Teacher and Administrator Shortages in Changing Times

Abstract

Against a backdrop of demographic change and world-wide educator shortage, we examined the case of British Columbia and found teacher shortages by region, level, and subject. Unexpectedly, we found that a shortage of administrators is also imminent. The emphasis on management and the adversarial climate in B.C. schools seem to make it difficult to recruit experienced teachers into administration. Younger, less experienced candidates are aligning themselves with the managerial nature of administration in today's adversarial conditions. These findings clearly have important implications for teacher education and for the working conditions and recruitment of administrators. L'etude porte sur la question de penurie des enseignants en Colombie-Britannique. Contre toute attente, les auteurs ont decouvert qu'une penurie d'administrateurs etait egalement imminente. L'accent mis sur la gestion et le climat conflictuel dans les ecoles de la C.-B. semblent compliquer le recrutement d'enseignants chevronnes pour des postes en administration. Des candidats plus jeunes et moins experimentes s'alignent sur l'aspect gestion de l'administration. Ces constatations ont evidemment des implications importantes pour la formation a l'enseignement et pour les conditions de travail et le recrutement des administrateurs.