Robert Klassen, a Professorial Fellow and the College’s Tutor for Graduates, has been awarded a €2.5 million Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to develop a new science of motivation-based teacher recruitment.
Teacher shortages are a global challenge, with UNESCO projecting a need for 44 million new teachers in the next decade. However, there remains limited evidence on how to effectively attract talented young people into the profession.
Professor Klassen’s project, TEACHFORCE, combines motivation science, AI-driven digital technologies, and longitudinal studies to understand the trajectory of how people explore, evaluate, and ultimately make a decision on whether to choose teaching as a profession.
The findings will help education systems address teacher shortages through more personalised and evidence-based recruitment strategies.
Professor Klassen, who is Professor of Education at the University of Oxford’s Department of Education, said: “I am excited by the opportunity that this grant provides over a five-year period. Our research team will be investigating one of the key unanswered questions in education: how we can connect talented young people with teaching careers that align with their motivations, interests, and values.
On the project’s potential impact, Professor Klassen said: “I hope the project will generate both new scientific knowledge and practical innovations that help universities and policymakers engage future teachers in more effective and personalised ways. The long-term goal is to better understand how career decisions are shaped over time and to translate that knowledge into more effective approaches to teacher recruitment.”
This is Professor Klassen’s third ERC grant. He said: “Receiving an ERC Advanced Grant is an honour and an exciting opportunity to pursue ambitious research on this global challenge. I am particularly grateful to my colleagues in the University of Oxford’s Department of Education and the exceptional members of my research team whose ideas, energy, and commitment have helped shape this programme of work.”
The ERC’s Advanced Grants give senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major breakthroughs. The grants are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
