Closing the Teacher Gap
Researching the Challenges and Opportunities for International Teacher Recruitment and Retention

With a shortfall of 18 million teachers in the numbers required to meet the education Millennium Development Goals, research on the global teaching force becomes critical in informing planning and preparation for future learners. Yet data about teachers across all regions of the Commonwealth is not yet reliable enough or adequate for truly effective planning and policy-making. Since 2006, the Commonwealth Secretariat has held a series of research symposia to explore aspects of this data gap in an attempt to help address the problem.
This publication reports on the proceedings of the fourth symposium, held in conjunction with the US National Education Association, which looked particularly at international teacher mobility, recruitment and retention, and the significance of this research for the future of education, globally.
Contents
Executive Summary
The Washington Statement on Teachers
Opening of the Symposium
The Commonwealth message
Keynote address
The Symposium – Day One
Session 1. Focus: Closing the Teacher Gap – What the Research Tells Us
Researching the Commonwealth Teacher – An Overview
International Teacher Recruitment and Mobility – the United States Scenario
Implementation of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol – Preliminary Findings
International Teachers: Mobility and Transition Issues
Special Session
Session 3. Focus: International Teacher Quality, Qualifications and Professional Recognition in the Context of International Recruitment and Migration
Reciprocity and Licensure in the USA and Canada
Researching Commonwealth Teacher Qualifications Comparability – Preliminary Findings of a Study to Reduce Skills Discounting and Promote Teacher Status
Country Studies on Qualifications Quality Assurance – a UNESCO Initiative
Qualified Teacher Status – Indicating the Teaching Profession’s Standards: Lessons from Finland, Ireland and Korea and California
The Symposium – Day Two
Main Address: Making it Happen: Challenges of Transforming Education Policy into Practice – the Role of Research
Session 4. Focus: Teachers for EFA: The Way Forward in a Time of Crisis
Teacher Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: Reflections on an EI Study and Initiative
Teacher Attrition and Retention in the USA: A Meta-Analytic and Narrative Review of the Research
An ILO Commissioned Study of International Teacher Recruitment
Session 5. Presentation of Recommendations and Agreement of Statement
Appendices
1. Symposium Programme
2. List of Participants
About the contributor
Roli Degazon-Johnson PhD (Prepared for publication by)
Roli Degazon-Johnson is an Education Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat.Browse subjects
- Agriculture Expand or collapse me
- Democracy and elections Expand or collapse me
- Debt and finance policy
- Economic development Expand or collapse me
- Education, gender and health Expand or collapse me
- Law and human rights Expand or collapse me
- Oceans and natural resources Expand or collapse me
- Public administration and governance Expand or collapse me
- Small states Expand or collapse me
- Sport for development and peace
- Taxation
- Trade Expand or collapse me
- Youth policy