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New evidence on teachers' working hours in England. An empirical analysis of four datasets

Allen, R; Benhenda, A; Jerrim, J; Sims, S; (2021) New evidence on teachers' working hours in England. An empirical analysis of four datasets. Research Papers in Education , 36 (6) pp. 657-681. 10.1080/02671522.2020.1736616. Green open access

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Abstract

Surveys have revealed that teachers in England work far longer hours than their international counterparts, causing serious concern amongst both policymakers and the profession. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the structure of and changes to teachers’ working hours. We address this gap in the evidence base by analysing four different datasets. Working hours remain high: a quarter of teachers work more than 60 hours per week during term time, 40% report that they usually work in the evening and around 10% during the weekend. However, contrary to current narratives, we do not find evidence that average working hours have increased. Indeed, we find no notable change in total hours worked over the last twenty years, no notable change in the incidence of work during evenings and weekends over a fifteen year period and no notable change in time spent on specific tasks over the last five years. The results suggests that policy initiatives have so far failed to reduce teachers’ working hours and that more radical action may need to be taken in order to fix this problem.

Type: Article
Title: New evidence on teachers' working hours in England. An empirical analysis of four datasets
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/02671522.2020.1736616
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2020.1736616
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Teachers, workload, working hours, measurement error
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership > Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10095819
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