The teaching profession have become at the forefront of the global educational policy reform agenda (Tatto, 2007; 2008; Connell, 2009; Roberston, 2016). In a context of a growing concern for effectiveness and equity in education systems, teachers ‘quality and the teaching profession became central to number of major issues concerning the possible futures of educational systems (Hopkins & Stern, 1996; Darling-Hammond, 1997; Connell, 2009; OECD, 2005). However existing research indicates a crisis in teacher supply in many countries, reflecting a decline in the status of the teaching profession that suffers from low attractiveness and from a high level of attrition and turnover in many education systems (Shen, 1997; Darling-Hammond, 2003; Guarino, Santibanez & Daley, 2006; Inman & Marlow, 2004; Struyven & Vanthournout, 2014). In this context teachers’ careers trajectories within the profession have received great interest in the past decades. If influential life-cycle studies (Huberman, 1993) have shed light on particular phases that constitute critical steps in teachers ‘professional life, a body of research, highly connected to school improvement (Huberman, 1988), focus on distinct careers stages and provide an overview of individual factors and organizational settings that affect the decision of entering, remaining in or leaving the teaching profession (Shen, 1997; Inman & Marlow, 2004; Struyven & Vanthournout, 2014; Guarino, Santibanez & Daley, 2006). However, these studies remain highly focused on the individual side of careers, emphasizing teachers’ work histories, aims and ambitions and do not question the structural side of careers (Acker, 1989), in other words the regulation of teachers ‘careers and its effect. Thereby, the purpose of our study is to shed light on the relationship between teachers ‘careers regulation, teachers ‘status, attrition, mobility and segregation in a comparative perspective.

We use a definition of the notion of teachers’ careers anchored in the sociology of profession (Freidson, 1976, 2001) which rests on three pillars: 1) teacher’ education and training (ITE); 2) the division of labor; 3) the labor-market regulation. Accordingly teachers ‘education and training refers to the structure (e.g concurrent versus consecutive model of ITE [Grimmett, 1998; Eurydice, 2015]), duration (long-term versus short term) and content of teacher education and training (focus on subject matter expertise, pedagogy and teaching methodology and the importance given to on-the-job training [Carter, 1990; Grossman, 1990; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Whitty & Furlong, 2017]) that provide individuals with the knowledge and skills required for teaching. The labor market regulation refers to the degree and type of constraint for entering the teaching profession and accessing teaching positions taking into account the way professionals are recruited and allocated to workplace (e.g. centralized versus an open recruitment system [OCDE, 2005]) as well as several patterns that structure teachers’ typical careers-lines (e.g performance, seniority or expertise [Crehan, 2016]). Finally the division of labor involves a focus not only on the goals, the content of work and related tasks, but also on whom is defining, controlling and coordinating teachers ‘work, in other word to teachers’ autonomy and accountability (Little, 1990; Webb, 2002; Ingersoll, 2009; Wilkins, 2011).

Our cross-national study adopts a synchronic approach for comparison (Noah & Eckstein, 1969; Van Daele, 1993; Groux & Porcher, 1997). We use mixed methods in order to document policy settings that structure teacher ‘careers in the 33 education systems included in the OEC TALIS 2013 sample and to analyze their effects on teachers ‘status, attrition, mobility and segregation. We first conducted both an extensive non-exhaustive literature review and policy documents analysis in order to characterize teacher’ education and training, the division of labor and the labor-market regulation in the 33 education systems of our sample (with as focus on ISCED 2). Second, we use TALIS 2013 data and multilevel regression models in order to analyze the effects of these dimensions on teachers’ segregation (e.g the proportion of novice teachers working in disadvantaged schools in each education system), teachers’ attrition (e.g teachers ‘intentions to leave the profession), between school mobility (e.g teachers intention to change school) and the perceived status of their profession.

Our preliminary findings suggest that the perceived status of the teaching profession would be higher in education systems that combines high selectivity ITT, a labor market regulation oriented toward the research of a better fit between schools ‘needs and teachers ‘qualification as well as a division of labor that put the emphasis on professional autonomy, teachers ‘expertise and professional accountability schemes (Finland, Denmark, Norway, Japan, Singapore). Moreover, we can hypothesis that these contexts distinguishes from the others regarding teachers ’intention of migration (between schools mobility), the latest being inclined to change their work contexts. We can also expect between schools mobility being higher education systems that favor a labor market regulation based on the principles of openness, flexibility and competition for jobs due to unstable teachers ‘career lines (England, USA, Australia). Finally we can also hypothesis that teachers ‘segregation would be higher in these education systems as well as in the ones that favor bureaucratic rules and impersonal criteria on which is grounded the regulation of labor market; seniority and performance criteria for teachers’ allocation to schools and recruitment playing a booster role for teachers ‘segregation.

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