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10 August 2023
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‘It is likely that both schools and ITE providers need to consider strategies for significant shortages and gap filling exercises by schools. It seems very likely that we will have far more non-specialists teaching geography, particularly at Key Stage 3.’
David Preece and Andrea Tapsfield
With the publication of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) Report (2023), we now have further information about the state of the teacher education landscape in geography. The GA’s Teacher Education Phase Committee have been working on exploring member attitudes in response to this year’s recruitment challenges.
What’s the wider context?
As a profession, we should first recognise and applaud the initiatives by subject organisations, and the hard work of school teachers in sustaining the growth in our subject. The rise in options take up, both at GCSE and A level should be celebrated. However, I think we are potentially victims of our own success – that has come in a peak time for teachers, and UK Government targets are creating a demand pipeline that takes 3–5 years to fill.
We recognise the role of the shifting landscape of geography graduates too. The rise of NetZero strategies and green jobs, coupled with the work of the past ten years to convince higher options take up through emphasis on careers and successful ‘trajectories beyond your degree’ into meaningful, environmental career opportunities has made geography graduates highly prized and valuable in the workplace.
Teaching offers relatively challenging conditions by comparison. Even with the recent announcement of a pay award, it is clear that the education landscape as a whole is in real turmoil. In a wider challenging economic climate, it is probable fewer professionals are changing careers to become teachers.
What’s happening with geography recruitment?
The STRB Report (2023) shows that geography has been one of the more challenging subjects to recruit for in the 2022-23 academic year. With only 69% of the 950 target met, the subject clearly has significant and sustained gaps in ITE recruitment.
While some of the core subjects in the EBacc offer (Mathematics, English and specialist Sciences) have targets significantly above the geography number, it’s only computing and design and technology that are higher in terms of options. The popularity of the subject in GCSE and A level simply cannot be sustained without a teacher recruitment pipeline that matches it.
These national figures may also mask significant regional disparities. NFER provides a monthly analysis of ITT recruitment with reports on Twitter by economist Jack Worth. NFER commented in May 2023 that the ‘latest ITT recruitment forecast looks dire across almost all secondary subjects’ and its forecast for 2023/4 geography recruitment versus target, based on application up to May 2023, was 55%.
The NFER analysis also notes that ‘applications have actually been pretty high this year, but they are not translating into applicants getting placed on courses. Last year there were 4.3 applications per placed applicant up to May, this year it’s 5.6’. Significant regional differences in recruitment are also noted by NFER, with providers in the East of England reporting the most significant fall in recruitment (-21%) with only the East Midlands recruiting better than 2022 (+6%).
The STRB Report (2023) reports on the bursaries available for ITE subjects from 2020-2024. Although some evidence from NFER shows short term variability, it seems that bursaries are not the driving force behind the key changes in the ITE recruitment. Physics, for example, has sustained high bursaries but continually is the hardest subject to recruit for. The variance in bursaries for geography has provided challenges for those involved in recruitment too.
The GA recruitment survey
Members of the Geographical Association (GA)’s Teacher Education Phase Committee led a short survey of ITE geography providers in Spring 2023. There were 17 survey replies of which one was a primary only provider, two were primary/secondary and 14 were secondary only. Five of the responses were from school-based providers and 12 from universities.
The chart below shows that almost all the providers had set their own notional targets for recruitment in September 2023 (orange) that were greater than the numbers recruited in 2022 (blue).
This suggests that despite recent recruitment difficulties for several years, geography providers were looking forward positively for 2023 recruitment. However, by Easter 2023 the actual recruitment (green) in many providers was not reflecting that positivity. Two providers had recruited what they had hoped for, but others had some way to go to fill all the places they had available.
The GA invited provider comments about recruitment issues, in particular how the re-instated bursary had influenced it. Providers with better recruitment for 2023 felt that the bursary could have contributed to this although not all were convinced there was a causal link.
They did note that while the bursary brings more interest, some are more attracted to the finance than to teaching geography. One provider noted that this ‘makes interviewing much more difficult and there are more rejections as a result.’ Another provider noted positively that it ‘has certainly provided an additional incentive for mature applicants and career changers.’
Providers who judged their recruitment to be worse or about the same this year felt that the bursary had ‘made very little difference apart from attracting applicants not qualified to teach these subjects’. They had received many non-subject specialist applications and one university noted that this was ‘typically the case in years with higher bursaries’.
One provider pointed out that the bursary has ‘not increased the number of high quality applications.’ One small school-based provider described their recent recruitment experience: ‘We did not receive any applications last year and have received one so far this year. Geography has proven difficult to recruit to since before the pandemic and we have noticed considerably fewer applicants the last few years so the bursary doesn’t appear to be a factor’.
Our TEPC survey asked whether providers thought recruitment was better or worse in 2023 than their experience the previous year. The responses were inconclusive. Only six of the 17 thought it was better; none of these were school-based providers. Five providers felt it was worse and four thought it was about the same.
Overall, it was the larger providers who felt recruitment was better. Geographical variance, together with prior experience of bursaries, is likely to play a role here. The one response from a primary only provider reported a recruitment situation that was far worse than last year, and they had recruited only 40% of last year’s number by Easter.
Secondary subjects’ target numbers of postgraduate entrants versus the numbers recruited in 2022/23. Subjects are sorted in order of the percentage of their target reached Source: School Teachers Review Body Report, 2023, Figure 20, page 64
Postgraduate bursaries by subject available in academic years 2020/21 to 2023/24. Subjects sorted by percentage of ITT target reached in 2022/23. Source: School Teachers Review Body Report, 2023, Table 11, page 66
What is the landscape looking like for the future?
Despite these rather concerning current recruitment findings from providers, in April 2023 the UK Government (DfE, 2023) announced a significantly increased geography recruitment target for September 2023. This increase is in line with all other secondary subjects except for classics, history, and physical education. Targets have been adjusted to build in the impact of recruitment being below target in the two ITT recruitment rounds before 2023/24.
The UK Government targets for geography recruitment were 745 in 2021–2 and 945 in 2022–3. For 2023–24 the target has been increased to 1485. This the largest percentage increase of all the EBacc subjects – a 57.1% increase. In the past two years geography has failed to recruit to target, despite re-introducing bursaries. It reached 84% of target in 2021-2 and 69% of target in 2022–3. The actual numbers recruited were 625 and 656 respectively.
What are our key conclusions?
Geography is not unique in the education sector in finding ITE recruitment difficult at the moment, and we recognise the wider concerns about public sector work, challenges and the economic landscape that all play their part. We also recognise the paradigm shift of the ITE market review and the shift in tectonic plates that have disrupted the sector this year.
We are concerned about the lack of sustained strategic coherence for the recruitment, echoing the thoughts of Biddulph and Kinder (2020). The year-to-year variation in bursaries, and changing pictures mid-recruitment does not help to provide stability for planning and recruitment for any ITE approach.
The lack of tied repayment conditions for bursaries means that the one year drop off rates are likely to be high: trainees have no requirement to repay bursaries if they leave teaching at any point, and no incentives or disincentives to remain in teaching after achieving QTS.
Given the insights of our survey, and the breadth of the academic discipline, we are also significantly concerned about the absence of funded and accredited Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) provision for geography ITE as part of a strategic plan. Whilst some courses exist (e.g. via the Geographical Association or the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)), there is no question that we need to provide better SKE support for the landscape we are facing.
It is likely that both schools and ITE providers need to consider strategies for significant shortages and gap filling exercises by schools. It seems very likely that we will have far more non-specialists teaching geography, particularly at Key Stage 3.
Schools struggling to recruit are likely to be focusing their specialist teachers in GCSE and/or A level classes, and then providing support material for non-specialist KS3 delivery. It will be interesting to explore the extent to which ‘curriculum offers’ are implemented in schools in response to this recruitment challenge.
Longitudinal analysis on the take up of geography options by high achieving students, and the longer-term performance of geography candidates may show further insight in to how the variety of specialist geography provision has impact on student outcomes. Our analysis suggests that the wider patterns may also mask regional variance – it is possible that certain areas will find it harder to deliver excellent geography, because they cannot recruit teachers as easily.
We celebrate the rise in popularity and social awareness of the importance of geography that is reflected in the increased student participation at GCSE and A level over the last decade.
We know that the subject is of vital importance, and increasingly important in the eyes of students as a viable career as well as a way to engage and understand the world around them. However, it’s critical that the next generation of geographers have equal access to trained specialist teachers to give them the best chance of a great geography education.
Written by David Preece and Andrea Tapsfield, on behalf of the GA’s Teacher Education Phase Committee
©David Preece, Andrea Tapsfield, Geographical Association, 2023
