Dr Emily MacLeod
@emilymacleod.bsky.social
120 followers 190 following 80 posts
I research why people do/not become teachers, especially in science, and how we can make education equitable. Working at McGill and UCL.
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emilymacleod.bsky.social
Importantly, this paper demonstrates that the reasons why young people do not pursue teaching are not the same reasons why people leave the profession

🚫 i.e., we should not always group teacher recruitment and retention together, they are not caused by the same issues (10/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
This raises questions about how we can raise the status and safety of teaching for all... (9/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
The framework shows that the reasons why people want to become teachers go beyond their individual desires (e.g., wanting to work with children), and include how potential teachers see themselves, and are seen by others, in relation to teaching (8/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
In this framework I propose that status and safety are relative to a person's background and/or the social and cultural inequities that they experience.

e.g. teaching is not 'low in status' for everyone, at all times ‼️(7/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
Using these analyses I propose a new framework of status and safety with which to examine why some people become teachers, whilst others do not:

*teacher-makers and teacher-breakers* (6/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
Those who chose to pursue teaching by age 22 maintained or returned to teaching as both high in status and safety

Those who dropped their teaching aspirations lost the relative status and/or safety of teaching (5/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
I found that teaching was seen as a profession which afforded both respect (status) and minimal risk (safety) by all aspirant teachers in this study

But that these perceptions shifted over time - status and status can be lost and gained (4/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
In the paper I present analyses of qualitative data from interviews tracking aspirant teachers in England over 11 years 👶➡️🧑 (3/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
This paper is part of a special issue focusing on teacher shortages and ways forward for policy, research and practice in teacher supply

Thanks to Beng Huat See, Gemma Moss, Robert Klassen, Mark Ledger, Sophie Thompson-Lee & Rebecca Snell for the opportunity (2/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
*What makes or breaks teaching for young people?*

I have a new open-access paper out in @berj-2025.bsky.social bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Teacher-makers and teacher-breakers: (Re)defining how status and safety influence trajectories into and away from teaching

🧵(1/11)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
Today marks my one year anniversary at @mcgill.ca ☀️
McGill University in the sunshine
emilymacleod.bsky.social
📢 New @beranews.bsky.social blog out today, where I consider the impact of the idea that some teachers are 'born' to teach

www.bera.ac.uk/blog/born-to...
emilymacleod.bsky.social
Back home in Montréal after a fantastic time conferencing with my @eserasig5.bsky.social family 😍

... And with a new obsession for Danish ice cream 🍧

@mariobarioberge.bsky.social @betzabetorres-o.bsky.social @allisongonsalves.bsky.social @lucyavraamidou.bsky.social @emilysprowls.bsky.social
emilymacleod.bsky.social
This week I'm in wonderful Copenhagen 🇩🇰 with wonderful McGill colleagues for the European Science Education Association conference #ESERA @eserasig5.bsky.social
emilymacleod.bsky.social
Finally, we consider what this means for increasing and diversifying teacher recruitment in the context of dire, and patterned, teacher shortages (4/4)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
And that teaching is a common back-up, or second-choice career aspiration, but that many individuals who report an earlier interest in teaching do not go on to become teachers (3/4)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
We find that girls and young women, as well as young people who identified as White, were significantly more likely to be open to teaching than their peers (2/4)
emilymacleod.bsky.social
Who Aspires to Become a Teacher? Findings from a Cohort Study Tracking Young People from Age 10/11 to Age 21/22

In this new paper we use survey data from the ASPIRES project to analyse teaching aspirations amongst young people in England (1/4 🧵)

www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15...
Screenshot of paper title: Who aspires to become a teacher? Findings from a cohort study tracking young people from age 10/11 to age 21/22
Reposted by Dr Emily MacLeod
seeds4equity.bsky.social
Hi SEEDS family! We are organizing a social meetup at ESERA for SEEDS members on 8.28. It will be a chance to chat and connect with other comrades and gente simpatica. We hope to see you there. For more info and to register login to your SEEDs account: seeds4equity.org/Sys/Login?Re...
Science Educators for Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice - Authorization required
seeds4equity.org
emilymacleod.bsky.social
On this project I particularly enjoyed speaking with & learning from early years practitioners around the country.

We do not often hear directly from this workforce in education research so it great to have the opportunity to do so on The ONE.
emilymacleod.bsky.social
Great to see this report out from the first RCT I worked on with colleagues @randeurope.org & @theeef.bsky.social

We report on the impact of The ONE, a 12 week professional development programme for early years practitioners in England

d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/production/d...
d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net
emilymacleod.bsky.social
The weather is so wild here! Thankfully it's back to nice and warm today, rather than unbearably hot