Publication type
Report
Authors
Publication date
July 1, 2024
Summary:
This analysis, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, uses survey data to explore the under-studied question of how shifting career motivations might be contributing to the teacher supply challenge. Overall, we find there is little evidence that young people’s career motivations in the UK have significantly changed over the last decade to the detriment of teacher supply.
Our findings suggest interest in teaching among full-time students has varied over time. However, the proportion of young people who say they want to be a teacher has been generally consistent in the decade since 2011. There has also been a slight increase in the proportion of young people who consider pro-social factors such as ‘helping others’ and ‘contributing to society’ to be very important factors for their career choices.
Our analysis also shows that young peoples’ career preferences are predictive of whether they become a teacher. Moreover, young people born since 1997 (i.e. Gen Z) are slightly more likely to fit the motivational profile of a future teacher than Millennials. The findings therefore suggest that there is no evidence of any significant drop in interest either in teaching or in the fundamental ‘pro-social’ nature of the job. Instead, the findings affirm that addressing the deteriorating attractiveness of the teaching profession is key to solving the teacher shortage challenge.
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