Ruth Graham
Thesis Title: How successful schools serving vulnerable communities retain the commitment of early career teachers: a socio-cultural investigation.
There is a persistent trend of high attrition among early career teachers (ECTs) in England, with the DfE consistently recording more than 30% of ECT leaving the profession within their first five years. Within this, the effects are particularly acute schools serving economically vulnerable communities. Pre- pandemic figures from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) show that the gap in educational attainment already leaves economically vulnerable pupils over 18 months behind their more affluent peers by the time they take their GCSEs. The Sutton Trust illustrate from 2022 exam results that this gap has widened since the pandemic. In contrast to research on teachers who leave or intend to leave the profession in a post pandemic context, this project focuses on understanding why teachers in schools in challenging circumstances serving disadvantaged pupils, stay. The study will gather and analyse the perspectives of teachers in their first six years of teaching over a two-year period. The interplay of factors which have been shown to influence teachers’ commitment will be explored, including: relationships of collegiality and trust: feelings of pride, moral purpose, confidence, identity and efficacy: personal factors: leaders’ values, qualities, skills, actions, policies and practices. The teachers will be drawn from a selection of primary and secondary schools serving economically vulnerable communities which are considered successful due, for example, to consistently higher than expected student achievement. In doing so, the research will seek to provide insights for policy makers and school leaders into how and why early career teachers maintain their commitment.
Biography
I taught for 12 years, both in UK and International schools. Following subject leader and staff mentor roles, I gained an MA in Educational Leadership and Management and got involved in teacher development. I work on the PGCEi at the University of Nottingham, which is a teacher education programme for international teachers. I am interested in teacher professionalism and commitment, particularly the reasons teachers love their job, despite its challenges. This led me into research, including a project on teacher professionalism during the pandemic which illustrated the resilience and care of teachers. I am currently a part time ESRC funded student looking into the teacher commitment of early career teachers.
Publications
Day, C., Smith, H.V., Graham, R., & Athanasiadou, D. (2023). Teacher Professionalism During the Pandemic: Courage, Care and Resilience (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003391661
Education
Nottingham
2023 Cohort, 1+3
linkedin.com/in/ruth-graham-9543b120a
@RuthGrahamEd
Supervisory Team
Christopher Day
Joanna McIntyre
Memberships
BERA