Have Geographers Lost Their Way? Issues relating to the recruitment of geographers into school teaching

Abstract

Despite efforts by the United Kingdom Government, the Teacher TrainingAgency and other organisations to address the problem of teacher shortages in geography within English schools, the subject is still failing to attract sufficient students into the profession. Whilst the impact of this has yet to be felt fully in higher education, it is only a matter of time before university geography departments may find it increasingly difficult to recruit quality students onto their undergraduate courses. By sampling three distinct populations, geography teachers, geography undergraduates and sixth formers [1], this research presents evidence of the recruitment problem, seeks to understand its nature and suggests strategies for addressing the underlying issues.

Improving teacher recruitment and retention: the importance of workload and pupil behaviour

“…Likewise, Carrington and Tomlin (2000) found that PGCE students "perceive the job as involving considerable stress, long hours, excessive paperwork and relatively low remuneration." Undergraduate students in geography, in the study by Rawlinson et al (2003), identified pay, student behaviour, stress, government attitude, low morale and long hours as deterrents to enter into teaching. Another study of undergraduates, this time at York University by Kyriacou and Coulthard (2000), identified dealing with disruptive pupils, the amount of bureaucratic tasks, school funding, OFSTED inspections, the government"s commitment towards education and the media image of teachers as factors that discouraged people from teaching.…”

A Study on Policy Related to Teacher Retention in the Rural Primary Schools of Chhukha, Bhutan

“…Likewise, Carrington and Tomlin [12] found that PGCE students 'perceive the job as involving considerable stress, long hours, excessive paperwork and relatively low remuneration'. Undergraduate students in geography, in the study by Rawlinson et al [13], identified "pay, student behavior, stress, government attitude, low morale and long hours as deterrents to enter teaching". In the study of mature students entering teaching by Whitehead et al [14], "heavy workload, classroom management and insecurity due to possible redundancy were highlighted as issues of concern".…”

Geography Undergraduates into Teaching: A Five Year Experiment

“…Portsmouth's department was well aware of a precipitous decline in the number of its graduates entering teaching and unofficial graduate destination statistics suggested that by the mid 1990s only four or five from graduating cohorts of 110-130 took places on Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programmes and of these, most chose primary school teaching (children aged 5 -11). Rawlinson et al (2003) posed the question "have geographers lost their way?" about graduate geographers entering the teaching profession.…”