Experience and the educational ecosystem: why retention of experienced colleagues matters for beginning teachers

A little while ago I had the opportunity to chat with a teacher who is 20 odd years into their teaching career.  As they spoke about their Trust’s approach to curriculum, the demands being placed upon their department through whole school initiatives and the challenges that come from a high turnover of colleagues, I was struck by how their experience provided them with much needed perspective. They were able to lean upon their experience, and track record of good outcomes for pupils, to exercise a degree of agency in deciding how to engage with these demands.  They were also able to recognise when to let things go, when to quietly subvert, and when their line in the sand had been crossed and they needed to engage in more active resistance.  And I was particularly struck by how they talked about their newer, less experienced colleagues with admiration and care – like a big tree sheltering a sapling. They understood the need to prioritise and advocate for lesson planning as an important aspect of beginning teacher’s training despite it being in conflict with wider school developments.  They also recognised their mentee’s strengths and the need to give them time to develop aspects of their practice, understanding how important it is for the education ecosystem to attract and nurture new entrants into the profession.  

The problem of retention

During my two decades in education many things have changed, but one of the most visible and obvious, changes is the nature and composition of the teacher workforce.  Walk into many staff rooms and the work force are visibly younger* – just 67.5% of teachers making it beyond 5 years of service in the classroom (DfE, 2024) and ‘more than 40,000 teachers left the state sector in 2023’ (Worth, 2024).  Meanwhile the ‘combined effect of promotion of more inexperienced teachers and the greater experience of those leaving, meant leaders on a whole were less experienced in 2016 than in 2010’ (DfE,2022, 48).  The effects of this change have been significant and felt beyond the appearance of the staff room. 

The value of experienced teachers in our schools

Retention of experienced teaching staff really matters for young people in our schools but also for less experienced members of staff.  Being more experienced does not automatically mean you will be a better teacher, but there is a growing body of research that demonstrates the value of an experienced teacher workforce for their pupils and their schools:

‘A growing research base suggests that teachers’ effectiveness rises sharply in the first few years of their careers, and this upward trajectory continues well into the second and often third decade of teaching, with a steeper slope when teachers work in collegial settings’ (Podolsky, 2019, 20).

In addition to being effective teachers, more experienced colleagues also provide valuable conditions for the growth of beginning and early career teachers; informal, unplanned contacts with more experienced colleagues (Beutel et al. 2009; McCormack et al. 2006), including in the form of ‘pedagogical exchanges’ (Howe, 2006, 293), provides significant and valuable support for less experienced teachers.

More experienced teachers in mentoring roles are often, as demonstrated by the teacher at the beginning of this blog, able to be more speculative about the pressures of school and education policy.  Consequently, they are often better positioned to provide space for their beginning/ early career teacher mentees to make mistakes (Beutel et al. 2009, 355), providing both the emotional support and professional buffer that supports their development.  This is not to say that every more experienced teacher is an excellent mentor, or that those nearer the start of their career cannot be highly effective in their role – of course they can and (certainly in the experience of our own partnership) are.  Rather, it is a reflection that teachers who are later on in their career often have less to prove professionally and have a greater body of results and track record upon which to draw.  Consequently, they are more likely to allow their mentees to take risks and will flexibly adapt their beginning teacher’s training programme accordingly.  While they may have additional responsibilities in school, meaning greater time pressures placed upon them, mentors who are well established in their school setting also understand how to navigate relationships with their leadership, colleagues, pupils and communities.  Even if they are not the formal mentor, experienced colleagues can provide a broader network of informal support for beginning teachers, offering wise guidance gleaned from years of service.

Experience is vital

The value of high-quality professional training for teachers in formal mentoring roles has been well established (Hobson & Maldarez, 2013), however, training is only one element of the equation.  Retention matters because a successful education system is about a whole lot more than just putting qualified staff in front of pupils.  Our beginning and early career teachers need the wisdom and pragmatism of their more experienced colleagues too.  The loss of experienced teachers from the profession is the loss of a vital component in our educational ecosystem and places our system at risk of imbalance.  We need more of an eye on the interconnectedness of our ecosystem to prevent the whole system becoming unsustainable.  Retention really matters.    

*I appreciate that many early career teachers are also career changers.

References

Beutel, Denise & Spooner-Lane, Rebecca. (2009). Building Mentoring Capacities in Experienced Teachers. International Journal of Learning. 16. 10.18848/1447-9494/CGP/v16i04/46209.

 DfE (2022). School leadership in England 2010 to 2020: characteristics and trends, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/626950bfe90e0746c0a7b057/School_leadership_in_England_2010_to_2020_characteristics_and_trends_-_report.pdf

DfE (2024). School workforce in England, Reporting year 2023, https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england

Hobson, A. J., & Malderez, A. (2013). Judgementoring and other threats to realizing the potential of school-based mentoring in teacher education. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 2(2), 89-108. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE03-2013-0019

Howe, Edward. (2006). Exemplary Teacher Induction: An international review. Educational Philosophy and Theory. 38. 287 – 297. 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2006.00195.x.

McCormack, A., Gore, J., & Thomas, K. (2006). Early Career Teacher Professional Learning. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 34(1), 95–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/13598660500480282

Podolsky, Anne & Kini, Tara & Darling-Hammond, Linda. (2019). Does teaching experience increase teacher effectiveness? A review of US research. Journal of Professional Capital and Community. 4. 10.1108/JPCC-12-2018-0032.

Worth, J. (2024) Teacher workforce woes pose big questions for next education secretary, TES Magazine, https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/general/teacher-workforce-woes-pose-big-questions-next-education-secretary