Teacher Diversity in England 2010 - 2021

Abstract

Using the latest data from the School Workforce Census (SWC) we analyse the trends in the diversity of the school workforce in state funded schools in England since the 2010 public sector pay freeze. We find that the number of male teachers has fallen, and that 24.1 percent of schools do not have a male classroom teacher. Furthermore, 46.5 percent of schools do not have a male senior leader. The number of teachers from an ethnic minority background has increased year on year but the rate of change is slow and further work needs to be done before the school workforce is representative of the pupils they teach. 60 percent of schools do not have a teacher from an ethnic minority background while 87.8 percent do not have an ethic minority senior leader.

Full text

Teacher Diversity in England 2010 – 2021
Joshua Fullard¥*
29th June 2022
Abstract
Using the latest data from the School Workforce Census (SWC) we analyse the trends in the
diversity of the school workforce in state funded schools in England since the 2010 public
sector pay freeze. We find that the number of male teachers has fallen, and that 24.1 percent
of schools do not have a male classroom teacher. Furthermore, 46.5 percent of schools do
not have a male senior leader. The number of teachers from an ethnic minority background
has increased year on year but the rate of change is slow and further work needs to be done
before the school workforce is representative of the pupils they teach. 60 percent of schools
do not have a teacher from an ethnic minority background while 87.8 percent do not have an
ethic minority senior leader.
JEL classifications: I21, I24, I28
Key words: Teacher Supply, Teacher Diversity, Education Inequalities
The author would also like to thank Hettie Burn for her support for this paper. The author would also
like to thank the Department for Education, the Northern Ireland Department for Education and the
Welsh Government for their cooperation in supplying data used in this paper. This is an ongoing
project. Comments are welcome.
¥ Warwick Business School, University of Warwick: Joshua.Fullard@wbs.ac.uk
*Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex: jjfull@essex.ac.uk

Non-technical summary
Over the last decade teachers’ wages have fallen in real terms by more than 9 percent.
Indeed, recent evidence suggests that 3 in 10 classroom teachers would be financially better
off if they left the profession. This has had serious implications for teacher recruitment and
retention as well as the composition of the school workforce in England.
Gender Diversity
• The number of male secondary school teachers has fallen. Today the proportion of
secondary school teachers who are male is at a record low (35 percent).
• 24.1 percent of state-funded schools (primary and secondary) do not have a single
male classroom teacher. The issues are especially acute in the East Midlands where
almost 1 in 3 schools do not have a male teacher.
• 46.5 percent of state schools do not have a male in the senior leadership team while
5.5 percent do not have a female in the senior leadership team.
Ethnic Diversity
• The number of teachers from an ethnic minority background is increasing year on
year but the pace of the increase is slow and there is a long way to go before the
school workforce become representative of the pupils they teach.
• 60 percent of state funded schools do not have an ethnic minority classroom
teacher. The issues is particularly acute in the North East and the South West where
81 percent and 80 percent of schools do not have a single ethnic minority teacher
respectively.
• 87.8 percent of state funded schools do not have an ethnic minority teacher in the
senior leadership team.
Options for Policymakers:
• Make teaching more attractive by increasing teachers’ pay and removing tuition fees
for university-led teacher training routes.

1
1. Introduction
Challenges related to the recruitment and retention of teachers have been a pressing
concern for policymakers in England in recent years. Each year more than 30,000 classroom
teachers leave the profession (roughly 1 in 10) and fewer people are going into teacher
training programmes than the Department for Education estimates are required to replace
them – and each year this gap widens (Fullard and Zuccollo 2021). Consequently, the School
Workforce Census shows that the pupil to teacher ratio has increased to 19.1 (up from 17.3
in 2010). To put the magnitude of this increase into perspective the average pupil to teacher
ratio across the OECD is 15 and the EU22 is 13.1 (OECD 2021 education indicators).
Over the last decade there have been a range of different factors that have contributed to
challenges related to recruitment and retention. The most notable of these are the 2010
public sector pay freeze and the Covid-19 pandemic. While a lot of focus has been placed on
understanding how these factors have influenced the recruitment and retention of teachers
less attention has been placed on how they have influenced the composition of teachers.
In this paper, we investigate how the ethnic and gender diversity of teachers in England has
changed between 2010 and the 2021. Specifically, using the latest available data from the
School Workforce Census (SWC) we investigate the change in the proportion of classroom
teachers who are male and who are from an ethnic minority background. Using Freedom of
Information (FOI) requests we also investigate how the proportion of schools without a
male classroom teacher or a teacher from an ethnic minority background has changed over
the last decade. Using data from the schools, pupils and their characteristics datasets (2010
– 2021) we also contrast classroom teacher diversity to the diversity of i) the pupils they
teach ii) senior leaders.
1
Finally, using FOI requests to the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish
governments we are able to compare the ethnic and gender diversity of classroom teachers
in England to those across the UK home nations.
We find contrasting trends for ethnic and gender diversity. Firstly, the number of male
secondary school classroom teachers has persistently fallen year on year and the number of
1
Note that classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or
administrative responsibilities. Senior leaders are defined as teachers who have additional managerial or
administrative responsibilities. These include head teachers, deputy head teachers, assistant head teachers
and advisory teachers.

2
male primary school teachers has stagnated. Secondly, the number of classroom teachers
from an ethnic minority background has increased year on year in both primary and
secondary schools. While the number of classroom teachers from an ethnic minority
background has increased the pace is slow and classroom teachers remain significantly less
ethnicity diverse than the pupils they teach. Even in areas such as London, where the
proportion of classroom teachers from an ethnic minority background are the most
representative of the pupil population, classroom teachers still need to become more than
twice as ethnically diverse to be representative of the pupils they teach.
Looking at school representation we find that the proportion of state funded schools in
England without a male classroom teacher has fallen over the last decade – in 2010 1 in 3
did not have a male classroom teacher compared to 1 in 4 today. We also observe
disparities among senior leaders - almost 1 in 2 state schools (46.5 percent) do not have a
male senior leader. The disparity in workforce and pupil ethnic diversity is most striking. 60
percent of state funded schools do not have an ethnic minority classroom teacher and 87.8
percent of state funded schools do not have an ethnic minority senior leader.
While we find striking disparities among representation among classroom teachers in
England comparing the ethnic and gender diversity of teachers in England to the other UK
home nations, we find that England has the lowest proportion of schools without a male
classroom teacher and the lowers proportion of schools without a teacher from an ethnic
minority background.
These figures raise concerns about the trends in the composition of teachers in schools in
England – particularly around the number of male teachers which is persistently falling year
on year. As a consequence of factors such as the public sector pay freeze and the increase in
tuition fees for university led teacher training routes teaching may not be appealing or
accessible to underrepresented groups. Not only is this likely to hinder efforts to foster
cultural diversity and awareness within the school workforce, it may also hinder efforts to
close attainment gaps.
There is a large body of literature showing positive outcomes for students who are educated
by a teacher who shares their demographic traits (Egalite and Kisida 2018, Redding 2019).
Using data where students were randomly assigned to teachers in the US, for example, Dee

3
(2004) found that being taught by a Black teacher significantly improved Black students’ test
scores, and Gershenson et al., (2018) found that these positive effects persisted into
adulthood. Similarly, Egalite et al., (2015) investigate changes in teacher assignment in the
US using a large administrative dataset find small, but statistically significant, positive effects
of matches by race or ethnicity.
The picture for gender is less consistent (Driessen 2007, Ehrenberg et al., 1995, Holmlund
and Sund 2008). Nonetheless, Ammermüller and Dolton (2006) find some positive effects of
gender-matching for secondary school maths attainment in England, Hermann (2017) find
that female teachers had a strong negative effect on high achieving boys in England and Dee
(2007) find positive effects in both maths and reading in the US. Throughout the literature,
when effects are reported, they are often stronger for students at the lower end of the
ability distribution or who are from disadvantaged or marginalised groups.
There is also a large body of literature which examines why demographic matches might
influence educational outcomes. Dee (2007) suggests two potential mechanisms: passive
effects and active effects. Passive effects are those brought about by mere exposure to
teacher’s racial, ethnic or gender identity, rather than by explicit teacher behaviours. These
include stereotype threat effects, which refer to the possibility that certain environmental
factors can make students more aware of negative stereotypes that may be associated with
their own demographic traits, in turn causing them to underperform (Steele and Aronson
1995). They also include role model effects, wherein students’ expectations for themselves
may be heightened by the presence of a demographically similar teacher (Bettinger and
Long 2005).
There is some evidence that both of these passive effects are present in certain contexts.
Carlana (2019), for example, uses experimental data to show that female maths teachers in
Italy have lower implicit gender biases than their male equivalents, and that exposure to
biased teachers increases negative self-stereotypes in female students. Klopfenstein (2005),
meanwhile, finds that simply increasing the percentage of maths teachers who are black in a
school has a positive effect on the likelihood that a black student will elect to study higher-
level maths in the US.

4
The second group of potential mechanisms for matching effects are active, referring to
situations where teachers have different expectations for certain groups of students and,
therefore, behave differently. Such effects may be relatively indirect by influencing
teachers’ pedagogical styles or classroom environment, for example. However, on other
occasions they may be more direct, affecting how teachers assessing students’ behaviour or
potential. Gershenson et al., (2016), for example, shows that teachers in the US who are
white have lower expectations than black teachers when evaluating the same black student,
and that these differences in expectations influence students’ longer-term outcomes. Also
in the US, Lindsay and Hart (2017) find evidence that greater exposure to same-race
teachers lowers the rate at which black students are disciplined for perceived
transgressions, and Dee (2007) finds that being assigned to a male teacher significantly
reduces the likelihood of male pupils being seen as disruptive.
Our paper belongs to a long tradition of work investigating teacher diversity. While the
majority of this work is based in the US (Bireda and Chait 2011, Boser 2014, Eubanks and
Weaver 1999, Rancifer 1993) there is a growing body of work that investigates teacher
diversity in England. This literatures includes Tereshchenko et al., (2020) who, using the
2018 School Workforce Census (SWC), finds that teachers from an ethnic minority
background are concentrated in London (77 percent of schools in London employ over 20
percent of teachers from an ethnic minority background) and that 46 percent of schools in
England do not have a teacher from an ethnic minority background. Using the 2010 – 2020
SWC Fullard (2020b) finds a year-on-year decrease in the proportion of male teachers and a
year-on-teach increase in the proportion of female teachers and Allen et al., (2018), using
the 2010 SWC and the National Pupil Database (NPD) finds that less affluent schools tend to
recruit more ethnically diverse teachers and that these teachers generally have higher
attrition rates. Finally, DfE (2018), using data from the Database of Teacher Records (1996 –
2010) and the School Workforce Census (2010 – 2016) finds that female (white) newly
qualified teachers (NQTs) were more likely to remain in teaching, both 1-year and 5-years
later, compared to male (ethnic minority background) NQTs.
Our paper contributes to this literature in the following ways. First, we use the latest
available data from the School Workforce Census. As previous shocks, such as the 2008
financial crisis, have influenced school workforce diversity in England (Fullard 2020a), it is

5
important to use the latest available data to investigate the possible impact of Covid-19.
Second, we focus on both ethnic and gender diversity. This is an important contribution
because the existing literature has largely focused on ethnic diversity. Third, we use the
largest possible range of available date allowing us to get the largest possible picture of the
trends in teacher diversity. Forth, we not only look at the composition of schools but also
the proportion of schools without ethnic and gender representation. Fifth, we compare
teacher diversity to both pupil diversity and senior leadership diversity. Finally, we compare
the trends in the diversity of classroom teachers in England to the trends in Wales and
Northern Ireland.
Our paper is organised as follows, section 2 introduces our data, section 3 provides a
summary of the main factors that have influenced the supply of teachers, section 4 and 5
discuss the trends in the gender and ethnic diversity of teachers respectively, section 6
discusses the diversity of senior leaders, section 7 discusses the diversity across the home
nations and section 8 discusses the policy implications and concludes.
2. Data
The data we use for the majority of this paper comes directly from the School Workforce
Census (SWC). The SWC is a statutory data collection that takes place each autumn in
England. All schools in the state funded sector are obligated to submit data to the SWC each
year by law. The SWC was introduced in 2010 and is designed to collect data on a range of
teachers characteristics including age, ethnicity, gender and disability as well as information
such as grade, post or role, qualifications data, pay data and hours worked.
In this paper we use the full range of publicly available data from the SWC (2010 – 2021) and
focus our analysis on classroom teachers (i.e., those who do not have additional leadership
roles). The schools included in this analysis are all schools in the state funded sector, these
include local authority-maintained schools, foundation schools and voluntary schools,
academies and free schools, grammar schools and special schools. Using this data, we are
able to investigate proportion of teachers who are male (section 4) and from an ethnicity
minority background (section 5).

6
We unable to investigate representation among classroom teacher and school leaders
2
directly using the publicly available SWC. Calculating school representation requires access
to the individual level SWC (which is secure access only). For this project we do not have
access to the individual level data. Therefore, the data used for investigating representation
in schools and among school leaders (section 6) is obtained via Freedom of Information
(FOI) requests to the DfE. For the same reason, the data investigating the representation in
schools in Wales and Northern Ireland are also obtained via FOI requests to the Welsh
Government and Northern Ireland Department for Education respectively (section 7).
3
,
4
We also use data from the schools, pupils and their characteristics datasets (2010 – 2021))
to contrast the diversity of the school workforce with the pupils they teach at the regional
level, we use data from the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) (2002 –
2011) to describe the effect of tuition fees on enrolment into teacher training programmes
and teacher training data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (2010 –
2019) to describe the gender differences in enrolment into teacher training programmes.
3. Main factors that affect teacher supply 2010 – 2021
In this section we discuss the main factors that have affected teacher supply in England
between 2010 and 2021.
3.1 2008 financial crisis
Graduates who enter the labour market during a period of low labour market activity are
less likely to find a job (Altonji et al., 2016, Kahn 2010, Oreopoulos et al., 2012) and those
who do generally earn less (Del Bono and Morando 2016, Shvartsman 2018). To avoid the
negative effects of entering a weak labour market many graduates may decide to go into
teaching, a profession with strong employability - due to historic shortages - and strong job
security as the demand for teachers is largely driven by population characteristics and not
2
Note senior leaders are defined as teachers who have additional managerial or administrative
responsibilities. These include head teachers, deputy head teachers, assistant head teachers and advisory
teachers.
3
The data obtained via FOI requests from England comes from the Secure access 2010 – 2021 SWC, the data
from FOI requests from Wales comes from the 2019 – 2020 School Workforce Annual Census and 2010 – 2020
Pupil Level Annual School Census and the data from the FOI requests from Northern Ireland comes from the
2010 – 2020 Teachers’ Pay and Pensions System.
4
We submitted an FOI request to the Scottish government but were informed that the data was unavailable.

7
economic conditions (Dolton 1990, Horvath et al., 2018, Manski 1987, Zabalza et al., 1979).
5
Similarly, for teacher retention, teachers are less likely to leave the profession when it is
more difficult to find alternative employment (Fullard and Zuccollo 2021, Lynch 2016, Scafidi
et al., 2006, Stinebrickner 1998, Worth et al., 2015).
In this way economic conditions play an important role on the relative attractiveness of
teaching and therefore the supply of teachers. Indeed, given the countercyclical nature of
teacher supply, it is no surprise that the Department for Education met recruitment targets
until 2013 – when the economy recovered to pre-downturn levels.
While economic conditions have an important role regarding the quantity of teachers, they
also influence the composition of teachers. Using data on graduate cohorts in England
Fullard (2021a) found that the financial crisis led to a boost in the gender and ethnic
diversity of trainee teachers. Specifically, they found a positive effect on the quantity of
male graduates and graduates from an ethnic minority background enrolling onto teacher
training programmes. Furthermore Nagler et al., (2020) found that teachers who were
recruited during a recession are more effective (as measured by the impact on pupil test
scores).
3.2 2010 public sector pay freeze
Due to the budgetary pressures of the 2008 financial crisis the then Chancellor of the
Exchequer George Osborn announced a public sector pay freeze on all public sector workers
earning over £21,000. The pay freeze was replaced by a 1 percent cap on public sector pay
in 2013 that remained in place until 2018.
Due to the 2010 public sector pay freeze more experienced teachers’ salaries have fallen by
more than 9 percent (Sibieta 2022). Indeed, recent estimates suggest that 3 in 10 teachers
would be financially better off if the left the profession (Fullard 2021d). Not only has this
made teaching a less attractive occupation to prospective entrants – the DfE have
5
Specifically, the demand for teachers is driven by the number of school-aged young people and the
government’s chosen pupil to teacher ratio.

8
consistently missed recruitment targets since 2013 – but there are also concerns over the
implications for the composition of the school workforce.
As men’s occupational choice is generally more responsive to wage differentials than
women (Dolton 1990, Fullard 2022a) we would anticipate, due to the pay freeze, i) a smaller
pool of male graduates interested in pursuing a career in teaching, and ii) an increase in the
propensity for male teachers to leave the profession, relative to their female colleagues.
Indeed, this is exactly what we observe (additional details provided in the Appendix).
6
We would also expect a decline in the ethnic diversity of teachers due to a smaller pool of
people interested in going into teaching. However, this is likely to be balanced by the
increase in number of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds going into higher
education. Afterall, teaching is a graduate level occupation so an increase in the number of
graduates from an ethic minority background should also increase the diversity of the pool
of potential teachers.
3.3 Covid-19 pandemic
To stop the spread of Covid-19 the UK government adopted a strict lockdown policy. While
the pandemic has had a significant effect on pupils though lost learning, exacerbating
existing education inequalities, it has also had a large effect on teacher labour markets.
Indeed, the Covid-19 induced recession led to a boost in applicants to teacher training
programmes and a decline in teacher attrition.
As the Covid-19 pandemic shut down large parts of the economy we observed an
unprecedented boost in the number of graduates applying for teaching training programs –
an increase of 65 percent compared to the five-year average (Fullard 2020a). Consequently,
overall recruitment targets were met for the first time in 8 years. We also observed a
significant reduction in teacher attrition. For the first time in more than a decade less than
34,000 classroom teachers left the profession (29,700 vs 35,900 the year before).
Despite these short term boosts the overall effect of the pandemic on teacher supply will
almost certainly will be negative. Not only could the budgetary pressures from the
6
Using a modified discrete choice experiment Fullard (2022a) finds that male teachers attrition intentions are
more responsive to pecuniary factors than female teachers.

9
pandemic led to another public sector pay freeze – public sector pay has been paused for
2021/22 – but the additional pressures of teaching during the pandemic are likely to have an
adverse effect on teacher attrition in the years to come. Using a representative survey of
2,000 teachers in January 2021 Fullard (2021c) found that Covid-19 increased teachers 1-
year and 5-year attrition intentions by 9 percentage points (from 12 percent to 21 percent)
and 16 percentage points respectively (from 27 percent to 43 percent).
3.4 Tuition fees, bursaries and Early Career Framework
International evidence shows that tuition fees make teacher training less attractive and
adversely affects the quantity and quality of young people going into teaching (Castro-
Zarzur et al., 2019). In England tuition fees of £1,000 per year were introduced to all
university-based teacher training routes in 1998. Fees were increase to £3,000 in 2006 and
then to £9,000 in 2012. Although the effect is modest, figure A3 in the appendix shows that
enrolment rates did fall when tuition fees increased in 2006 and 2012. It is also plausible
that the rise in tuition fees has impacted the composition of trainee teachers as young
people from less affluent backgrounds and those from ethnic minority backgrounds are
generally more debt averse (Cunningham and Santiago 2008). However, this is likely to be
mitigated, to some extent, by the rise in school-led routes, which do not have tuition fees
and currently make up the majority of trainee teachers - in 2021/22 55 percent of new
trainee teacher were on school-led teacher training.
Due to persistent shortages the Department for Education has incentivised enrolment onto
teacher training programs by offering bursaries - tax free financial incentives - to enrol. The
size of the bursary that a graduate was eligible for typically depended on the course that
they were enrolled onto and the classification/subject of their degree. The bursaries were
largest for courses that have the most shortages, such as Physics and Maths while other
subjects, such as Primary education, did not have any bursaries available to them.
Due to the high cost (between 2001/02 and 2012/13 the government spent over £1.5bn on
bursaries) and lack of any evidence that they have had any meaningful impact on teacher
recruitment (Sibieta 2020) bursary payments were largely scrapped for the 2021/22 cohort.

10
Other policy interventions intended to improve teacher supply includes the introduction of
the Early Career Framework (ECF). The ECF is a package intended to improve early career
retention by transforming early career student support. While the early roll out of the ECF
started in September 2020 (in the North East, Greater Manchester and Bradford/Doncaster)
and was rolled out nationally in September 2021, it is too soon to identify if the ECF has had
any impact on teacher supply. Furthermore, it will be challenging for researchers to
distinguish between the effect of the ECF and the pandemic.
4. Gender diversity
In this section we are going to discussion the trends in the gender diversity of classroom
teachers in the state funded sector in England.
4.1 Gender diversity in teachers
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the number of male secondary school teachers to
increase for the first time in more than a decade (Fullard 2022b). However, this has done
little to reverse the general decline in the number of male teachers over the last decade
(figure 1 LHS). Although we do observe a modest boost in the number of male secondary
school teachers this is significantly smaller than the increase in the number of female
secondary school teachers. As a consequence, the proportion of secondary school teachers
who are male has reached a new low of 35 percent - down from 38 percent in 2010.
In contrast figure 1 (RHS) shows that the number of male primary school teachers increased
by over 25 percent between 2010 and 2016 – an increase of almost 7,500 teachers.
However, since 2016 the number of male primary school teachers has remained stable at
35,000, representing 14 percent of all nursery and primary school classroom teachers in the
state funded sector.

11
Figure 1. The number of male classroom teachers in Secondary (LHS) and Primary (RHS)
schools.
Note: The figure shows the number of male classroom teachers in secondary (LHS) and primary (RSH) schools in the state
funded sector in England. The red bars show the full time equivalent, and the blue bars show the headcount. Classroom
teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or administrative responsibilities.
Source: Authors calculations from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 – 2020/21
Interestingly, the decline in the number of male secondary school teachers is driven by the
most experienced teachers leaving. Indeed, the number of male teachers in secondary
schools who are aged 50 or over has fallen by almost 30 percent in the last decade. We see
no such change among nursery and primary school teachers or among less experienced
teachers.
Figure 2. The number of male classroom teachers aged 50+ (LHS) and under 50 (RHS)
Note: The figure shows the headcount of male classroom teachers by age in the state funded sector in England. The red
bars show the number of primary teachers and the blue bars show the number of secondary teachers. Classroom teachers
are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or administrative responsibilities.
Source: Authors calculations from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 – 2020/21
Looking at the ethnic composition of male secondary school teachers in figure 3 two main
things stand out. First, the number of male teachers from an ethnic minority background
has increased by 24 percent since 2010. This reflects a positive trend that the school
workforce is becoming more ethnically diverse – the proportion of ethnic minority

12
secondary school teachers has increased from 7 percent in 2010 to 10 percent in 2021. We
will discuss the trends in the ethnic diversity of teachers in detail in section 4.
Second, during the same time period the number of white male secondary school teachers
has fallen by 17 percent. Indeed, there are 12,650 less white male secondary school
teachers in 2021 than there were in 2010.
While the year-on-year decline in the number of male classroom teachers does seem small,
at around 800 less in secondary schools each year, this does very quickly accumulate and
there is no good reason to suggest that this trend will change any time soon – due to
budgetary pressures of the pandemic it is unlikely teachers are going to receive a
meaningful pay rise over the next year or so.
To put the scale of the challenge into perspective Covid-19 reduced teacher attrition – most
teachers were unwilling to leave a job when there was so much labour market uncertainty –
and caused an unprecedented boost in recruitment, yet this only increased the number of
male secondary school classroom teachers by 1,300 (Fullard 2020a).
Figure 3. The number of white (LHS) and ethnic minority (RHS) male secondary school
teachers
Note: The figure shows the headcount of male classroom teachers by ethnicity in secondary schools in the state funded
sector in England. Classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or administrative
responsibilities. Ethnic minority is defined as been from any of the following major categories defined by the Department
of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: Authors calculations from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 – 2020/21
4.2 Male representation in schools
Next, we turn our attention to male representation in schools. In this section representation
is defined as the proportion of schools without a male classroom teacher. Looking at the

13
latest school workforce data we observe that 24.1 percent of state-funded schools in
England do not have a single male classroom teacher and there are striking regional
differences. The proportion of schools that do not have a single male classroom teacher is
largest in the East Midlands (30 percent) and the East of England (27 percent) followed by
the North East (26 percent), South East (26 percent), South West (25.5 percent) and the
Yorkshire and The Humber (25 percent). Inner London and Outer London have the lowest
proportion of schools without a male classroom teacher (12 percent).
Figure 4. Proportion of schools in England without a male classroom teacher by region.
Note: The figure shows the proportion of state funded schools in England without a male classroom teacher by region.
Classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or administrative responsibilities.
Schools in the state funded sector include local authority-maintained schools, foundation schools and voluntary schools,
academies and free schools, grammar schools and special schools
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2020/21 (secure access)
The proportion of schools in England without a male classroom teacher has fallen over the
last decade – in 2010 1 in 3 state funded schools did not have a male classroom teacher
compared to 1 in 4 today. This change is driven by the fact that the number of male primary
and nursery teachers has increased over the last decade. While male teachers are
underrepresented in secondary schools (35 percent of classroom teachers vs 50 percent of
students) only 0.3 percent of secondary schools in England do not have a male classroom
teacher (compared to 0.6 percent in 2010).

14
Figure 5. Percentage of state-funded schools in England without a male classroom teacher
Note: The figure shows the proportion of state funded schools in England without a male classroom teacher between 2010
and 2021. Classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or administrative
responsibilities. Schools in the state funded sector include local authority-maintained schools, foundation schools and
voluntary schools, academies and free schools, grammar schools and special schools
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 - 2020/21 (secure access)
In 2010 almost 40 percent of primary schools did not have a male classroom teacher in
England. Looking across the regional differences we observe that these proportions were
highest in the East of England (48 percent), North East (44 percent) and South East (44
percent) while lowest in Inner London (18 percent) and Outer London (24 percent).
Over the last decade the proportion of primary schools without a male classroom teacher
has fallen by 10 percentage points in England (40 percent to 30 percent in 2021). The
change has been largest in the regions with the greatest challenges (e.g., East of England
from 48 percent in 2010 to 33.5 percent in 2021). Nevertheless around 1 in 3 primary
schools in the East of England, North East and South East still do not have a male classroom
teacher. 16 percent of primary schools in Inner London and 17 percent in Outer London do
not have a male classroom teacher.
Figure 6. Proportion of primary schools without a male classroom teacher by region
Note: The figure shows the proportion of primary schools in England without a male classroom teacher by region in
2010/11 and 2020/21. Classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or
administrative responsibilities.
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 and 2020/21 (secure access)

15
5. Ethnic Diversity
In this section we are going to discuss the ethic diversity of classroom teachers in England.
5.1 Ethnic diversity in teachers
The number of ethnic minority classroom teachers in England has increased year on year
over the last decade.
7
There are 6,300 more ethnic minority primary school classroom
teachers (an increase of 57 percent) and 6,700 more ethnic minority secondary school
classroom teachers (an increase of 38 percent) in the state funded sector in 2020/21 than
there was in 2010/11.
Figure 7. Number of ethnic minority Primary (LHS) and Secondary (RHS) classroom teachers in
England
Note: The figure shows the headcount of ethnic minority classroom teachers in secondary (RHS) and primary (LHS) schools
in the state funded sector in England. Classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional
managerial or administrative responsibilities. Ethnic minority is defined as been from any of the following major categories
defined by the Department of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: Authors calculations from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 – 2020/21
As a consequence, the proportion of classroom teachers who are from an ethnic minority
background has increased by 2 percentage points in primary schools (from 5 percent in 2010
to 7 percent in 2020) and 4 percentage points in secondary schools (from 8 percent in 2010
to 12 percent in 2020.
7
Ethnic minority is defined as been from any of the following major categories defined by the Department of
Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.

16
Figure 8. The proportion of ethnic minority teachers in England
Note: The figure shows the proportion of classroom teachers in the state funded sector in England from an ethnic minority
background by phase and year. Classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or
administrative responsibilities. Ethnic minority is defined as been from any of the following major categories defined by the
Department of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: Authors calculations from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 – 2020/21
There is a lot of regional variation in the proportion of teachers from an ethnic minority
background across England. The most ethnically diverse schools are in London. Indeed,
there are more primary school teachers from an ethnic minority background in London
(9,000) than the rest of England combined (8,300). Inner London has the highest proportion
of teachers from an ethnic minority background (32 percent secondary and 25 percent
primary) closely followed by Outer London (28 percent secondary and 21 percent primary).
Outside of London the West Midlands has the highest proportion of teachers from an ethnic
minority background (13 percent secondary and 8 percent primary) followed by the East of
England (8 percent and 4 percent), East Midlands (7 percent and 5 percent) and Yorkshire
and The Humber (7 percent and 5 percent). The regions with the lowest proportion of
teachers from an ethnic minority background are the North East and the South West (both
with 1 percent and 2 percent).

17
Figure 9. The proportion of ethnic minority teachers by region. The rest of England (LHS) and London
(RHS) in 2020/21
Note: The figure shows the proportion of classroom teachers in the state funded sector in England from an ethnic minority
background by phase and region. Classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or
administrative responsibilities. Ethnic minority is defined as been from any of the following major categories defined by the
Department of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: Authors calculations from the School Workforce Census 2020/21
While the school workforce is making progress with respects to ethnic diversity more
progress needs to be made if teachers are going to be truly representative of the pupils they
teach.
Figure 10 shows the diversity of pupils across region by school phase. Looking at figure 10
two main things stand out. Firstly, in most regions around 1 in 5 pupils are from an ethnic
minority background (North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, West of
England and South East) although the West Midlands is higher (1 in 3) and the North East
and South East (1 in 10) are both lower. Secondly, in London 60 percent of secondary school
pupils and 57 percent of primary school pupils are from an ethnic minority background.
While London may have the most diverse school workforce in England (32 percent of
secondary and 25 percent primary school teachers are from an ethnic minority background)
classroom teachers in London need to become more than twice as diverse, as they currently
are, to be fully representative of the pupils they teach.

18
Figure 10. The proportion of pupils who are from an ethnic minority background by region
Note: The figure shows the proportion of pupils from an ethnic minority background by region and phase in the state
funded sector in England. Ethnic minority is defined as been from any of the following major categories defined by the
Department of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: Authors calculations from the 2020/21 Schools, pupils and their characteristics
To illustrate the magnitude of the difference between the diversity of classroom teachers
and the pupils they teach we have calculated the ratio of teacher diversity to pupil diversity.
Specifically, figure 11 illustrates the increase in diversity required for classroom teachers to
be ethnically representative of the pupils they teach. A score of 2 for London, for example,
means that classroom teachers in London need to become twice as ethnically diverse to be
representative of the student population in London.
Looking across the regions outside of London two main things stand out. Firstly, primary
schools’ teachers from an ethnic minority background are signifyingly more
underrepresented relative to the pupils they teach (red bars). This is most striking in the
North East and the South West where the school workforce needs to become 10 times and
8.6 times more diverse to be representative of their student populations respectively. Even
more representative region, such as the West Midlands, needs to become 4 times more
ethnically diverse.
Secondly, while secondary schools are more representative than primary schools, they still
need to become between 2.2 (East of England) and 4.4 (North East) times more diverse to
be fully representative of the pupils they teach.

19
Figure 11. The ratio of teacher to pupil ethnic diversity
Note: The figure shows the ratio of the proportion of pupils from an ethnic minority background to teachers from an ethnic
minority background by region and phase in the state funded sector in England. Ethnic minority is defined as been from
any of the following major categories defined by the Department of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: Authors calculations from the 2020/21 Schools, pupils and their characteristics and the 2020/21 School Workforce
Census.
5.2 Ethnic minority representation in schools
In this section we investigate how the proportion of schools in England without a teacher
from an ethnic minority background has changed over the last decade differences by region.
The proportion of schools in England without an ethnic minority classroom teacher has
fallen over the last decade – in 2010 68 percent of state funded schools did not have an
ethnic minority classroom teacher compared to 60 percent today (figure 12). This change is
driven by the fact that the number ethnic minority classroom teachers have increased in
both primary and secondary schools over the last decade. While there are serious issues
with ethnic representation in secondary schools - 17.8 percent of secondary schools in
England do not have an ethnic minority classroom teacher (down from 22.6 percent in 2010)
– the issues are far more sever in nursery and primary schools where 69 percent do not
have a teacher from an ethnic minority background (down from 76.5 percent in 2010).

20
Figure 12. The proportion of state-funded schools in England without an ethnic minority teacher
Note: The figure shows the proportion of state funded schools in England without a classroom teacher from an ethnic
minority background between 2010/11 and 2020/21. Classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any
additional managerial or administrative responsibilities. Ethnic minority is defined as been from any of the following major
categories defined by the Department of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2020/21 (secure access)
There are striking regional differences in the proportion of schools without an ethnic
minority teacher (figure 13). The highest proportions are in the North East and the South
West where more than 80 percent of schools do not have a single ethnic minority teacher
(81 percent and 80 percent respectively). This is followed by the North West (71 percent),
East Midlands (68 percent), Yorkshire and The Humber (67 percent), East of England (62
percent) and the South East (60 percent). Recall that the West Midlands has the highest
proportion of students (33 percent) and teachers (13 percent) from an ethnicity minority
background outside of London yet we observe that over half of state funded schools in the
West Midlands do not have a single classroom teacher from an ethnicity minority
background (53 percent). Similarly, Inner and Outer London both have the highest
proportion of students (roughly 60 percent) and teachers (1 in 3) from an ethnicity minority
background yet 12 percent of schools in these regions do not have an ethnicity minority
teacher.

21
Figure 13. Proportion of state funded schools in England without an ethnic minority teacher
Note: The figure shows the proportion of state funded schools in England without a classroom teacher from an ethnic
minority background in 2010/11 and 2020/21 by region. Classroom teachers are defined as teachers who do not hold any
additional managerial or administrative responsibilities. Ethnic minority is defined as been from any of the following major
categories defined by the Department of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 and 2020/21 (secure access)
6. Representation in School Leadership
The previous two sections have uncovered some striking discrepancies in representation in
the school workforce – recall that 60 percent of state funded schools in England do not have
an ethnic minority classroom teacher and 24 percent do not having a male classroom
teacher. Looking at the differences among school leaders these discrepancies are even
larger and, in some instances, actually getting worse.
8
First looking at gender figure 14 shows that 46.5 percent of state schools in England do not
have a male senior leader. While this is down from 2010 (48.1 percent) it has marginally
increased over the last 2 years. While women are generally underrepresented in school
leadership positions, figure 15 shows that schools are far less likely to not have a female
senior leader – roughly 1 in 20 (5.5 percent) of state schools in England do not have a
female senior leader (down from 7.7 percent in 2010). Interestingly, a higher proportion of
primary schools do not have a female senior leaders (5.8 percent) compared to secondary
schools (3.5 percent)
Turning our attention to the ethnic representation, figure 16 shows that representation is
even worse among school leadership where 87.8 percent of state-funded schools in England
do not have an ethnic minority senior leader – compared to 60 percent of classroom
8
Includes head teachers, deputy head teachers, assistant head teachers and advisory teachers

22
teachers. While this has fallen since 2010 (down from 92.8 percent) there is still a huge
amount of progress that needs to be made.
Figure 14. Proportion of state funded schools without a male senior leader
Note: The figure shows the proportion of state funded schools in England without a male senior leader between 2010/11
and 2020/21. A senior leader includes head teachers, deputy head teachers, assistant head teachers and advisory teachers.
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 - 2020/21 (secure access)
Figure 15. Proportion of state funded schools without a female senior leader
Note: The figure shows the proportion of state funded schools in England without a female senior leader between 2010/11
and 2020/21. A senior leader includes head teachers, deputy head teachers, assistant head teachers and advisory teachers.
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 - 2020/21 (secure access)
Figure 16. Proportion of state funded schools wihtout an ethnic minority senior leader
Note: The figure shows the proportion of state funded schools in England without a senior leader from an ethnicity
minority background between 2010/11 and 2020/21. A senior leader includes head teachers, deputy head teachers,
assistant head teachers and advisory teachers. Ethnic minority is defined as been from any of the following major
categories defined by the Department of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 - 2020/21 (secure access)

23
7. Diversity across the home nations
In this section we describe the proportion of state funded schools without a male classroom
teacher in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the proportion of state funded schools
without an ethnicity minority teacher in England and Wales. Our analysis in this section is
restricted to these countries due to data availability. Specifically, Scotland does not collect
data on teacher gender or ethnicity, Northern Ireland does not collect data on teacher
ethnicity and Wales has only collected data on teacher ethnicity since 2019.
Starting with gender diversity we observe that Wales has the highest proportion of schools
without a male teacher (30 percent) although this has fallen by 9 percentage points over the
last decade (from 39 percent in 2010) it remains significantly higher than England (24
percent) and the West Midlands (23 percent), the English region that shares a boarder with
Wales.
Turning our attending to Norther Ireland we observe that the proportion of schools without
a male teacher was the lowest among the home nations (28 percent vs 39 percent in Wales
and 32 percent in England in 2010). However, the proportion of schools without a male
teacher has fallen significantly in both Wales (9.4 percentage points) and England (8.3
percentage points) while it has remained fairly constant over the last decade in Northern
Ireland (3 percentage points). To put this into perspective only Inner London had a smaller
decline in the proportion of schools without a male teacher during the same period (2.4
percentage points). As a consequence, the proportion of schools without a male teacher
today is marginally higher than in England (25 percent vs 24 percent).
Next, we look at the proportion of schools without an ethnic minority teacher. Due to data
limitations, we are only able to compare England and Wales since 2019. Figure 18 shows
that 89 percent of state schools in Wales do not have a classroom teacher from an ethnic
minority background despite the fact that 12 percent of pupils in Wales are from an ethnic
minority background according to the 2020 Pupil Level Annual School Census.
The proportion of schools in Wales without an ethnic minority teacher is significantly higher
than any region in England. For example, the North East has a lower proportion of schools
without an ethnic minority teacher (81.5 percent) despite having a lower proportion of
pupils from an ethnic minority background (10 percent) compared to Wales (12 percent).

24
Figure 17. The proportion of schools in the state funded sector without a male classroom
teacher by country (England, Wales and Northern Ireland).
Note: The figure shows the proportion of state funded schools without a male classroom teacher between
2010/11 and 2020/21 by country (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). Classroom teachers are defined as
teachers who do not hold any additional managerial or administrative responsibilities.
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2010/11 - 2020/21 (secure access), FOI
request to the Welsh Government from the Pupil Level Annual School Census 2010/11 - 2020/21 and FOI
request to the Northern Ireland DfE from the Teachers’ Pay and Pensions System 2010/11 - 2020/21.
Figure 18. The proporion of schools in the state funded sector wihout a classroom teacher
from an ethnic minority background in Wales, England and English Regions in 2020/21.
Note: The figure shows the proportion of state funded schools without a teacher from an ethnic minority
background in 2020/21 in Wales, England and English regions in 2020/21. Ethnic minority is defined as been from
any of the following major categories defined by the Department of Education: Black, Asian, Other (non-white) and Mixed.
Source: FOI request to the DfE from the School Workforce Census 2020/21 (secure access), FOI request to the
Welsh Government from the School Workforce Annual Census (Wales) 2020/21.

25
8. Policy Implications and concluding remarks
We have observed a decline in the number of men in the school workforce – particularly
among more experienced male teachers – and, worryingly, these trends are getting worse.
The proportion of secondary school teachers who are male is at an all time low (35 percent)
and the proportion schools in England without a male senior leader has also worsened over
the last two years. While attracting men into the profession is important for purposes of
diversity and representation it is also important for meeting recruitment targets for STEM
subjects. In the short run, if policymakers want to meet recruitment targets for subjects
such as physics and maths, they are going to need to recruit more men because the pool of
potential subject specific teachers is predominately male (Fullard 2020b).
While we observe favourable trends among teachers from an ethnic minority background,
the rate of change has been very slow and there is still a long way to go before the school
workforce becomes fully representative of the pupils they teach. For instance, in the North
East primary school teachers need to become 10 times more diverse to be representative of
their student population.
Part of the reason for the i) decline in the number of male teachers and ii) failure to recruit
more teachers from an ethnic minority background, despite an increase in the pool of
potential teachers from an ethnic minority background, is that teaching has become a
systematically less attractive profession over the last decade.
To appeal to a wider pool of potential teachers and retain existing teachers the profession
needs to become more attractive. An increase in teachers’ pay, for instance, could active
this. While policymakers have prioritised flattening the pay curve in recent years – namely
increasing inexperienced teachers salaries by more than their experienced colleagues – we
would recommend a more equitable pay rise that does not risk alienating a large proportion
of the school workforce.
Policymakers should consider decreasing the tuition fees on university led teacher training
routes. International evidence shows that decreasing tuition fees for university led teacher
training not only boosts the number of graduates interested in going into teaching but also
has a positive effect on the quality of graduates going into teaching and the diversity of

26
graduates going into teaching (Castro-Zarzur et al., 2019). As graduates who select into
teacher training are generally from the lower end of the graduate earnings distribution, they
are unlikely to pay back their student loans – this could therefore be a relatively inexpensive
way to boosting the quantity, quality and diversity of graduates going into the school
workforce.
Finally, we also observe significant cross-country differences in the proportion of schools
without a male teacher. Interestingly, this appears to be consistent with cross-country
differences in boys’ cognitive attainment. Specifically, Welsh boys, who are more likely to be
in a school without a male teacher, underperform related to English boys while Northern
Irish boys, who historically, are less likely to be in a school without a male teacher, generally
outperform English boys (Sibieta and Fullard 2021). While this is not intended to be
interpreted as casual this seems like a particularly promising area of future research.

27
References
ALLEN, REBECCA, SIMON BURGESS, AND JENNIFER MAYO (2018): "The Teacher Labour Market, Teacher
Turnover and Disadvantaged Schools: New Evidence for England," Education Economics, 26,
4-23.
ALTONJI, JOSEPH G, LISA B KAHN, AND JAMIN D SPEER (2016): "Cashier or Consultant? Entry Labor Market
Conditions, Field of Study, and Career Success," Journal of Labor Economics, 34, S361-S401.
AMMERMÜLLER, ANDREAS, AND PETER DOLTON (2006): "Pupil-Teacher Gender Interaction Effects on
Scholastic Outcomes in England and the USA," ZEW-Centre for European Economic Research
Discussion Paper.
BETTINGER, ERIC P, AND BRIDGET TERRY LONG (2005): "Do Faculty Serve as Role Models? The Impact of
Instructor Gender on Female Students," American Economic Review, 95, 152-157.
BIREDA, SABA, AND ROBIN CHAIT (2011): "Increasing Teacher Diversity: Strategies to Improve the
Teacher Workforce," Center for American Progress.
BOSER, ULRICH (2014): "Teacher Diversity Revisited: A New State-by-State Analysis," Center for
American Progress.
CARLANA, MICHELA (2019): "Implicit Stereotypes: Evidence from Teachers’ Gender Bias," The Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 134, 1163-1224.
CASTRO-ZARZUR, ROSA, RICARDO ESPINOZA, AND MIGUEL SARZOSA (2019): "Unintended Consequences of
Free College: Self-Selection into the Teaching Profession."
CUNNINGHAM, ALISA F, AND DEBORAH A SANTIAGO (2008): "Student Aversion to Borrowing: Who Borrows
and Who Doesn't," Institute for Higher Education Policy.
DEE, THOMAS S (2004): "Teachers, Race, and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment,"
Review of Economics and Statistics, 86, 195-210.
DEE, THOMAS S (2007): "Teachers and the Gender Gaps in Student Achievement," Journal of Human
resources, 42, 528-554.
DEL BONO, EMILIA, AND GRETA MORANDO (2016): "For Some, Luck Matters More: The Impact of the
Great Recession on Early Careers of Graduates from Different Socio-Economic Backgrounds,"
Working Paper.
DFE (2018): "Analysis of Teacher Supply, Retention and Mobility ".
DOLTON, PETER J (1990): "The Economics of Uk Teacher Supply: The Graduate's Decision," The
Economic Journal, 100, 91-104.
DRIESSEN, GEERT (2007): "The Feminization of Primary Education: Effects of Teachers’ Sex on Pupil
Achievement, Attitudes and Behaviour," International Review of Education, 53, 183-203.
EGALITE, ANNA J, AND BRIAN KISIDA (2018): "The Effects of Teacher Match on Students’ Academic
Perceptions and Attitudes," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 40, 59-81.
EGALITE, ANNA J, BRIAN KISIDA, AND MARCUS A WINTERS (2015): "Representation in the Classroom: The
Effect of Own-Race Teachers on Student Achievement," Economics of Education Review, 45,
44-52.
EHRENBERG, RONALD G, DANIEL D GOLDHABER, AND DOMINIC J BREWER (1995): "Do Teachers' Race, Gender,
and Ethnicity Matter? Evidence from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988,"
ILR Review, 48, 547-561.
EUBANKS, SEGUN C, AND REG WEAVER (1999): "Excellence through Diversity: Connecting the Teacher
Quality and Teacher Diversity Agendas," Journal of Negro Education, 451-459.
FULLARD, JOSHUA (2020a): "Teacher Supply and Covid-19," https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-
research/teacher-supply-and-covid-19/: Education Policy Institute.
FULLARD, JOSHUA (2020b): "Trends in the Diversity of Teachers in England,"
https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/diversity-of-teachers/: Education Policy
Institute.
FULLARD, JOSHUA (2021a): "Bad Economy, Good Teachers? The Countercyclicality of Enrolment into
Initial Teacher Training Programmes in the Uk," Institute for Social and Economic Research.
FULLARD, JOSHUA (2021b): "Does Money Motivate Teachers?."

28
FULLARD, JOSHUA (2021c): "The Pandemic and Teacher Attrition: An Exodus Waiting to Happen?,"
https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/the-pandemic-and-teacher-attrition-an-
exodus-waiting-to-happen/: Education Policy Institute.
FULLARD, JOSHUA (2021d): "Relative Wages and Pupil Performance, Evidence from Timss," ISER
Working Paper.
FULLARD, JOSHUA (2022a): "Labour Market Expectations and Occupational Choice. Evidence from
Teaching.," Mimeo.
FULLARD, JOSHUA (2022b): "Teacher Diversity in England 2010 - 2021 " ISER Working Paper.
FULLARD, JOSHUA, AND JAMES ZUCCOLLO (2021): "Local Pay and Teacher Retention in England."
GERSHENSON, SETH, CASSANDRA MD HART, JOSHUA HYMAN, CONSTANCE LINDSAY, AND NICHOLAS W PAPAGEORGE
(2018): "The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers," National Bureau of Economic
Research.
GERSHENSON, SETH, STEPHEN B HOLT, AND NICHOLAS W PAPAGEORGE (2016): "Who Believes in Me? The
Effect of Student–Teacher Demographic Match on Teacher Expectations," Economics of
Education Review, 52, 209-224.
HERMANN, ZOLTÁN (2017): "Does Teacher Gender Matter in Europe? Evidence from Timss Data."
HOLMLUND, HELENA, AND KRISTER SUND (2008): "Is the Gender Gap in School Performance Affected by
the Sex of the Teacher?," Labour Economics, 15, 37-53.
HORVATH, MICHAEL, JOANNE E GOODELL, AND VASILIOS D KOSTEAS (2018): "Decisions to Enter and Continue
in the Teaching Profession: Evidence from a Sample of Us Secondary Stem Teacher
Candidates," Teaching and Teacher Education, 71, 57-65.
KAHN, LISA B (2010): "The Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a
Bad Economy," Labour Economics, 17, 303-316.
KLOPFENSTEIN, KRISTIN (2005): "Beyond Test Scores: The Impact of Black Teacher Role Models on
Rigorous Math Taking," Contemporary Economic Policy, 23, 416-428.
LINDSAY, CONSTANCE A, AND CASSANDRA MD HART (2017): "Exposure to Same-Race Teachers and Student
Disciplinary Outcomes for Black Students in North Carolina," Educational Evaluation and
Policy Analysis, 39, 485-510.
LYNCH, SARAH (2016): Engaging Teachers: Nfer Analysis of Teacher Retention. National Foundation for
Educational Research.
MANSKI, CHARLES F (1987): "Academic Ability, Earnings, and the Decision to Become a Teacher:
Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972," in Public
Sector Payrolls: University of Chicago Press, 291-316.
NAGLER, MARKUS, MARC PIOPIUNIK, AND MARTIN R WEST (2020): "Weak Markets, Strong Teachers:
Recession at Career Start and Teacher Effectiveness," Journal of Labor Economics, 38, 453-
500.
OREOPOULOS, PHILIP, TILL VON WACHTER, AND ANDREW HEISZ (2012): "The Short-and Long-Term Career
Effects of Graduating in a Recession," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 4, 1-
29.
RANCIFER, JESSE L (1993): "Teacher Diversity: Strategies to Increase Minorities in Teacher Education."
REDDING, CHRISTOPHER (2019): "A Teacher Like Me: A Review of the Effect of Student–Teacher
Racial/Ethnic Matching on Teacher Perceptions of Students and Student Academic and
Behavioral Outcomes," Review of educational research, 89, 499-535.
SCAFIDI, BENJAMIN, DAVID L SJOQUIST, AND TODD R STINEBRICKNER (2006): "Do Teachers Really Leave for
Higher Paying Jobs in Alternative Occupations?," Advances in Economic Analysis & Policy, 6.
SHVARTSMAN, ELENA (2018): "The State of the Economy at Graduation, Wages, and Catch-up Paths:
Evidence from Switzerland."
SIBIETA, LUKE (2020): "Essays in the Economics of Education: School Resource Decisions and Student
Achievement," UCL (University College London).
SIBIETA, LUKE (2022): "The Even Longer Squeeze on Teacher Pay," Institute for Fiscal Studies: Institute
for Fiscal Studies.

29
SIBIETA, LUKE, AND JOSHUA FULLARD (2021): "The Evolution of Cognitive Skills During Childhood across
the Uk."
STEELE, CLAUDE M, AND JOSHUA ARONSON (1995): "Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test
Performance of African Americans," Journal of personality and social psychology, 69, 797.
STINEBRICKNER, TODD R (1998): "An Empirical Investigation of Teacher Attrition," Economics of
Education Review, 17, 127-136.
TERESHCHENKO, ANTONINA, MARTIN MILLS, AND ALICE BRADBURY (2020): "Making Progress? Employment
and Retention of Bame Teachers in England."
WORTH, JACK, SUSAN BAMFORD, AND BEN DURBIN (2015): Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Nfer Analysis of
Teachers Joining and Leaving the Profession. National Foundation for Educational Research
Slough.
ZABALZA, ANTONI, PHILIP TURNBULL, AND GARETH WILLIAMS (1979): The Economics of Teacher Supply.
Cambridge University Press.

30
Appendix A1
Less men going into teaching and a higher proportion are leaving
We observe a decline in both the proportion of male applicants to teacher training
programmes and the proportion of male applicants placed onto teacher training
programmes (figure A1). In addition, we also observe a higher leavers rate among male
teachers (figure A2).
Figure A1. Proportion of male teacher training applications
Notes: figure shows the proportion of applicants to teacher training programmes who are male by year (blue line) and the
proportion of applicants who are male that are placed onto teacher training programmes by year (red line).
Source: Authors calculations using 2014 – 2020 UCAS ITT statistics
Figure A2. Secondary (LHS) and Primary (RHS) schoolteachers’ leavers rate
Notes: figure shows the leavers rate of male (red line) and female (blue line) schoolteachers by school phase (secondary
school on the LHS and primary on the RHS).
Source: Authors calculation using the 2010/11 – 2019/20 School Workforce Census

31
Figure A3. The proportion of graduation enrolling onto teacher training by year
Note: Figure shows the proportion of graduates who enrol onto teacher training programmes by year (2003 – 2012).
Source: HESA data from Table 4 in Fullard (2021a)