There is a teacher shortage in British Columbia. And it is actually much larger than just here. As schools go back in session there are reports from across the continent of a shortage of qualified staff.
The reasons are not simple One often hears a range of reasons including: compensation levels, high workload and stress, lack of support, aging workforce, changing demographics, and credentialing barriers. And just as the reasons are not simple to pinpoint, neither are the solutions. It definitely seems like COVID changed some things for people. We are seeing more people wanting part-time work, and an interest in more flexible work. The challenge of teaching (at least as we largely know it) is that it is a face-to-face job with regular hours – it is not one of those jobs that can be that flexible (again, at least as we traditionally know it).
Digging deeper into the reasons for the shortage and possible solutions is for another post at another time.
We do have some particularly unique challenges in West Vancouver. In particular, as a result of local housing prices, about 80% of the workforce lives outside of the school boundaries. As I said to staff as we started the school year, I need them to commute through one or more other school districts where they could likely get a job to work here. And in a profession that largely pays the same salary across the province we are having to find what makes our district unique so people will commute longer for work.
At our Opening Day with staff we ran a simple poll with the 400+ teachers in the theatre, asking them, “Why Do You Work in West Vancouver?” The answers were telling. What teachers are looking for is community. Here is the visual that their answers produced:
The words that stand out are striking – community, connections, relationships, colleagues, support. All things that are often difficult to measure but speak to the culture of the kind of workplace we are typically seeking. And what is true about all of them is that the ways to improve them are free. Looking at the other words that came up – from supportive, to connections, to working environment to innovation – there is a lot there we can work with. Also great to see the names of specific people or schools as reasons why people work in our district – a reminder that we are in the “people” business. If we want to be a destination district we need to focus on culture.
Of course, this work does little to improve the teacher shortages – we are really just stealing from our neighbours to meet our teaching needs. This list does give us a starting place on where we should focus as we change perceptions of teaching and attract the next generations of teachers.
