Psychology teaching in schools

As a fellow Psychology teacher of 27 years' standing, I read the interview with Helene Ansell with great interest ('It's about time we broke down the barriers between university and pre-university, April 2023).

I retired four years ago and set up an online provision for teaching A-level and IB Psychology. I expected to be receiving requests from students. Instead, I have received lots of requests from school leaders who have been desperate to find high-quality teaching to fill significant gaps. In some cases, this has been as the result of receiving a poor response to a job advert, in others due to illness which has led to a period of disrupted teaching and staff absence.

In certain cases, situations have arisen due to bad decision-making when appointing new staff and worryingly, other approaches have been as a result of a sole teacher, often in an unrelated subject, being completely out of their depth managing a large Psychology department. As Helene Ansell points out, not all teachers of Psychology have degrees in the subject, yet there seems to be an assumption amongst school leaders that 'anyone can teach Psychology'.

I have come across Heads of Psychology whose degrees are in Politics, Business Studies, History, Religious Studies and Sport Science. Would we really ask someone who had once been on holiday to Spain to suddenly be a Head of Spanish or someone who had worked as an electrician to be a Head of Physics? Ansell points out that Psychology is now the second most popular A-level subject, with over 78,000 exam entries for this and other qualifications, yet how many of these students are being taught by educators who are themselves trying to learn the subject, having been placed in a hugely difficult position?

Surely, if we want to raise the status of our subject and push for the universities to stipulate an A-level in Psychology as being a desirable requirement for degree-level study, this is something which we must fight against. It is all too easy for school leaders to cut corners with our subject when faced with budgetary demands, yet my own experience shows that this is often a false economy. Poor results, coupled with unhappy students and parents lead to someone like me being brought in to rescue a dire situation.

It is mentioned in the interview that 'there is a slight uneasiness…about pushing loads of people into the Psychology education funnel when there aren't necessarily the professional jobs at the end of it.' Well, there is clearly lots of demand in schools and colleges for well-qualified and motivated Psychology graduates who can offer our students the high-quality teaching they deserve. 

Why is teaching not being considered as a potential career option by our Psychology graduates? They would be welcomed by a great many of our school leaders who are finding vacancies in our subject increasingly difficult to fill, and by grateful parents and students who rightly expect that when they enrol on a course of study, they will be taught by someone with a good knowledge of the subject.

As Psychology continues to grow in popularity, this situation will only get worse. If we are serious about 'breaking down barriers between school and pre-university' then the BPS and the Association for the Teaching of Psychology need to be taking a lead on this.

Dr Sheila Thomas
Obidos, Portugal