Teacher mobility in challenging areas

Expressions of interest are sought to provide evidence on the kind of strategies that would be effective in encouraging teachers to move into challenging schools within the vicinity of their current location. A crucial aspect of this research will be obtaining relevant evidence from ITT graduates, NQTs, class teachers and head teachers regarding their opinions, attitudes and motivations related to the strategies.

Aims The Department for Education wants to improve social mobility for children, especially those in schools where there are supply issues or other challenging characteristics. Such schools are often in challenging areas and a key strategy in this approach would be the incentivising of teachers to move to such schools.

Hence, there is a requirement for research into the effectiveness of incentives to encourage NQTs, high-quality teachers (and their head teachers) to take part in such initiatives. The perception of NQTS, teachers and head teachers - their opinions, attitudes and motivations toward different incentives - will provide the Department for Education with vital information to drive policy development in this area.

The overarching aim of this proposed research is therefore to provide information on what interventions might be best able to attract excellent teachers to work in schools located in challenging areas. There are three key objectives: (i) Provide robust qualitative evidence concerning the attitudes of teachers and head teachers to relocating staff to challenging schools: Why would teachers move, why would head teachers let them, and what barriers might there be to the initiative?

(ii) Provide robust qualitative evidence concerning the attitudes of teachers and head teachers to specific interventions. This would provide the department with information as to which strategies were most likely to work. (iii) Provide robust qualitative evidence concerning the attitudes of ITT graduates to applying as NQTs to challenging schools: Why would they apply and what barriers might prevent their applications?