Teacher recruitment and retention in England: a Foucauldian analysis of disempowerment

Persistent under-recruitment and poor retention threaten the sustainability of England’s education system, with shortages acute among early career teachers. Using Michel Foucault’s ideas of power, discipline, and governmentality, this paper argues that these issues stem not only from workload or pay but from systemic disempowerment. Successive reforms have enabled the Department for Education to centralise control over curriculum, pedagogy, and teacher education, embedding surveillance, accountability, and performativity that constrain autonomy. Teachers are cast as implementers of state-mandated practices—such as systematic synthetic phonics—validated through prescribed “evidence-based” methods. This disciplinary regime produces self-regulating, compliant teachers, eroding agency, identity, morale, and long-term commitment. From a Foucauldian view, such disempowerment is structural to neoliberal governmentality, where marketised systems operate through data and compliance. England’s experience reflects global trends, as organisations like the OECD promote policy convergence and performative accountability that reshape teaching worldwide into regulated, data-driven labour. Addressing England’s teacher crisis requires more than financial incentives: it demands restoring trust, autonomy, and intellectual freedom, reimagining teachers as critical professionals. Universities offering initial and continuing teacher education can lead this re-empowerment through reflective practice, research engagement, and democratic involvement in policymaking.