What is the Status of Teachers in 2021?

The Report shows that the tensions identified in the previous Report (Stromquist, 2018) remain, as the interplay between material factors such as pay and conditions meet the perceived intangibles of respect, recognition of expertise, and the power of messaging from governments and mass media. To put it bluntly, some jurisdictions report that teachers and other education professionals are held in high regard by their societies and, where this is the case, the follow-on effects for the profession are tangible. On the other hand, too many unions report that the status of teachers is constantly undermined by the interaction of the factors outlined below:

· Pay is too low, conditions are deteriorating, infrastructure to support teaching and learning is not a priority for government investment. · There is a lack of respect evident in the ways teachers and teaching are represented by governments and elements of the mass media. · Work has intensified, and many unions report concerns for their members’ wellbeing due to the stress of a more complex job compounded by more and more being expected of teachers. · Many teachers now face a future of precarious employment as permanent jobs are replaced with casual and short-term contracts. · Meaningful CPD that is easy to access and provided free of charge remains a priority for many unions.

There are many concerns associated with this. First, there is a concern that current teachers may leave the profession due to stress and the impact on their wellbeing. Second, concern is evident regarding the attractiveness of teaching as a career for future generations. Finally, in some jurisdictions, there is ongoing concern regarding the commitment of governments to fund a quality education system for all.

Of course, this story is nuanced by various factors. First, the level of education impacts the perceived level of respect accorded - with university educators perceived to have the highest level of respect and early childhood educators perceived to have the lowest. Some of the participants posited that this was influenced by the gender composition of the workforce, with perceived authority and status lowest where the percentage of female employees was the highest. However, this is a complex phenomenon to unpack. There is also a relationship between the minimum qualification needed to work in each level of education (for example, ECE, on average, has the lowest minimum qualification required to work as a teacher) that also impacts the perceived expertise and status of the teachers.

The COVID-19 pandemic must be seen as an explosion in the already tense realities of education systems. This Report canvasses the views of unions regarding the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on pay, conditions, workload, and relationships between governments, policymakers, and unions. The overall conclusion is that the pandemic has generally exacerbated already evident tensions and pre-existing inequalities in educational systems. While there may have been a ‘bounce’ in public

opinion due to the work of teachers during the pandemic, this has failed to trigger structural improvements such as investment, support, and better conditions for professional educators across levels of education.