DEMOS

The most influential factors, alongside pay, in recruiting teachers and encouraging them to stay in the profession are the working conditions in schools, and the opportunities for professional creativity and autonomy.

Schools need to become more appealing places to work, and teachers themselves must be able to drive the necessary changes: this is the "progressive transformation", which the author argues is the only way to solve the problems the school education system faces.

The profession needs to recruit one in eight of all graduates, but teaching currently does not match many of the career expectations of a new generation of univeristy-leavers who demand flexibility and continuous professional development.

The UK government's ambitious plans for the reform and transformation of the school sector are threatened by the crisis of teacher morale. Despite its efforts to make teaching more attractive by increasing salaries and restructuring career progression, the government has not yet persuaded enough high-quality graduates to become teachers.

The report draws on detailed interviews and workshops with more than 150 primary and secondary teachers from schools around Britain. The research found that, contrary to popular opinion, teachers are not resistant to change in all forms. Most of those interviewed accepted the need for change and recognised that the next 10 years were likely to bring even more.

However most teachers argued consistently that the government's education reforms meant they had experienced change as a never-ending barrage of externally imposed and badly managed initiatives that they had little constructive role in helping to shape.

The research also found a generation gap opening up in the profession. More experienced teachers have either become fatalistic about change in education or remain committed to teaching and prioritise improvements in working conditions over pay. In contrast, younger teachers are more concerned about their pay prospects, as well as their opportunities for professional autonomy.

Teachers are under pressure to improve performance despite an ever-increasing workload. But the reform process has so far addressed few of the basic organisational constraints on teaching. In the long term, convincing teachers to remain in the profession depends on a process of cultural change which inspires them to help reshape the structure within which they operate. That is what progressive transformation means.

In order to thrive on change in schools, teachers must be able to help shape it. To achieve this, continuous learning must become central to teaching and an integral part of any overall approach to change across the school system. The growing ability of teaches to learn, innovate and perform within a framework of transparency and public accountability is also the central route to increased public respect and esteem for the profession.

While advocating long-term progressive transformation, the report makes a number of practical recommendations which include:

• Reducing unnecessary teacher workload
• Giving every classroom teacher a dedicated teacher assistant
• Reshaping the inspection framework to include inspection on demand
• Requiring inspectors to complete 65 days teaching practice each year, and linking inspection findings to school improvement
• Increasing the scope for pupil and teacher choice within the national curriculum
• Involving teachers more directly in testing and shaping the curriculum
• Making unions and professional associations the leading providers of lifelong learning and professional development services for teachers.