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Dossier - Enseignant, un métier d’avenir

The challenge of attracting teachers

Introduction
Enseignants : le défi de l’attractivité. Introduction
Docentes: el reto del atractivo. Introducción
Alain Boissinot et Claude Lessard
Traduction de Maroussia Raveaud
Cet article est une traduction de :
Enseignants : le défi de l’attractivité [fr]

Résumés

Recruter en nombre suffisant des enseignants, éviter la démission de ceux qui sont déjà en poste : autant de défis auxquels sont confrontés tous les pays. Les multiples situations analysées dans ce dossier font certes apparaître des différences liées aux contextes sociaux et historiques, mais aussi des constantes qui permettent d’identifier des facteurs décisifs. La reconnaissance du métier, les conditions de travail et d’affectation, la qualité de la formation sont partout évoquées. La comparaison des politiques mises en œuvre pour améliorer le recrutement renvoie à trois enjeux importants : le type d’engagement proposé aux enseignants, l’efficacité des dispositifs de formation, la capacité à dynamiser et à valoriser les évolutions de carrière. Mais par-delà la difficulté à attirer vers le métier d’enseignant, ce qui est en cause est peut-être aussi la capacité des sociétés contemporaines à rendre attractive la mission d’enseignement elle-même.

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1On World Teachers’ Day, 5th October 2023, UNESCO pointed out, not for the first time, that the world is facing a major shortage of teachers: “44 million additional teachers need to be recruited globally to meet universal primary and secondary education in 2030, including 15 million in sub-Saharan Africa”. According to UNESCO, confirming numerous studies, this shortage is due to two factors: a decline in the attractiveness of the teaching profession as well as high levels of attrition among those already working. In issue no. 94 of the Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres, we attempt to clarify these findings, to understand the causes of the phenomenon, to identify strategies implemented to address it and to consider their effects, where data is available. This dossier presents reflections from a wide range of countries and cultural traditions, including several comparative studies. Additional material is to be found in the accompanying bibliography, compiled by A. Polewka and S. Condat. The crisis appears to be a general one, but its scale or recent amplification is worth contextualising within a broader consideration of the future of education systems, as recently featured in issues no. 871 (Values in education), no. 832 (Reforming education) and no. 823 (The privatisations of education).

A general phenomenon in many guises

2The shortage of teachers is a widespread concern which can take on many forms. In some countries the issue is finding the human resources required to keep schools running, starting with basic education. This is illustrated by several sub-Saharan African countries or the Indian Ocean territories whose situations are compared in this special issue. In other countries with more established education systems, concerns relate to the ability to maintain a system that has undergone massification and aims to include all students. This is the case, for instance, in Japan, Germany and France, where a higher school-leaving age, combined with the ambition to include pupils who previously remained on the margins of the education system, is generating considerable demand. But whether an education system is developing or branching out to ever broader roles, the challenge is a considerable one in both cases.

3Of course, the need for teachers can be qualified in the light of a number of factors such as the age distribution of current teachers, which determines how urgent it is to replace them. School demographics also count: in countries such as Japan and Germany, smaller generations will be starting school in the next few years. However, these necessary clarifications and nuances do not fundamentally alter the overall picture.

4The shortage does not affect initial recruitment alone. With growing numbers of teachers leaving the profession either at the beginning of their career or further down the line, the issue of attracting teachers to the profession is compounded by the problem of retaining them. A number of countries are attempting to solve, or at least mitigate the scale of this problem by reviewing how teachers are posted to jobs (in sub-Saharan Africa, through a form of decentralisation or regionalisation), improving working conditions (in Japan and Tunisia), or by creating career profiles that meet certain expectations of professional enhancement among practising teachers (as illustrated in the article on the specific case of New York).

A multifaceted phenomenon

5While many explanations have been put forward in the public debate, no single one can fully explain the teaching profession’s lack of appeal.

6Social status is an undeniable factor. This is often captured in terms of pay. In a country like France, teachers have undeniably fallen down the pay scale in past decades, and recent measures have not been enough to correct this deterioration, which inevitably has an adverse impact on the attractiveness of the calling. The comparison with other professions is all the more sensitive for teachers as their social origins have changed: they are less frequently from working-class backgrounds and now tend to be drawn from the middle classes. For many, entering the teaching profession is more of a step downwards than a step up. There is, however, a limit to this logic: countries with much higher pay for teachers are also experiencing a recruitment crisis, as the articles on Germany and Japan show.

7Important though it is, pay is not the only issue that affects social status. Another dimension, which is harder to take action on, is the social recognition and valuing of the teaching profession. Several contributors regret the profession’s loss of prestige. In countries where the average level of education has risen considerably, teachers’ mastery of knowledge delivers less esteem than in the past. They are no longer its sole guardians: in the digital age, access to information, if not to the actual mastery of knowledge, is not channelled primarily through schools. The notion of teaching itself has been shaken in a world where some claim to hold “alternative truths” and where science seems to have entered an age of suspicion.

8The teaching profession is all the more devalued when it appears to be reduced to implementation techniques. Such is the observation made in the article on Tunisia: an excessively ‘applicationist’ approach, leaving little autonomy to the players involved, tends to demotivate them. There is a risk here that needs to be taken into account: while it is desirable to equip teachers and support them by drawing on research-based findings, it would be dangerous to impose a supposed single best way, depriving them of their agency and room for initiative. A great deal of research has shown that professional autonomy is a key component of teachers’ job satisfaction.

9Another cause for dissatisfaction is working conditions. In the article on Japan, S. Harakita and W. Hanai highlight the heavy workload:

Long working hours for teachers are a serious problem. The TALIS 2018 survey reveals that Japanese primary and secondary school teachers work a greater number of hours each week than teachers in any other participating country. [...] In addition, an ever-increasing number of employees in the education sector are taking sick leave due to mental health. [...] While this is partly linked to the various effects of Covid-19, it is also worth acknowledging that the work environment for the teaching profession is deteriorating all the time.

  • 4 Aoi Nakayama, “How to respond to the increase in students with special education needs in Japan”, R (...)

10In this context, the shortage of teachers is both a consequence and a cause of difficulties, as it increases the workload for remaining staff. This load is compounded by the fact that schools are meant to be more inclusive, so that the school intake is more diverse. In issue no. 92 of this journal (April 2023), A. Nakayama4, again with reference to Japan, highlighted the burden of catering for pupils with special educational needs, however desirable this aim is, and the tensions and avoidance it gives rise to.

11Another factor often highlighted is the location of employment. For example, M. Dembélé et al. show how, in Burkina Faso, a regionalisation policy geared at appointing teachers to less sought-after areas had dissuasive side-effects. A. Si Moussa in turn discusses the strategies developed by future teachers in Réunion who are hesitating between various options:

Should they prioritise primary education, with its regional competitive examination and the assurance of remaining on Réunion while benefiting from the material advantage of attractive working conditions? Should they go for secondary education, which would require them to move away, with the option of returning to Réunion at a later stage? Or opt for short-term contracts in secondary education rather than taking the exams that give access to permanent tenure so as not to have to leave their native island?

12Similarly in Madagascar some people shy away from teaching, particularly in rural areas, because it would mean moving away from their home region. The situation is not so different in mainland France for secondary school teachers: their first appointment often involves an uprooting to the extent that, for some time now, young teachers have avoided taking the competitive examination, or have even given up their place if successful, in favour of temporary contracts which enable them to negotiate their place of employment.

13Unsurprisingly when faced with such difficulties, all the contributions gathered here consider the issue of teacher training and the preparation of a talent pool. In Germany, as A.-B. Liegmann and I. van Ackeren-Mindl point out, there is an a priori motivation for the teaching profession,

[but] it is difficult to know precisely how many students actually intend to go into teaching, as university courses sometimes prepare them for this sector right from the start of the programme but can also be more generalist and lead to further study pathways that are unrelated to teaching.

14This observation is widely shared, with Tunisia and France illustrating how difficult it can be to develop a stable system of teacher training. In the face of these challenges, it may be tempting to lower standards – a short-term solution which risks further complications in the long run.

15An aggravating factor arises when parallel forms of schooling introduce competition, thus fragmenting education systems as we have documented in previous issues of the Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres (for instance no. 765 in 2017). A. Si Moussa shows this at play in Mauritius in the context of a highly competitive system where private tuition is a sought-after alternative to formal education.

16Alongside these various attempts to explain teacher shortages, it is worth considering the impact of evolving attitudes to work, which the recent pandemic undoubtedly accelerated. A wide range of professions has been affected, and this could lead to a deep reckoning within teaching, as evidenced in the German article:

Views of work prevalent among younger generations are gaining ground and the media regularly feature flexible working (four-day week, working from home). It remains to be seen empirically to what extent changes in the world of work (...) will have a lasting impact on the choice of teaching.

Strategies and questions

17Faced with the recruitment crisis and teachers leaving the profession, various countries are trying to implement strategies that involve more or less far-reaching changes.

18Some are aimed primarily at limiting the effects of the shortage: lowering recruitment requirements or increasing the number of pupils per class, as M. Dembélé et al. note in relation to sub-Saharan Africa. Similarly, Germany and France are trying to make better use of existing resources, with staff called upon in France, for example, to accept cover duties or additional non-teaching roles in exchange for extra pay. The same applies in Germany:

Significant job reserves have been identified among teachers currently working part-time who could, in principle, increase their working hours. (...) Temporarily raising contacted hours of teachers working for the state (for the most part civil servants) and compensating them financially or giving them time off at a later date is also a measure that makes it possible to ensure better teaching cover in the very short term.

19However, this approach can clash with another need, as highlighted in the article on Japan:

The most crucial problem to address is workload. […] In Japan, teachers work longer than in most other countries. In particular, they spend more time on general administrative tasks than on lessons and other educational activities. In secondary schools they are also expected to devote time to extra-curricular activities. It is essential to review work organisation so as to distinguish between tasks that only teachers can carry out as specialised professionals and other types of activity [...].

20Redefining and lightening the workload is one way of making the profession more attractive, but it does nothing to solve the teacher shortage in the short term. Improving pay is more likely to reconcile the two goals. This is a highly sensitive issue in a country like France where teachers have lost so much purchasing power over several decades that they appear disadvantaged compared to other professions or similar countries. Despite some recent attempts, progress in this area is complicated both by the economic context and the sheer number of staff involved.

21However necessary all these strategies may be, they do not touch upon the heart of what it is to be a teacher. The testimonies gathered here highlight three issues at stake that are more likely to lead to a renewal of the profession: the type of contract linking the teacher and the community, the nature of teacher training, and the diversification of career profiles.

Stake 1: from civil servant status to temporary contracts

22A teacher’s commitment to the community that employs them can range from a secure job for life to casual terms of employment, with these models coexisting side by side. At one end of the scale is the civil service model, evidenced in the traditional French secondary school system, with variations to be found in other countries. Teachers are recruited through a national competitive exam and then assigned to an administrative region and within it, to a school. Once appointed, they become civil servants for life. Success in the competitive entry exam is supposed to validate conformity to an ideal model: from then on, in a way, all teachers are alike and constitute a “teaching body”. This model provides teachers with stability, a social identity and freedom in their professional practice. But the drop in numbers of candidates applying for the exams has weakened this case (see the article by G. Farges & L. Szerdahelyi, and P. Périer’s contribution in the comparison of French-speaking countries). What’s more, while being part of a professional body may enhance the status of its members, it also presents a danger that Condorcet was already denouncing in 1791 in his Memoirs on Public Instruction: a corporation tends to lead to corporatism, placing its own interests above those of the pupils entrusted to it.

23At the other end of the scale is the model of temporary contracts, whether by political choice or to top up insufficient numbers recruited via competitive exams. The commitment is more individual as there is no prior requirement to join a teaching body. It is more easily reversible, although this does not necessarily rule out professional stability (all depends on the terms of the contract). Recruitment procedures are more decentralised, to school or local level. This more individualised procedure has advantages for employers, who benefit from a greater degree of choice, but also for teachers, who gain more control over where they are posted.

24In practice, the two models may coexist, or even combine. Two scenarios emerge from the articles in this collection. In French-speaking Africa, M. Dembélé and his co-authors describe situations where there has been a political turn to temporary contracts. The countries studied (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal) have made extensive use of short-term contracts, in some cases even removing teachers’ civil service status. This has been reported to have had a rather negative effect, particularly in terms of job image, to the point of fostering a trend in the opposite direction. In Réunion, A. Si Moussa mentions a similar tension experienced by potential teachers, based on whether to accept or to reject the geographical mobility that goes with becoming a civil servant. The situation in mainland France is different: competitive exams and civil service status remain the official route, but a shortage of candidates means that more and more teachers have to be recruited on temporary contracts. This is generally thought of as a second-best option, the implications of which have not yet been fully explored. Yet some applicants are beginning to see its advantages as the commitment seems less definitive and there is greater scope to negotiate their place of work.

25A wish to introduce flexibility into an overly monolithic body can also be seen in initiatives to diversify teachers’ backgrounds by bringing in professionals from other walks of life. This is the case in Germany, where the authors note the use of “Second Career Teachers” (SCT):

The question of how to attract people other than fully trained teachers is increasingly being asked. These include people with qualifications in subjects such as mathematics, IT, electrical engineering, music, etc., but without teacher training, as well as teachers who qualified abroad. [...] Over time, almost all the Länder have developed systematic (further) training programmes for those with no initial teacher education, in order to integrate them into teaching on a long-term basis.

26A similar approach is emerging in Japan, leading to a debate: is it possible to seek more diverse profiles by opening up recruitment conditions while committing to appropriate, in-depth teacher training?

27An analysis of the situation in four French-speaking systems (Quebec, Switzerland, Belgium and France) by L. Le Vasseur, B. Wentzel, V. Dupriez and P. Périer sheds light on what is at stake. Whether by choice or as a result of recruitment challenges, moving away from the traditional civil service model has double-edged effects. Greater flexibility can be seen in the light of emerging new ways in which people relate to their work and profession, in line with the ‘fluidity’ sought by contemporary societies. But at a time when these societies are being shaken by growing divisions, there is cause for concern in the dominance of purely managerial and individualistic logics and in the fading of the “shared professional imaginary” to which our authors refer as these trends can lead to a feeling of living in “a fragmented institutional and cultural universe”.

Stake 2: rethinking teacher training

28In all countries, the declining attractiveness of the teaching profession raises questions about training: could it be that a lack of adequate preparation means people do not consider becoming a teacher, or give up the job after some time? With regard to Tunisia, M. Barouni and A. Naceur show the limitations of a training system which traps future teachers into a logic of merely implementing curricula instead of preparing them to adapt to complex situations. In France, it is hard to ignore the instability in teacher training, which has been subject to constant attempts at reorganisation over several decades without ever finding a satisfactory balance.

29At the same time, the dossier offers up some food for thought. In Germany, the authors mention an initiative to identify students at upper secondary level who are likely to go into teaching, and are provided with additional support and practical preparation. G. Farges and L. Szerdahelyi examine a similar programme, set up in 2019 by the French Ministry of Education as a pre-professionalisation scheme for education assistants. Its aim is to enable students to enter the teaching profession gradually, from the second year of their degree, by acquiring professional skills through their experience of working in a primary or secondary school.

30Teacher training is also at the heart of A. Novoa’s reflections, which conclude this issue. Building on experimental projects carried out in Brazil, he reviews the key stages that teacher training systems have undergone in most countries and outlines a model to inspire anyone aiming to make teaching attractive and motivating once again.

31According to A. Novoa, after the era of teacher training colleges, followed by universities, the time has now come for a third revolution in teacher training. This should be grounded in a recognition of higher-level professional pedagogical knowledge, which would serve as the basis for teacher training programmes. Secondly, the role of teachers themselves needs to be enshrined in the training of future generations of colleagues, thereby strengthening the autonomy and collective presence of the profession. Finally, it is essential to construct an institutional space, with decision-making and organisational capacity, that brings together the various players involved in teacher training. Such a programme is undoubtedly the best way of raising the profile of the teaching profession and attracting new talent.

32As V. Dupriez reports, in French-speaking Belgium

[T]he probability of leaving the profession in the first five years is 61% for people with no pedagogical training, i.e. no preparation for teaching. This falls to 21% for those with a teaching qualification.

33Teacher training therefore appears to constitute a protective factor against teachers dropping out. It also contributes to their resilience within the profession, particularly during the first few years of practice, which are so critical in most countries. A crucial related factor highlighted by several authors is the support given to young teachers in the early stages of their career.

Stake 3: revitalising career profiles

34The third stake, mentioned in several contributions and central to the New York study by B. Tournier, C. Chimier and H. Weir, is to revitalise careers to make them more attractive. While there was a time when doing the same job, under the same conditions, for one’s entire life, may have seemed a reassuring prospect, this is no longer the case now that the pace of life has changed and there is a growing appetite for renewal.

35Noting the limited impact of financial incentives promoted at federal level, the New York City Department of Education (DoE) partnered with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to launch a programme in 2013 that allows teachers to apply for leadership roles and take on additional responsibilities in exchange for a higher salary but without giving up their traditional activities. This reform is unique for placing the onus on educational leadership, as teachers who take on additional duties are also responsible for fostering a culture of collaboration within schools.

36The advantage of this approach, designed to prevent teachers from being trapped in ‘flat careers’, is that it combines the search for a more fulfilling role with a blueprint for redefining the teaching profession. It promotes cooperation between peers, and gives agency to those involved, while at the same time being part of a process of co-construction and ongoing adjustment.

37Even if they take on additional teaching responsibilities, New York teachers remain teachers by status. In contrast to other education systems, where taking on leadership roles involves a change in status (which is often irreversible), the New York case study reinforces a collaborative culture rather than fragmenting it or introducing complicated new hierarchical relationships. You remain among your peers; you do not become an ex-colleague entrusted with an expert role.

Teaching in an uncertain world?

There is not a crisis in education; there has never been a crisis in education; crises in education are not education crises; they are life crises. […] When a society cannot teach, it is because this society cannot teach itself. It is because it is ashamed, it is because it is afraid to teach itself... A society which does not teach is a society which does not love itself; does not esteem itself. (C. Péguy, Pour la rentrée, 1904)

  • 6 See issue no 87 of this journal on Values in Education, September 2021, coordinated by Alain Boissi (...)

38So there are ways to try and make the teaching profession more attractive. However, the bigger picture needs to be addressed: in today’s world, is there still a place for a shared teaching project which can bring people together? Is there still a place for the social recognition of the teacher as an essential figure? Is a crisis in values not depriving teachers of the foundation on which their legitimacy rests?6

39Schools were initially designed to pass on a tradition established by the elders and written down in books. Classical culture constituted a model which could be approached by imitation, but which could not be surpassed, let alone replaced.

40Protected from the outside world and its turbulence, the world of schools asserted itself as a closed space, which manifested in the use of an ancient language, Latin. It looked to the past, the fount of knowledge and wisdom enshrined in texts. Against the adventurous impulses of youth, it valued antiquity, experience and age. This is hard to grasp nowadays, with ‘youthism’ mocking ‘baby boomers’. The rapid spread of technology means that any experience we have acquired rapidly becomes obsolete, not just from one generation to the next, but even within a single generation. In the past, the elders passed on their wisdom and know-how to their children. Nowadays it is the latter introducing the former to digital culture. Traditional historical representations are being called into question everywhere, and figures long considered exemplary, who formed national pantheons, are no longer indisputable. The past is no longer a basis for teaching.

41Perhaps closer to home is the vision that took form from the Renaissance onwards. In the new world that was emerging, the focus was on the future, on discovery and not (solely) on the past. Modern languages were valued, rather than Latin, as were journeys to foreign lands. The sciences were celebrated in The Encyclopédie: the world book had opened up as an alternative to the world of books. Confidence in the future inspired a belief in progress. Rousseau and Condorcet spoke of man’s perfectibility, while in his treatise on education De Pueris Instituendis (1528), Erasmus wrote:

Trees come into existence as trees, even those that bear no fruit; horses are born as horses, even if they cannot be ridden or harnessed. But believe me, man is not born man, but made so through an exertion of invention.

42From then on, education could be thought of with optimism, as building a future and not just transmitting knowledge.

43Such an approach gives both teachers and students a chance, and it pushes back against the age of pessimism and suspicion in which we live. Nowadays, progress, knowledge, indeed the notion of progress through knowledge, give rise to doubt rather than confidence. In the age of the Anthropocene, mankind is more likely to be perceived as a threat to the world, science as questionable or harmful. Collective values have given way to an ever frustrated and renewed quest for personal fulfilment. What can now underpin an educational ideal? How to justify longer schooling when today’s increasingly individualistic people live in the elusive fluidity of the moment? How to teach if we doubt the past and mistrust the future?

44Making the teaching profession more attractive is not (only) about technical measures and institutional reforms, although these are important. It is just as much a matter of reconciling contemporary societies with the teaching-learning project itself. In the words of Péguy quoted above, does our world have the will and the ability, not just to teach, but to teach itself? Regardless of their skills and professional commitment, which are all too often poorly recognised, teachers need to be backed by a collective ambition that remains largely to be redefined. It is this ambition that can make teaching a profession for the future.

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Notes

1 Accessible online at: https://doi.org/10.4000/ries.10673

2 Accessible online at: https://doi.org/10.4000/ries.9237

3 Accessible online at: https://doi.org/10.4000/ries.8837

4 Aoi Nakayama, “How to respond to the increase in students with special education needs in Japan”, Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres, no 92, 2023, p. 59-69. https://doi.org/10.4000/ries.13725

5 Available online at: https://doi.org/10.4000/ries.5996

6 See issue no 87 of this journal on Values in Education, September 2021, coordinated by Alain Boissinot et Bernard Delvaux. https://journals.openedition.org/ries/10673

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Alain Boissinot et Claude Lessard, « The challenge of attracting teachers »Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres [En ligne], 94 | décembre 2023, mis en ligne le 01 septembre 2024, consulté le 13 mai 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ries/15341 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/127vs

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Auteurs

Alain Boissinot

Alain Boissinot has been a French literature teacher, Inspector General of the French Ministry of Education (1993), Director of Secondary Education and then Director of Education (1995-1998) at the Ministry, Associate Professor at the University of Cergy-Pontoise (1998-2001), Regional Education Superintendent (Académie de Bordeaux, 2001-2002), Chief of Staff of the Minister for Youth, National Education and Research (2002-2004), Regional Education Superintendent (Académie de Versailles 2004-2013) and Chairman of the Higher Council for the Curriculum (Conseil supérieur des programmes, 2013-2014). Recent publications include Regards sur l'école, Canopé éditions, 2021. Email: alboissinot[at]gmail.com

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Claude Lessard

Claude Lessard was Professor in Sociology of Education in the Faculty of Education at the Université de Montréal for forty years, serving as Dean from 1991 to 1995. He co-founded the Interuniversity Research Centre on Teacher Training and the Teaching Profession (Centre de recherche interuniversitaire sur la formation et la profession enseignante: CRIFPE), where he focused on teaching and the analysis of education policy. A Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (Royal Society of Canada), he held a Canada Research Chair in Education. From 2011 to 2015, he was president of the Quebec Higher Council of Education (Conseil supérieur de l'éducation du Québec). E-mail: claude.lessard[at]umontreal.ca

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