Educating and retaining new teachers: lessons and warnings from Scotland

FORUM - Print ISSN 1474-7685 - Online ISSN 2047-7171
Volume 68 Number 3 (2026)

Educating and retaining new teachers: lessons and warnings from Scotland
Fiorella Lazarte pages 151‑162
DOI: 10.3898/forum.2026.68.3.14

Abstract

This article draws on ethnographic research conducted in Glasgow primary schools in 2026 to examine how Scotland supports probationary and early career teachers in linguistically and culturally diverse communities. Written for the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Education Act and the centenary year of Caroline Benn and Lawrence Stenhouse, it asks what conditions make comprehensive education sustainable for teachers as well as pupils. Drawing on survey responses from 54 teachers and school staff, observations, field notes and interviews across five Glasgow primary schools, the article identifies both lessons and warnings from Scotland. The lessons concern relational school culture, structured probationary induction, collective labour protections and shared multilingual expertise. The warnings concern toxic social debt when inclusive aspirations outstrip resourcing, employment insecurity after probation and weak links between initial teacher education and complex classroom realities. The article argues that teacher retention is not a staffing problem alone; it is a democratic, organisational and structural question. 

SORRY - you are not registered as being permitted online access to the full text of this article

You have the following options:

  1. If you are viewing this via an institution or academic library you can ask that your institution takes out a Subscription to this journal.
  2. If you already have a Personal Subscription please login below


    Forgotten your username / password? Click here to locate

  3. Purchase an annual Personal Subscription
    PRINT + DIGITAL personal subscription (£45 / year)
    DIGITAL personal subscription (£35 / year)
    A Personal Subscription provides immediate access not only to the single article you are seeking, but also to all past and future articles in this journal up to the expiry of your annual (calendar year) subscription.
  4. Purchase immediate access to this single article (UK£7.00) - Buy article Coming Soon

To cite this article
Fiorella Lazarte (2026) Educating and retaining new teachers: lessons and warnings from Scotland, FORUM, 68(3), 151-162 . https://doi.org/10.3898/forum.2026.68.3.14

Share this