The Shortage of Teachers of Mathematics, Physics and Technology: can mature entrants fill the gap?

Abstract

In 1986, prompted by the long‐standing difficulties in obtaining suitably qualified teachers in particular subject areas, and by impending unfavourable demographic trends, the United Kingdom Government announced plans to improve the supply of teachers of physics, mathematics and technology. An investigation into the effectiveness of these initiatives to attract teachers into shortage subject areas found that a majority of entrants to pre‐service teacher education courses of physics, mathematics and technology are over 25 years of age. This observation framed the hypothesis that the traditional routes into physics, mathematics and technology teaching in secondary schools may be overly focused on the needs and expectations of younger graduates, and not sufficiently structured to the possibly different needs and expectations of older entrants. With these issues in mind, a further research programme was developed which investigated the nature, expectations and experiences of ‘mature’ entrants to teaching the shortage subjects. This paper outlines the research and discusses the findings and their implications.