Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers
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ATTRACTING, DEVELOPING AND RETAINING EFFECTIVE TEACHERS OECD Activity Country Background Report Denmark Centre for Higher Education, Greater Copenhagen CVU Storkøbenhavn March 2003 Jens Christian Jacobsen & Jørgen Thorslund This report was prepared for the Ministry of Education as an input to the OECD Activity Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers. The document was prepared in response to guidelines the OECD provided to all participating countries. The guidelines encouraged the author(s) to canvass a breadth of views and priorities on teacher policy issues. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the national authority, the OECD or its Member countries. FOREWORD In a communiqué sent out by the OECD’s Ministers of Education in April 2001, Teaching and Learning was nominated as one of four focus areas in the field of education. Consequently, the OECD’s Education Committee decided to include Promoting Quality Teaching and Learning as an area of interest in its working programme. On an expert meeting in January 2002, this item of the programme was concentrated in the direction of how to attract, recruit, develop, and retain effective teachers. Confirmed by representatives from the OECD countries in March 2002, the overall purpose was laid down in this way: The overall purpose of the Activity is to provide policy makers with information and analysis to assist them in formulating and implementing teacher policies leading to quality teaching and learning at the school level The starting point for the entire OECD report is a country report prepared by each of the participating OECD member countries according to a template drawn up by the OECD. The Centre for Higher Education, Greater Copenhagen (CVU) has through the Ministry of Education had the opportunity of working out the Danish country report. This is a task which we have accepted with pleasure because of the present acute need for establishing on a national level and in an international reflection a qualified basis for the completion of the project’s overall purpose. Furthermore, CVU Greater Copenhagen is with its two colleges of education (Blaagaard Seminarium and Københavns Dag- og Aftenseminarium) the Danish centre for higher education with the largest concentration of teachers’ training in its construction. According to an agreement with the Ministry of Education, CVU has the sole responsibility for the analyses and assessments. We hope that this country report in itself and as a part of the total OECD report will establish a considerable basis for future further initiatives for attracting, recruiting, developing and retaining effective teachers for the benefit of the development of Danish society. Finally we would like to take the opportunity to thank the many interested parties who by their contributions in a National Advisory Board and a special working group have given highly competent responses to the preparation of this report. Mayor Ove E. Dalsgaard Laust Joen Jakobsen Chairman of CVU Storkøbenhavn Principal of CVU Storkøbenhavn 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ....................................................................................................................................2 TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................................................3 LIST OF FIGURES ..........................................................................................................................5 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...............................................................................................................6 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................9 Organising an OECD project and a country report.................................................................10 Methodological considerations and data material...................................................................10 The organisation of the report.................................................................................................11 1 THE NATIONAL CONTEXT.....................................................................................................12 1.1 Political priorities and objectives..........................................................................................12 1.2 Demographic trends and cultural diversity ...........................................................................14 1.3 Resources for education ........................................................................................................15 1.4 Economic conditions and labour market trends....................................................................16 1.5 Public debate.........................................................................................................................18 2 THE SCHOOL SYSTEM AND TEACHING WORKFORCE...................................................21 2.1 The School System................................................................................................................21 Youth education (upper secondary education)........................................................................23 2.2 The control of the school system and current reforms..........................................................26 Quality assurance and Development.......................................................................................30 2.3 Development of curricula......................................................................................................30 2.4 The extent and development of the population of teachers since 1990 ................................32 2.5 The extent and development of the support personnel .........................................................33 2.6 Signs of teacher shortage ......................................................................................................34 2.7 Central political actors ..........................................................................................................36 3 ATTRACTING MOTIVATED PEOPLE TO THE TEACHING PROFESSION ......................38 3.1 Recruitment as a political theme...........................................................................................38 Parliamentary reactions...........................................................................................................38 The conditions for the teaching profession .............................................................................39 The point of view of local authorities .....................................................................................39 3.2 Ways to the teaching profession ...........................................................................................40 The extent of recruitment to the colleges of education...........................................................40 The transition from training to work.......................................................................................42 Salaries and working conditions – from a relative point of view ...........................................42 Re-entering the profession ......................................................................................................44 3.3 Recruitment initiatives – and their effect..............................................................................44 Political power of penetration .................................................................................................45 A New and wider recruitment strategy ...................................................................................45 Regional imbalances ...............................................................................................................47 4 THE BASIC, SUPPLEMENTARY AND FURTHER TRAINING OF TEACHERS................48 4.1 The training of teachers as a political theme.........................................................................48 General education or subject didactics....................................................................................48 University or college of education ..........................................................................................49 4.2 The training of teachers – status and development tendencies .............................................49 3 New competence – new freedom on the job ...........................................................................49 The private schools .................................................................................................................50 The structure of teachers training............................................................................................50 Financing and admission requirements...................................................................................52 Teachers’ programmes and qualifying courses.......................................................................52 Distance Learning ...................................................................................................................53 Teachers’ certificate programme ............................................................................................53 Introductory and assistant teacher schemes ............................................................................54 Options of further training