Newly Qualified Teachers and Child Protection: A Survey of Their Views, Training and Experiences

• NCJ Number: 201141
• Journal: Child Abuse Review Volume: 12 Issue: 2 Dated: www.interscience.wiley.com Pages: 119-127
• Author(s): Mary Baginsky
• Date Published: 2003
• Length: 9 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This paper reports on the findings of a survey of newly qualified teachers in Great Britain regarding their role as teachers in child protection: some of the teachers surveyed had previously participated as student-teachers in a course on the teacher's role in child protection.

Abstract

Questionnaires were distributed to 461 teachers, and 308 replies were received from teachers who had participated in the previous course on child protection. Questionnaires were also sent to 34 schools with whom the researcher was working on another project, with the request that they be given to any teacher who had entered the profession in 2000 or 2001. A few questionnaires were also distributed through persons known to the researcher to be in this cohort, some of whom passed them to friends. A total of 1,118 responses were received. Ninety-eight percent of the respondents believed teachers should have a role in child protection, mainly because of their daily contact with children and their general responsibility for children's welfare. Twenty-six percent of the respondents indicated they had not received any training in the child-protection role of the teacher. Ninety-two percent of the teachers who had participated in the training course rated it as useful or very useful in their professional practice. The questionnaire explored respondents' knowledge, confidence, and reactions in relation to child protection issues. Most of the teachers who responded to the survey wanted their child-protection responsibilities addressed in their initial training. Many also indicated the importance of in-service training for newly qualified teachers, so as to learn practical procedures for applying their training in actual circumstances of teacher-student interaction. One approach would be to make preservice and regular in-service training in child protection a requirement for teachers to continue in employment. 1 table and 8 references