and is always going to be an issue – it is obviously important that governments of all stripes invest properly in education. Yet equally it is not enough for teaching simply to demand more money, and this mustn’t just be about funding. Money matters – and the recent increase in teachers’ salaries was particularly welcome in this regard – but we also need to think much bigger thoughts. None of the individual measures I suggest below are in isolation revolutionary, but their power would multiply when used together, to form part of a coordinated, multi-faceted, government-led assault upon society’s ingrained prejudices against teaching.
First, teaching needs to develop more of a cutting edge. We should do more to emphasise the neuroscience increasingly informing modern practice, and dispel the wooliness that characterises many people’s impression of teaching. Now that the COVID-19 crisis has brought many parents up close and personal with the reality of trying to teach, we should seize this opportunity to say more about the science of instruction. What techniques do we use in the classroom to ensure the best possible uptake of new material? What research are such techniques based on? Teachers aren’t just there to entertain and manage behaviour (perish the thought): we are specialists in understanding how young people learn best, and we are accordingly held accountable for the attainment of the pupils in our charge. Teaching is a challenging and in many ways scientific discipline, and we shouldn’t be afraid to say so.
Second, teaching could also get a shot in the arm from an organised campaign of respected public figures speaking positively about their experiences of their own teachers. Individual celebrities have spoken out in this way before, but the government hasn’t ever properly brought such messages together as part of a coordinated PR initiative. There is huge untapped potential here: few could listen to the famous clip of Ian Wright on Desert Island Discs and not think of the profession in a new light. A rapid-fire burst of well-packaged positivity from a range of people who society deems to have ‘made it’ could provide the impetus required for a longer-term shift in attitudes. Using the model of the successful ‘Stay home, save lives, protect the NHS’ public awareness campaign seen in recent months, these snippets of good publicity could form the basis of adverts on television and online, in newspapers, and on posters and billboards.
Third, teaching should focus more on selling the personal, professional benefits of the job. Government adverts currently focus predominantly on the altruistic reasons for joining the profession, and there is certainly a place for this: there is a large pool of idealistic graduates who want to change lives and improve society, and indeed having some sort of social conscience is important in a teacher. However, alongside this sort of messaging we also need to say more about the leadership opportunities and career progression inherent to the profession, the huge range of skills it develops, and the intellectual challenges it poses. Teaching needs to be savvier about tapping into the different aspirations of young graduates, and recognise the risks in coming across as just another branch of the third sector.
Fourth, we need to do more to make the public aware of what teachers actually do. Not only would this help counter people’s hazy memories of their teachers in times gone by, but it would also get away from the lazy idea of teaching being a mug’s game which doesn’t really require any skill. We should therefore encourage more school-based fly-on-the-wall documentary series, but ensure that these feature successful schools which convey a sense of hope about the profession (there would still be plenty of characters to keep things interesting!), rather than schools battling against adversity – both sorts of school exist and require attention, but at the moment public perceptions are disproportionately coloured by the latter. This would be particularly effective if it were to be taken up by one or more of the online streaming services. A radio series could also be commissioned which looked at what teachers actually do and why they love their job.
Finally, we should hear more from teachers who joined the profession after first having a career in a different field. People like Lucy Kellaway and Kate Clanchy have already done great work in publicising their positive experiences of coming into teaching, and have greater credibility because of their professional successes elsewhere. I too have colleagues who have come to teaching from supposedly ‘high status’ careers (law, banking, management consultancy, the civil service etc.), who say that becoming a teacher was the best decision they ever made. Such testimonies are becoming more common as more people train to be teachers later in life, and we should make better use of them – they carry a powerful message about the joy of teaching and in the intrinsic value of the profession.
These five measures could together be used to kick-start a campaign and get others thinking as well, both within the profession itself and within government. They would form the basis of a coherent plan of action which would permanently change attitudes towards teaching and encourage more people to become teachers.
If not now, when?
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