Where Might Teaching Lead?
For most people succeeding as a classroom teacher is the number one priority in the early years of their career. However, it is good to think a bit about the future - here are a few possibilities for future career development.
Classroom Specialists
Many teachers spend a lifetime in the classroom and become highly skilled practitioners, offering their expertise to raise the standards of teaching generally in their own and other schools. Promotion is available for such teachers - currently through the Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) scheme for example. Dave Bennett who appears in the Transforming Lives DVD is an AST.
School Leadership
Other teachers choose to follow the management route and become leaders in the school perhaps ultimately becoming the head or principal of a school or college.
Educational Administration
Those with interest in the broader issues of educational policy and administration can follow a career in local authority posts or as a Whitehall civil servant.
Inspection and Advice
Many experienced teachers use the expertise they gain over the years to work with a variety of schools as inspectors or advisers. Some will be employed by government quangos such as Ofsted (England), Estyn (Wales) or the HM Inspectorate of Education (Scotland). Others will work for companies providing a range of educational services to schools (e.g. inspection, consultancy, and professional development courses for teachers) or as freelance consultants running their own business.
Curriculum Specialists
Some teachers become specialists in a particular area of the curriculum and may become authors and trainers in their chosen field. There are specialist advisory jobs with local authorities, subject organisations and dioceses.
Universities
Another option is to join the staff of a university and become a teacher educator. This opens up opportunities for advanced academic work.
Other Careers
Experienced teachers are highly attractive employees in other professions. They have learnt to work under pressure, are excellent communicators, can manage people well and are usually very focused. There are therefore many options, for example running a charity or working in business or becoming a full-time leader in a church.
A Case Study
Carole Baker's original intention was to study law but she sensed a clear calling from God into teaching and, despite strong advice to the contrary, became a teacher. Carole started her career as an RE and history teacher in a secondary school. She then moved to teaching archaeology in adult education and humanities in higher education where she was also involved in teacher training, and subsequently studied for a doctorate in early medieval spirituality. Then she spent twenty years as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools with national responsibility for initial teacher education and the professional development of teachers.
Carole's national role has given her the opportunity to shape policy and to speak out against developments she felt were unhelpful. As a Christian she has sometimes had to stand up against the prevailing secular ideology. Her wide experience came into its own when she was invited to chair the governing body of the new Anglican secondary school in Gloucester.
Carole had this to say as she reflected on her career.
"I'm particularly proud of the innovatory and risky teaching I've undertaken at all levels which has motivated and inspired, for instance the undergraduate student who said to me "History was never like this at school." I value the opportunities I've had to raise the esteem and expectations of disadvantaged or under-achieving pupils, students or trainees, and the many times I've been enabled to challenge or stand firm against accepted orthodoxies sympathetically but realistically, even where this has led to criticism or career blocks."
When asked what she would like to share with a Christian considering teaching she said:
"Be absolutely sure that this is what God is calling you to do. If so, do it. You will have to work very hard and under stress at times, but you will be able to change some lives and find that others are curious and challenged by who you are and what you stand for. God will honour your obedience and may lead you in quite unexpected paths - as he did me. I know that without my own Christian commitment, my life would have been totally different coming as I do from a completely non-church council estate background."
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