RISE Hub - Career Intentions
Introduction
Understanding the career intentions of your science staff can help short, medium and long term planning. It will allow you to help your teachers fell satisfied with their job and have a sense of autonomy, achievement and security which will allow them to grow.
Different teachers have different aspirations. Some may be satisfied with developing their science teaching, others may want to take on responsibility leading to management or leadership roles.
Retaining good science teachers in the classroom and schools is a priority, but if they choose to leave there are a number of roles that they can still contribute to science education. The ASE SOS document offers a range of considerations from changing phase, sector to training teachers and beyond.
Interpreting the data
The qualitative data gives indicators of the short, medium and long term intentions of the science staff. It will also give indications of how actively your science teachers are looking at leaving their role, the school or teaching altogether. It also gives a comparison of whether science teachers would recommend the science department or school as a whole.
The qualitative section allows teachers to express what their career intentions are.
In the pilot study some teachers had very clear ideas about their future whether it be promotion or happy doing what they are doing. Others did not. For the latter, science leaders put in place some career guidance through individual career planning.
General Strategies
- Individual career plans
- Creating a strategy: progression planning, departmental size and shape
- Aim for any leavers leaving happy. Supporting teachers to develop and take their skills in another department through promotion, for example. In order to assess this, exit interviews can be a useful strategy.
