Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Critical Review of International Evidence of Most Promising Interventions
Background: A raft of initiatives and reforms have been introduced in many countries to attract and recruit school teachers, many of which do not have a clear evidence base, so their effectiveness remains unclear. Prior research has been largely correlational in design. This paper describes a rigoro...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/10/262 |
| _version_ | 1797552827365588992 |
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| author | Beng Huat See Rebecca Morris Stephen Gorard Dimitra Kokotsaki Sophia Abdi |
| author_facet | Beng Huat See Rebecca Morris Stephen Gorard Dimitra Kokotsaki Sophia Abdi |
| author_sort | Beng Huat See |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: A raft of initiatives and reforms have been introduced in many countries to attract and recruit school teachers, many of which do not have a clear evidence base, so their effectiveness remains unclear. Prior research has been largely correlational in design. This paper describes a rigorous and comprehensive review of international evidence, synthesising the findings of some of the strongest empirical work so far. Methods: The review synthesises a total of 120 pieces of research from 13 electronic databases, Google/Google scholar and other sources. Each study is weighted by strength of evidence. Results: The strongest evidence suggests that targeted money can encourage people into teaching but does not necessarily keep them in the teaching profession. The money needs to be large enough to compensate for the disadvantages of working in certain schools and areas, and competitive enough to offset the opportunity costs of not being in more lucrative occupations, and its effect is only short-term. Conclusions: Continuing professional development (CPD) and early career support could be promising approaches for retaining teachers in the profession, but the evidence for them is weak. There is no evidence that any other approaches work, largely because of the lack of robust studies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:06:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-458b57b1c4e949d5835f7370d24431ac |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-7102 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:06:32Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-458b57b1c4e949d5835f7370d24431ac2023-11-20T14:51:15ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022020-09-01101026210.3390/educsci10100262Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Critical Review of International Evidence of Most Promising InterventionsBeng Huat See0Rebecca Morris1Stephen Gorard2Dimitra Kokotsaki3Sophia Abdi4School of Education, Durham University, Durham DH1 1TA, UKDepartment for Education Studies, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, UKSchool of Education, Durham University, Durham DH1 1TA, UKSchool of Education, Durham University, Durham DH1 1TA, UKSchool of Education, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UKBackground: A raft of initiatives and reforms have been introduced in many countries to attract and recruit school teachers, many of which do not have a clear evidence base, so their effectiveness remains unclear. Prior research has been largely correlational in design. This paper describes a rigorous and comprehensive review of international evidence, synthesising the findings of some of the strongest empirical work so far. Methods: The review synthesises a total of 120 pieces of research from 13 electronic databases, Google/Google scholar and other sources. Each study is weighted by strength of evidence. Results: The strongest evidence suggests that targeted money can encourage people into teaching but does not necessarily keep them in the teaching profession. The money needs to be large enough to compensate for the disadvantages of working in certain schools and areas, and competitive enough to offset the opportunity costs of not being in more lucrative occupations, and its effect is only short-term. Conclusions: Continuing professional development (CPD) and early career support could be promising approaches for retaining teachers in the profession, but the evidence for them is weak. There is no evidence that any other approaches work, largely because of the lack of robust studies.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/10/262teacher recruitmentteacher retentionsystematic reviewcausal evidenceinterventions |
| spellingShingle | Beng Huat See Rebecca Morris Stephen Gorard Dimitra Kokotsaki Sophia Abdi Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Critical Review of International Evidence of Most Promising Interventions Education Sciences teacher recruitment teacher retention systematic review causal evidence interventions |
| title | Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Critical Review of International Evidence of Most Promising Interventions |
| title_full | Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Critical Review of International Evidence of Most Promising Interventions |
| title_fullStr | Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Critical Review of International Evidence of Most Promising Interventions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Critical Review of International Evidence of Most Promising Interventions |
| title_short | Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Critical Review of International Evidence of Most Promising Interventions |
| title_sort | teacher recruitment and retention a critical review of international evidence of most promising interventions |
| topic | teacher recruitment teacher retention systematic review causal evidence interventions |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/10/262 |
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