How Stressful is the PGCE Really?

[DudeDudeson]

Hi, I have a place on a PGCE but have had cold feet about it ever since being offered it. I've been teaching English as a foreign language for too many years now and really want to get out of it as it feels like a trap. I'm decent enough at it after an initial few years of being absolutely rubbish at teaching. I've taught at university too while doing my PhD. I was ok at that but not great according to my former supervisor.

Anyways, long story short, I actually went and checked out two schools and it was ok? I mean the behaviour was pretty meh, nothing majorly awful. And yet I read a flood of stories about how awful teaching is the in the UK. My concern stems from this and also the workload. I'm ok with a steady amount of work but would not be able to withstand an avalanche of demands and zero work life balance. I also suffer from IBS and insomnia, exacerbated by stress which are not good for teaching. For reference I did teach full time in ESL, teaching 6 hours of classes a day but couldn't keep up with the pace. I'd get overtired and make mistakes. The reason I'm considering teaching is that it's a meaningful job and my CV is solely in education as that's all I've ever got jobs in.

I have an offer of an Instructional Design course as well, and am eyeing that but have major doubts about landing a job after it as many ID firms want corporate experience which I don't have. Conversely if I managed to survive the PGCE, I would be confident about landing a job. However, my lack of confidence stems from the actual surviving part. Given that my school visits appear to contradict what I'm reading on the internet, I'm at a bit of a loss in gauging just how demanding the course is. If it's fair, I think I can pass it. On the other hand what I'm reading is seriously spooking me and I can't afford another course that doesn't work out. I need to make whatever course I do actually result in a step up from what I've been doing for years.

That is true, but I can also see a collapse in the education system within the next decade, which means the culture will be forced to change or...no more teachers.

The system has already collapsed with no sign of change. Governments love targets/inspections etc so these won't ever go away. Fundamental issue is that the general public don't value education and the Tories certainly don't. A Labour government could potentially stem the tide but the damage is already done and will take too much investment to fix.

@DudeDudeson you seem to be dismissing instructional design without exploring it thoroughly. I did a PGCE and worked in secondary and FE for ~decade before moving into Ed tech and learning design in HE. My current role is now much less stressful than teaching. I WFH 4 days a week and spend the other day in the office. I get 44 days leave a year and rarely work more than 35 hours a week.

There are plenty of learning technologist jobs that would be a step towards becoming an instructional/learning designer. You PhD would help you to get a Uni job and your masters would have taught you design skills that would be useful.

Look on alt.ac.uk for jobs.

I agree. But OP isn't listening 🤷‍♀️

I would listen but it's not like have a choice, it's like the French Foreign Legion, I've have no place else to go. 15 years of rejections from HR for a plethora of jobs with repeat visits back to uni to alter course and facing the same rejections because someone had better skills or were more likeable. The one exception is teaching, I could get work at that. I'm trying to find my place (if any).

I truly hope teaching works out for you OP but you did ask what the PCSE and by default teaching is like and people like myself who've been in education for 30 years are simply giving you an honest reply.

I know, the thing what I saw completely contradicted what I read. Everything seemed a-ok. The secondary school was fine, the primary school was fine, the teachers seemed relaxed and reasonably happy. I mean I might have lucked out but 2 in a row seems uncanny. Maybe there was a selection bias in that they were the ones that allowed me to visit whereas more hectic schools wouldn't. It scares the shit out of me but if I survive it, I can emigrate to different countries like Oz. Things could work out.

You remind me of a student I had many years ago. She had managed to work through several failed career trajectories ( she started with medicine if I recall, and had worked though Civil Service placement and librarianship) before her very influential family wangled her a place at the Institute of education and she ended up in my classroom as a first placement. After a week or so I spoke to her tutor and asked what I was supposed to do to support her as she couldn’t/ wouldn’t engage with me, the children, the TA, and I suspect the tutor. She just stood. The tutor shrugged, implying I think that she would fall victim to natural wastage in her next placement where she would be expected to be more proactive. Which is what happened. I was quite angry, as places at the Institute were competitive and she had taken one from someone else.

Teaching is a profession that despite the desperate attempts by successive governments to turn it into painting by numbers if it’s Tuesday it must be SPAG tick box is still dependant on relationships, the relationships between teachers and children, teachers and colleagues, it needs people who can be honest, who can accept constructive criticism from others and recognise their own shortcomings, who can work collaboratively with peers, who can both support colleagues and accept support from them.

If you aren’t able or prepared to recognise this then please, keep out of the classroom, there are enough problems in education without inflicting yourself on future colleagues who will have to carry you when you don’t contribute , don’t see yourself as a team member and see the job as something you are doing because you can’t think of anything else that sounds as though it halfway matches what you think you should be doing.

Think outside the box. How about horticulture?

Thanks for this. That site seems useful for getting jobs in ID without experience. My brother said I seemed to pull ID out of a hat to avoid teaching (after I had gone over to observe schools and found the experience weirdly positive, - another thing that will rankle but I have always struggled with super early morning starts as a nightowl).

The reason I picked up on ID is that a colleague of mine eventually got a job in it but just by a hair's breadth; it looked like she wouldn't be getting out of TEFL. I thought, well there's an exit and it worked. But I absolutely know I don't have the same work experience, personality factor or anything really that would align with corporate people and what they value so teaching is the surer way to pull myself up and gain access to better jobs in Europe. Right now I'm sinking in my own malaise, I need to really create some momentum.

Aah! Teaching is not something you do just because you can’t think of anything else to do with yourself!
Have some respect for those of us who work in the profession. Teaching is bloody hard enough without a half-arsed colleague who is fundamentally unsuitable for the job and has no real interest in doing it in the first place.
A weak colleague who you are constantly covering for and carrying has been the last straw for many excellent teachers.
Never mind the fact that the children deserve better!

It's more complicated than reducing it to just to that.

Am I even someone you could believe? Some of us are unreliable narrators. There's a distinction between what we think and what we do. Internally these are the thoughts floating in my head (and are they even honest ones) but in the external world that's a different story. Teaching is something that appears predetermined for me, based on my experiences and lineage.

“Experiences and lineage”

No, sorry ,teaching is not in the least like being born into the royal family, or being called Murdoch or Johnson. It’s quite often the opposite, teacher’s children see what it entails and run as fast as they can in the opposite direction.

Still, look on the bright side, I was having misgivings about your posts, but was giving you the benefit of the doubt. I feel relieved now that I can ignore them .

A lot of my family members were teachers, my point being it seems to run in the blood. No need for insults.

What does that even mean? That somehow, despite the fact that your personality as you describe it makes you unlikely to be suitable for this career you’re going to do it anyway because other people might see it differently?
Lineage? What?
I’m sorry the third generation of my family to be teachers. My father was an excellent head teacher. Does this somehow make me magically good at my job? No. I’m good at my job because I work hard, I’m passionate about my kids and providing the best for them I can. I’m a good communicator with lots of patience, humour and flexibility.
You write as though somehow the world ‘owes’ you a certain level of career. Any career. That’s not really how it works.

• I’m the third generation of teachers in my family, never mind all the aunts and cousins also in teaching.

It seems you're not discussing in good faith when you rely on the "world owes you nothing" trope. It's pretty obvious I have no value as a person based on the decisions of hiring committees, HR and recruiters, I am aware of it. That is my point entirely, you make a good teacher because environmental factors, cultural and familial transmission of those qualities make you so. We are relational beings, not created in a vacuum but the sum of those around us and before us. However, if you're going to be confrontational and deliberately misinterpret me, I don't see any point in replying to you further. You may have the last word.

Actually I think you guys are right, I'm turning down my offer, the attempt to change things around is utterly futile, I'm fooling myself otherwise. My life is a failed one and I'm unfit to survive, time to accept it and let things take their course.

You've said that you don't like super early morning starts. As a Learning Designer in a university, my colleagues have start times between 7:30-10:00. They chose their own start times.

It may be possible to secure a role based on your previous experience (but an ID certificate would help).

You mentioned needing to 'align with corporate people'. I don't. Corporate ID pays more, but working in a Uni gives me greater flexibility, autonomy and annual leave. I've worked on a wide range of fascinating projects and do a small amount of teaching (mainly workshops).

If you leave near a Uni, why not ask if you can do some work shadowing for a week?

I am so tickled by the idea that teaching is the "French foreign legion".

Go in a TOTALLY different direction. Speak to a careers advisor, apply for graduate schemes. Management in aldi!

Teaching, and I say this kindly, is not for you. I have had a number of trainees who sound similar (including the many years' ESL experience and the slightly odd philosophical turn of phrase) and none of them lasted more than 2 years.

The French Foreign Legion are tough, I would have taken it as a compliment. I see teachers as marines. What's wrong with being philosophical in teaching?

Surely not lasting more than two years is more of a reflection on the education system in the UK? They get their experience and then skip at the first opportunity in exchange for a sane work-life balance, better pay and working conditions abroad, I mean why wouldn't they? It doesn't seem like they can't hack it but more that they're just not putting their head in the meat grinder anymore.

I've been to multiple career advisors and they don't know what to do with me. Teaching is a meaningful career, being a supermarket manager is anti-me. I mean, yeah I know I would clash with the UK education system (as many seem to anyways) but my idea would be to get the qualification + some experience if need be and then go abroad anyway. It's not like I want to live in the UK long term.

My life is a failed one and I'm unfit to survive

I’m feeling increasingly sorry for you-you sound desperate and with some deep issues, alongside big struggles with your mental health. I don’t think you would last the first term out feeling like that. I think turning down the course is a wise move.

I have a cold, it's making me emo. I am vaguely depressed and nihilistic about life but who isn't given the inequality and Darwinian structure of the economy? I was actually content during the pandemic, all that bs of society became irrelevant for a while. I used to be quite a hopeful person but years of rejections and being told I'm not good enough by employers have destroyed that and left me like this, almost of repeat of the ostracization I experienced at school (in fact doing those school visits was stressful as hell because I had all those anxieties from the misery that was my own school experience resurface). I mean if I keep turning down offers to improve my job prospects I'll continue to suffer like this. To me it would seem a Nietzschean turn of what doesn't kill you makes you stronger might be in order. Like in the army, recruits start off with low confidence but by doing something incredibly hard, they gain confidence.I can in effect "kill" my current self to become a new and better version of myself. But it won't come by staying in a comfort zone.