Research shows that successful education systems value teachers. They consistently attract high quality candidates, use training to develop teachers’ skills, focus on building teacher capacity, and establish career structures that reward good teaching.
Zooming in on the organization and management of teacher careers provides useful insights on how to make a teaching career more appealing. Many governments are looking for ways to diversify teacher career structures and to widen career advancement opportunities in order to attract and retain well-performing teachers in the profession. Appropriate policies and management of teachers’ careers are indeed critical in achieving quality teaching and learning and in addressing teacher scarcity.
This research project will therefore aim to provide policy makers and governments with a variety of policy options with regards to the organization and management of teacher careers. It seeks to examine different types of teacher career models, management implications and perceived effects on teacher attraction and retention.
An exhaustive literature review on the different dimensions of teacher career structures will be published at the initial stage of the research. Subsequently, a mapping exercise will be carried out, drawing on the most innovative teacher career schemes. Finally, it will be complemented by more in depth case-studies to learn from different actors’ perspectives and context specific aspects.
