Abstract—The contribution teachers make to quality
educational systems is well established. Consequently, there has
been a growing emphasis across many countries on attracting
and retaining good teachers. There has been a crisis in
attracting second level teachers to work in certain schools and
areas in the United Kingdom. There are currently some
concerns regarding teacher recruitment in the Republic of
Ireland (RoI). This was a report and small-scale, qualitative
study interviewing two Irish teachers who went to teach in a
London school and their school Principal. The researcher
sought to gain insight into the phenomenon of Irish teachers
teaching in London and the challenges and rewards of this
experience. The interviews were analysed using thematic
analysis techniques and the insights gained were discussed in
the light of findings from previous research and the author’s
international experience. The findings support that of larger
studies. Teaching in the London school was found to be difficult
and highly bureaucratic. This led to excessively long working
hours, poor work/life balance and burn-out. The participants
reported feeling supported and well mentored in the school but
teaching was perceived as ‘easier’, more manageable and
attractive in the RoI.
Index Terms—Assessment, induction, professionalism, role of
the teacher, teacher recruitment, teacher retention.
M. I. Mullaney is with the National College of Art and Design, 100
Thomas Street, Dublin, Ireland (e-mail: mullaneyi@staff.ncad.ie).
Cite: Mary Isobelle Mullaney, "Valuing Teachers in the Irish Context: Lessons from London," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 689-698, 2019.
Copyright © 2019 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).