'47 hour week and huge extracurricular involvement' - new teacher study

(12 Apr 2009)

47 hour week & huge extracurricular involvement’ – new teacher study

(12 Apr 2009)

Preliminary findings from a major study conducted by market research company, Behaviour & Attitudes, on behalf of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) show that teachers work an average of 47 hours a week during term time.

Findings also endorse the volunteerism of teachers but worryingly show that discipline and conflict issues have greatly intensified in the last five years, with 80% of respondents indicating that such problems are increasingly time-consuming.

Teachers can take solace that a parallel survey among the general public shows well over half (59%) of the general public believe that the role of the second level teacher has become more difficult in the past ten years and up 60% believe the range of teaching duties makes the job a lot more difficult than it was ten years ago.

TUI’s concern that bureaucratic duties are detracting from teaching and learning are also backed up in the findings.

Key findings show that:

•   many teachers work up to 47 hours a during term time
• 80% indicate that discipline problems now take up considerable time
• 88% of teachers report an increase in the carrying out of administrative duties over last five years
• 54% of teachers under the age of 35 and 45% of teachers between 35 and 44 are involved in extracurricular sports activities. 
   

TUI General Secretary Peter MacMenamin today commented on the findings.

“These findings endorse the great job that teachers are doing within their local communities.

On average, teachers are spending 25 hours per week working outside of timetabled teaching hours. For a teacher on full (22) hours, this equates to a 47 hour week.

The volunteerism of teachers is also hugely endorsed in the findings. 54% of those under the age of 35 and 45% of those between 35 and 44 are involved in extracurricular sports activities. Overall, 35% of teachers are involved in sports.

The study was administered among a selection of schools and teachers in VEC and Community and Comprehensive schools, embracing a wide range of subject teachers and a broad geographical spread.

It is significant that 80% of those surveyed indicate that the time required for dealing with discipline and conflict is considerable and according to the study 45% experience this as among the highest demands on their time. According to a TUI survey from three years ago one fifth or respondents were threatened or intimidated by students at some stage during the previous week

Discipline issues in this instance were not confined to students with behavioural difficulties but refer to teachers encountering a general increase in tendency among young people to unduly challenge authority and disregard school rules and regulations. 

However, a staggering 88% of teachers surveyed said that carrying administrative tasks has increased significantly in the past ten years and 74% mentioned it as one of the highest demand on workload. This affirms ongoing concerns among teachers that their role is becoming excessively administrative in nature due to increasing legal and reporting demands and an absence of the necessary administrative, pastoral and technical resources.

More and more time is robbed from the primary roles of teaching and learning due to increasing bureaucratic burdens, placing the overall quality of the learning experience for students at risk. 

Addressing a wider range of mixed ability students is noted as among the top ten demands on teachers’ time and the data also reflects an increase in the demand arising from working with students with special educational needs. The TUI agrees in the principle with the integration of students with special educational needs into mainstream classes and its members have a long history of working with mixed ability student groups. 

However it is well established that interactive learning methods and experiential learning are a very important part of supporting learning in these contexts. The increased pupil teacher ratio, the delay in resources to address special education needs and the withdrawal of posts under measures to address disadvantage is a significant and unjustified blow in this regard.

Teachers can take some solace in that a parallel survey among the general public shows well over half (59%) of the general public believe that the role of the second level teacher has become more difficult in the past ten years and up 60% believe the range of teaching duties makes the job a lot more difficult than it was ten years ago.

They also suggest that the range of tasks teachers have to complete on weekly basis have increased in the past ten years and close to 60% agree that hours worked in addition to actual teaching time have increased.”