The profession of a teacher in Europe
Teachers play an important role in the learning process and development of students, their knowledge in subjects that are part of the curriculum but also have an impact on the character development and behaviour of children from an early age. The pandemic has brought a transition from face-to-face to distance learning, making the work of a teacher even more essential. The pandemic caused evaluation and evolving of the role of a teacher, brought new responsibilities but also highlighted the weaker areas of the education system especially a shortage of teachers.
The EU report ‘Teachers in Europe’ focused on lower secondary teachers informs of policies and practices in education. The report covers all EU Member States with the addition of the UK, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Turkey. It is a combination of Eurydice data on national legislation with data on teachers’ practices and perceptions from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS).
The report details the findings on some of the major areas of the teacher’s role.
Working conditions
The teachers across Europe are mostly employed on permanent contracts, although at the EU level one teacher in five works on a temporary contract, with teachers aged 35 and younger the rate is higher one in three. This can be the negative factor affecting the shortage of teachers as especially young graduates are finding it harder to find a permanent position.
Regarding the salaries, teachers are generally dissatisfied as the reward they get does not reflect the time and effort spent dedicated to teaching, planning and marking and do other tasks, such as communication with parents and guardians, administration and professional development activities.
Teaching careers
The role of a teacher caries the duty to participate in continuous professional development in almost all European countries but the range of professional training activities that teachers attend varies considerably across Europe.
Despite the options of career support in the legislation of many European education systems, less than 50% of teachers report having benefitted from it.
Teacher appraisal
The appraisal is intended to provide feedback on the work and help the teachers to improve. Nearly two-thirds of teachers, in countries with appraisal established, find it useful to have feedback.
Teachers’ well-being
Coping with student behaviour and motivating students can be stressful and almost 50% of teachers feel ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ of stress at work EU wide.
Teacher mobility
Only a small number of teachers in Europe have been abroad for professional purposes. Despite EU programmes offering funding for the mobility, the reality is the contrary and teachers might not be able to undertake the opportunities due to national policies making it harder.
This report brings to a piece of surface information on the impact produced by national policies on teachers’ behaviours and their experience and should be used to reflect on and built reforms and improvements in education.
