Now is the time to be bold. The new focus on ensuring that new teachers have the knowledge and support to help them succeed is a fantastic opportunity. And here at the IOE we’re at the very heart of that work, as one of just six institutions selected to develop the ECF programme.
Government-commissioned research has concluded that teacher training has been simply too short. A year of initial teacher education and a year of induction was not enough and so the Early Career Framework (ECF) was established, to include a two-year induction period, during which the early career teachers (ECTs) are supported by a mentor throughout, within a defined programme grounded in educational research.
I wholeheartedly agree with this approach, so I jumped at the chance to help develop IOE’s first programme within the ECF to thousands of new teachers. Our programme is delivered by our partners in teaching school hubs, who have worked incredibly hard. It’s very powerful for early career teachers to be guided by experienced colleagues who live in the same area and who work in the same schools.
Take mentorship, for example. This is not just a programme for ECTs, it’s also a programme for mentors. Success rests on the quality of the mentor and the relationship between the mentor and the early career teacher. We also want mentors to be regarded as important for the development of all staff, not just ECTs, and have a high status in the staffroom.
We drew on Professor Andrew Hobson’s work on ONSIDE mentoring: a non-evaluative approach to the mentoring relationship between the mentor and the early career teacher. It’s sustainable, less prescriptive and non-judgemental, allowing the mentor and their early career teacher to develop jointly. Early feedback from our mentors is very positive.
The second key theme is around giving teachers agency. They need to critically evaluate research and understand the nature of data from their own classrooms or elsewhere. They need to make choices and see progress. Giving them this kind of agency means they’re happy in the classroom and therefore more likely to stay in the classroom.
Our practitioner inquiry approach across the second year of the programme is all about agency: supporting teachers to engage in cycles of inquiry. They choose the most relevant parts of the ECF to work on – for example, behaviour management, or how they ask questions in their classroom. They engage in these small projects throughout the year, supported by their mentor.
This is a novel approach, but we know it works. We want to challenge our ECTs to take risks, try something new and reflect on what has and hasn’t worked. Practitioner inquiry allows them to do that. Again, I’m delighted with the initial feedback: 91 per cent of mentors said that this approach was making a positive difference to the teaching of their mentees.
The programme is also deliberately flexible, because all ECTs are different. We make our whole programme available so participants can look forward and look back. But we recognise that they don’t all start in the same place, so we invite them – using our module audits – to find their own pathway through each module, placing the emphasis on the activities that are most meaningful to them.
Ultimately, the ECF is a huge opportunity to build capacity in the system for professional learning and development – along with all the benefits that come when teachers love what they do and want to keep doing it for life.
Mark Quinn is Associate Professor (Teaching) at the IOE.
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