This paper presents the results of a mixed-methods investigation into undergraduates’ perceptions of the competition for Newly Qualified Teacher positions within the primary sector in England and Wales. The study sample was a cohort of final-year Education Studies undergraduates at a post-1992 university in Wales. All of the participants aimed to become primary school teachers. The study's rationale lies in evidence that teaching is becoming more competitive while offering less security. The study revealed that the students had a realistic view of the labour market for NQT positions, showing awareness of the increasing demands placed upon the cultural, social and material resources of potential entrants. Although this knowledge did not deter the students, it is concluded that developments within teaching may ultimately deter working-class students. This has worrying implications for the composition of the teaching profession and, in turn, for wider issues of social justice within education.
AinleyP. & AllenM. (2010) Lost Generation?: New Strategies for Youth and Education. London: New York: Continuum.
2.
ArcherL., HutchingsM. & RossA. (2003) Higher Education and Social Class. London: Routledge Falmer.
3.
AuerbachC. & SilversteinL. (2003). Qualitative Data: An Introduction to Coding and Analysis.New York: New York University Press.
4.
BallS. J. (2008) The Education Debate. Bristol: The Policy Press.
5.
BallS. J. & VincentC. (1998) ‘“I heard it on the grapevine”: “hot” knowledge and school choice’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 19 (3) p. 377–400.
6.
BourdieuP. (1986) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (trans: NiceR.). London: Routledge.
7.
BourdieuP. (1990) The Logic of Practice (trans: NiceR.). Cambridge: Polity Press.
8.
BourdieuP. (1997) ‘The forms of capital’, in HalseyA., LauderH., BrownP. & WellsA. S. (Eds.), Education, Culture, Economy and Society.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9.
BrooksR. & EverettG. (2009) ‘Post-graduation reflections on the value of a degree’, British Educational Research Journal, 35 (3) p. 333–349.
10.
BrownP. & HeskethA. (2004) The Mismanagement of Talent: Employability and Jobs in the Knowledge Economy. Oxford: New York: Oxford University Press.
11.
BrownP., LauderH. & AshtonD. (2011) The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Opportunities, Jobs and Rewards. New York: Oxford University Press.
12.
BrownP. & ScaseR. (1994) Higher Education and Corporate Realities: Class, Culture and the Decline of Graduate Careers.London: UCL Press.
13.
BrownP. & TannockS. (2009) ‘Education, meritocracy and the global war for talent’, Journal of Education Policy, 24 (4) p. 377–392.
14.
CABINET OFFICE (2009) Unleashing Aspiration: The Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions.London: Cabinet Office.
15.
ConnorH., BurtonR., PearsonR., PollardE. & ReganJ. (1999) Making the Right Choice: How Students Choose Universities and Colleges. London: IES/CVCP.
16.
DenscombeM. (2005) The Good Research Guide (2nd edition). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
17.
DevineF. (2004) Class Practices: How Parents Help Their Children Get Good Jobs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18.
DunneM. & GazeleyL. (2008) ‘Teachers, social class and underachievement’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29 (5) p. 451–463.
19.
FurlongA. & CartmelF. (2005) Graduates from Disadvantaged Families: Early Labour Market Experiences. Bristol: The Policy Press.
20.
FurlongJ., HaggerH. & ButcherC. (2006) Review of Initial Teacher Training Provision in Wales. Welsh Assembly Government.
21.
GardnerP. (2002) ‘Teachers’, in AldrichR. (Ed.), A Century of Education. London and New York: Routledge Falmer.
GibbsA. (2012) ‘Focus groups and group interviews’, in ArthurJ., WaringM., CoeR. & HedgesL. V. (Eds.), Research Methods and Methodologies in Education. London: Sage.
25.
GorardS., SeeB. H., SmithE. & WhiteP. (2007) ‘What can we do to strengthen the teacher workforce?’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 26 (4) p. 419–437.
26.
GordonJ. A. (2003) ‘A shoelace left untied: teachers negotiate class and ethnicity in a city of Northern England’, The Urban Review, 35 (3) p. 191–215.
27.
GriffinS. & McDougallJ. (2009) ‘Despite ourselves? Education studies: between spirit and “passing on”’, Educationalfutures, 2 (1) p. 31–39.
28.
HayesD. (2004) ‘Recruitment and retention: insights into the motivation of primary trainee teachers in England’, Research in Education, 71 p. 37–49.
HodkinsonA. (2009). ‘Education studies and employability: how do students and graduates define the subject and what do they perceive its vocational relevance to be?’, Educationalfutures, 2 (1) p. 14–30.
31.
JacksonB. & MarsdenD. (1966) Education and the Working Class (revised edition). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
32.
JonesK. (2003) Education in Britain: 1944 to the Present. Cambridge: Polity Press.
33.
LauderH., BrownP. & TholenG. (2012) ‘The global auction model, skills bias theory and graduate incomes’, in LauderH., YoungM., DanielsH., BalarinM. & LoweJ. (Eds.), Educating for the Knowledge Economy? Critical Perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge Falmer.
34.
LewinC. (2005) ‘Elementary quantitative methods’, in SomekhB. & LewinC. (Eds.), Research Methods in the Social Sciences. London: Sage.
35.
MaguireM. (2001) ‘The cultural formation of teachers’ class consciousness: teachers in the inner city’, Journal of Education Policy, 16 (4) p. 315–331.
36.
MaguireM. (2005a) ‘“Not footprints behind but footsteps forward”: working class women who teach’, Gender and Education, 17 (1) p. 3–18.
37.
MaguireM. (2005b) ‘Textures of class in the context of schooling: the perceptions of a “class-crossing” teacher’, Sociology, 39 (3) p. 427–443.
38.
OFFICE FOR NATIONAL STATISTICS (ONS) (2005) The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification User Manual. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
39.
PowerS., EdwardsT., WhittyG. & WigfallV. (2003) Education and the Middle Class. Buckingham: Open University Press.
40.
PurcellK., DaviesR., EliasP. & WiltonN. (2005) Education as a Career: Entry and Exit from Teaching as a Profession. DfER Research Report RR690.
41.
PutnamR. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
42.
ReayD. (2006) ‘The zombie stalking English schools: social class and educational inequality’, British Journal of Educational Studies, 54 (3) p. 288–307.
43.
ReayD., DavidM. & BallS. J. (2005) Degrees of Choice: Social Class, Race and Gender in Higher Education. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
44.
ReesG. (2007) ‘The impacts of parliamentary devolution on education policy in Wales’, Welsh Journal of Education, 14 (1) p. 8–20.
45.
SmartS., HutchingsM., MaylorU., MendickH. & MenterI. (2009) ‘Processes of middle-class reproduction in a graduate employment scheme’, Journal of Education and Work, 22 (1) p. 35–53.
46.
SmethemL. (2007) ‘etention and intention in teaching careers: will the new generation stay?’, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 13 (5) p. 465–480.
47.
WakelingP. (2005) ‘La noblesse d'etat anglaise? Social class and progression to postgraduate study’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 26 (4) p. 505–522.
