Means to RETAIN teachers in Schools

1 December 2013 - 30 November 2015

PI/s in Exeter: Dr Karen Walshe

CI/s in Exeter: Nick Givens Associate Professor Lindsay Hetherington Associate Professor Keith Postlethwaite Dr Nigel Skinner

Research partners: University College Syddanmark, Denmark (leading)

Funding awarded: £ 43,000 (total funding of £ 208,000)

Sponsor(s): EU Lifelong Learning Programme: Comenius

About the research

Many young teachers around Europe find the transition from studies into the teacher profession very difficult and a large part of young teachers leave the teacher profession only after a few years of active career.  This situation is a great challenge as it leads to a tremendous loss of qualified teachers and our society risks experiencing a lack of qualified teachers to provide the needed foundation for the development of the European societies. 

In order to respond to the challenge, The RETAIN project wants to take a holistic focus on how to create an inclusive and creative working environment within schools, which is motivating for teachers (young and older generation) and pupils,  which inspires to collaboration between thematic disciplines & teacher generations, between the school and the outside world, and between pupils and teachers. An inclusive and creative working environment for the teachers, is seen in the RETAIN project, as a precondition to create the best learning environment for the pupils, ensuring that our children and young people obtain the relevant key competencies that are needed for them to act in today’s society.

The RETAIN project will develop a toolbox with tools, methods and supportive training material to assist school managers to create an inclusive and creative working environment.

The project includes a preparation phase, a development phase and a testing phase, where local schools (managers and teachers) and local authorities will be involved actively to ensure that the material is developed as closely to the real needs as possible and to improve the level of uptake and exploitation of results.

Partners come from several parts of Europe, representing member states and accession countries, different cultures, political structures and educational traditions. With this in mind, and with these diversities pooled in one project team, it will be possible to introduce sufficient flexibility and diversity in order to ensure transferability.

http://www.retain-project.eu/