SCITT trainee teachers' choice of ITT pathway - implications for marketing and recruitment

This study focuses on trainee teachers’ experiences of application and recruitment to analyse the extent to which they made an informed choice of initial teacher training (ITT) pathway. This is prompted by the National Audit Office’s report Training New Teachers, which noted: “Potential applicants do not yet have good enough information to make informed choices about where to train and the plethora of routes has been widely described to us as confusing” (2016:11).

The trainees were sampled from the 2017-18 cohort of a School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) provider in the North of England. The research was conducted using a qualitative, interview-based approach. Three focus groups, eight one-to-one interviews and a short biographical questionnaire were designed to provide complementary, rich data on the trainees’ experiences and choices. This approach provides insight into the use of reflection as a methodological tool in accessing examples of trainees’ ignorance.

Whilst the trainees’ were united in their final choice of ITT pathway, their experiences and choices throughout their customer journey were notably varied. The findings indicate that trainees were relatively well informed regarding aspects such as the role of a teacher, but less informed about the process and outcomes of ITT, drawing theoretical insights from the field of Agnotology (Proctor, 2008). Facilitators and constraints on making an informed choice are outlined and the implications for marketing strategies discussed. The research provides insight into how applicants engage with ITT providers and the factors they considered, which contributes to the marketing field through consideration of ignorance within choice-making. The recommendations for marketing professional practice should be of interest to all ITT providers. The findings contribute to the ITT policy field by examining the impact of local and national circumstances in the 2016-17 recruitment cohort, and the recommendations support and expand upon the recent announcement for a review of the ITT market by the Department for Education in their 2019 Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy.