The professional body for teachers is planning to appoint “professors of teaching” in a bid to help “raise the status and prestige” of the profession.
The Chartered College of Teaching (CCT) is due to appoint its first “professors” in 2027.
Eligible teachers must have had “significant” hands-on teaching experience” and may still be in classrooms, or “focused on pedagogy”.
They will be in office for three years, and the roles will be unpaid. CCT’s charter allows it to have up to five at a time.
During their tenure, “professors of teaching” will be required to deliver a lecture series, either online or in person.
“It’s all designed to raise the status and prestige of the profession,” CCT’s chief executive Dame Alison Peacock told Schools Week.
She said the new appointees must have “a deep knowledge of pedagogy…evidence of publications…a master’s degree, a PhD or chartered teacher status”.
They will be chosen by an “eminent” professorial board, due to be established next year, who must “either be professors themselves or be fellows of the CCT”.
The board will then begin selecting one to two professors of teaching in 2027, followed by the same number the following year.
Boost for classroom retention?
Peacock says while the CCT will not provide a salary for the role, she would like to see teachers who have gained professor, or chartered teacher, status rewarded with higher pay by employers.
“I would hope that there would be a pay scale that would accompany all of this nationally.”
She hopes the professorial roles will help “develop and enhance that body of knowledge that is coming directly from the profession, informed by research but also informed by practice”.
Peacock says the role could help boost retention and keep talented teachers in classrooms, “rewarding them for their expertise, and giving them the agency and the capacity to share their knowledge”.
“We do need great leaders, and we need leaders who know about teaching,” says Peacock. But she adds more “balance” is needed for teachers keen to progress their career without joining leadership.
“We need people to be incentivised to remain within the classroom and be proud to say I’m a teacher, and come and see what I’m doing, and I want to share what I’m doing.”
Tom Bennett, CEO of ResearchED, described the initiative as “a well intentioned scheme from good people” and said he wishes CCT “every success”, but added that status “can’t be manufactured”.
“The best way to genuinely raise the prestige of being a teacher is to make sure the broader public see teaching as a professional sector, which means agreed bodies of professional skills and content, a defined ethical framework, and clearly defined milestones of professional development,” he said.
“And the college is certainly also trying to wrestle with these challenges. Giving someone a medal doesn’t make you a general – being a general gets you medals.”
Desire for more chartered teachers
Launched in 2017, the CCT today has more than 45,000 members worldwide, according to its website. But to date just 688 teachers have gained chartered status.
Peacock says she would also like to see more teachers gain the qualification, to help bring “prestige”. Peacock says the process, which involves undertaking CPD units and assessments, is “very rigorous” and “not for the faint hearted”.
“Reading, listening to lectures, attending events, engaging in professional learning…working in your own classroom, working with different colleagues [helps build] a really strong repertoire for being an expert teacher,” she said.
“We believe that having a cadre of those teachers across the system…is the way that we will truly raise the status of our profession, because we will have experts within our midst.”
Anne Cameron, director of partnership and impact at the Teacher Development Trust (TDT) said the trust welcomes initiatives that “celebrate and raise the status of teaching as a valued profession”.
“It’s great to see Chartered College providing new opportunities for us all to recognise skilled and experienced classroom practitioners,” she said, adding that quality of teaching “is the most powerful in-school factor affecting academic outcomes for children and young people”.
She added: “The best way to improve the quality of teaching and learning is to offer thoughtful, needs-based CPD in a school and sector-wide climate of trust and respect for the profession,” she added.
Your thoughts