Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics - IEA

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TEACHER PAY AND STUDENT MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT
Italy
Composition of the teacher labor force
In 2002, there were 830,648 Italian teachers working in preschool through uppersecondary
education. The largest share of teachers (33%) was working in uppersecondary
education. Twenty-four percent were working in lower-secondary schools,
32% in primary schools, and 11% in preschools.
While decreasing population growth in Italy has resulted in falling student enrollments
at most levels of the system, the number of teachers has actually grown. For example,
between 1980 and 2002, the number of Italian students decreased by 22.1% but the
number of teachers increased by 4.8%. As a result, the ratio of students to teachers
decreased by 25.6% during the same period. Differences between falling enrollments
and increasing numbers of teachers were particularly strong at the primary level,
where enrollments decreased by 38% while the number of teachers increased by 3.5%,
resulting in a 27.2% decrease in the student–teacher ratio. At the lower-secondary level,
the number of students decreased by 38.6% between 1980 and 2002, while the number
of teachers also decreased, but by 24.1% (Drago, Basaglia, & Lodolo, 2003). 12
While growth in the number of teachers was initially caused by increases in student
attendance during the 1960s and 1970s, continued growth of the teaching force more
recently has stemmed from changes in policies regarding class sizes, access of students
with disabilities to full-time teachers, increases in subject offerings in vocational and
technical education, and other policies. Changes in the teacher pension system, which
encouraged more senior teachers to retire, also opened up new teaching posts in many
schools. However, falling population growth, combined with the dissolution of many
small, decentralized schools, has dampened demand for teachers in most subject areas.
Despite the increasing number and decreasing demand for Italian teachers, Italy
continues to experience periodic shortages of teachers in certain regions and subject
areas. Italy’s border provinces traditionally are difficult to staff, and demand for teachers
in these regions is strong. Teachers with backgrounds in mathematics and science,
and in subjects that have been added because of curricular reform in vocational and
technical education, are also in short supply. Consequently, these teachers often have a
wide range of choice as to where to teach available to them.
A huge share of pre-primary and primary school teachers (99.5% and 95.3%,
respectively) are women. Although the proportion of female teachers drops in lowersecondary
schools (75.2%) and upper-secondary schools (59.6%), women constitute
the majority of teachers at all levels. Perhaps, more surprisingly, the proportions of
women on waiting lists for appointments to lower-secondary schools (79.3%) and
upper-secondary schools (76.6%) are even higher, indicating increasing feminization
of the teaching force.
12 Much of the information reported here about the Italian teacher labor force comes from the study by Drago and
colleagues. Unless we indicate otherwise, readers can assume that figures are drawn from this study.