Listening to non-native English-speaking teachers could help solve the shortage

Teacher shortage is a global issue. In Australia, it’s described as “unprecedented”, and the “single biggest issue” macross the school sectors, with a projected shortfall of “approximately 4100 teachers” by 2025.

The Draft National Teacher Workforce Action Plan, released earlier this month, is the first coordinated national teacher workforce strategy many were calling for in the lead-up to the crisis.

It’s a strong first attempt, with 28 stipulated actions across five themes, but it doesn’t cover all angles.

Interviewed on 4 November, federal Minister for Education Jason Claire said the purpose of the draft plan is to collect feedback from the teachers and the wider community.

“What did we get right? What did we get wrong? What should be in the plan that's not in the draft plan? And what do you think that we should take out?” he said.

We respond to that invitation and draw on research to consider one aspect of the “improving teacher supply” that focuses on:

“... prioritise visa processing for qualified teachers and prioritise teachers from state and territory-nominated visa allocations”.

Jurisdictions will also work with relevant regulators to streamline overseas skills recognition, and consider how to expedite permanent visas for teachers already in Australia.

The Australian government will work with state and territory governments to make sure this information points to opportunities in their jurisdictions.

It’s already been pointed out that teacher shortage is now a global issue. Migration from English-speaking countries is unlikely to provide a full solution. We need to cover all options, including making processes easier for international teachers from non-native English-speaking backgrounds. 

The draft plan claims some measures have already been taken, and others are being worked on.

For example, “targeted communications and marketing materials” are being developed to “inform and encourage” potential migrants and employers in the education sectors.

The Department of Home Affairs is providing “priority processing for skilled visa applications” across education sectors, while the Victorian state government is offering “funding incentives of up to $50,000 for international teachers to work in Victoria, supported by VIT”.

There’s also been a commitment that new international teacher registrations will be processed “within a week of applying for registration”, instead of four to six weeks.

However, in the draft plan, all international teachers, from English as native-speaking (ENS) and English as non-native-speaking (ENNS) backgrounds, have been homogenised.

This gives the impression the criteria for both temporary and permanent visa applications for these groups are the same. They’re not, and ENNS teachers have had very different experiences of the process.

Here, we outline four key challenges regarding immigrant ENNES teachers, and potential solutions.

The teaching workforce doesn’t reflect the diversity

The Australian teaching workforce appears to lack diversity in comparison with Australian demographics and English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) students in schools.

Immigrant non-native English-speaking teachers (INNESTs) comprise just 10% of the teaching workforce in Australia, where one in two Australians was either born overseas, or has at least one parent born overseas, and 25% of primary and secondary school students learn English as an additional language or dialect. In some schools, this number can reach 90%.

The percentage of INNESTs is also less than that of the working-age Australian population (33.6%).

Findings from a study of 16 INNESTs reveal they were treated unequally and inequitably before and after their migration in Australia.

Within and beyond professional contexts, the experiences of repeated professional non-recognition, discrimination, views, and treatments as the linguistic-cultural-racial “other” impacted their sense of professional self and status.

Their native language stood in the way of their professional ambition. Revered teachers of English in their countries of origin, they were regarded as not knowing how to speak so-called “Australian English”.

Solutions could include:

• Collect data on the INNESTs in Australia, with and without initial teacher education qualifications, who have teaching experience.

• Provide scholarships for internship, the teachers to undertake teacher training, develop short courses, and simulation programs.

• Promote and let international students choose teaching degrees when they’re applying from overseas, and when they’re in Australia.

• Provide international students the option to move to a teacher education course or complete teacher education after their initial degree.

• Provide scholarships.

• Make transnational agreements to bring teachers from non-English-speaking countries, or reach agreements to train teachers equivalent or according to Australian initial teacher training programs – Australian schools and universities can work as stakeholders to create and teach programs online.

Lengthy timeframe to transition into the profession

At present, it’s more difficult to become a teacher than a doctor with an overseas qualification. The timeframe for INNESTs to enter the profession is lengthy.

The process is time-consuming, onerous, and in some cases discriminatory. It includes hurdles before and post-migration, such as awaiting eligibility for HECS-HELP, upgrading qualifications, and trying multiple times (mostly over years) to meet English language requirements, only to then be rejected despite meeting all the criteria.

It’s taxing for them economically, socially-culturally, psychologically, and emotionally.

Finding any job including teaching was a monumental challenge, and it took years for some to enter the profession.

Desperate and despondent after migration, the teachers started to work low-paid, unskilled jobs to make ends meet. A highly acclaimed teacher, Mahati, thought she “would get a teaching job very easily”, but could only find work in an “... Indian/Sri Lankan grocery store – cooking, cleaning, packing, selling, etc – the worst time of my life!”.

It also took time for INNESTs to gather all the required documents for visa application, have their qualifications and experiences assessed for migration, navigate the application process, attain registration as a teacher, and learn job-seeking skills.

Solutions could include:

• Minimise the visa application, processing, assessment, and registration time.

• Create on-arrival job-ready programs.

• Ensure they’re not viewed and treated as deficient, but on par with the native English-speaking teachers.

• Treat them as hybrid professionals who continue to engage in linguistic cultural and professional mixing and accumulations.

• Make employers aware of the global Englishes and their values.

• Make employers account for the reasons for not employing an INNEST.

• Make employment processes blind.

Discriminatory English language requirements

The English language requirements for INNESTs for registration (by the Victorian Institute of Teaching) and migration (the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership) are both linguistically and racially discriminatory, as the requirement doesn’t apply for native English-speaking teachers from BANA (Britain and the Australasian and North American nations).

The requirement may not even be met by highly educated native speakers.

Some of them struggled to meet the higher International English Language Testing System (IELTS) requirements, as due to non-practice, their registration lapsed.

Solutions could include:

• Provide training of intercultural communication and respect in schools both for the students and staff – it can be as specific as how to respect INNESTs.

• Promote global Englishes and their importance in multicultural contexts.

• Remove the English language test requirement if the teacher’s medium of higher education was in English. If not, create English language courses for the teachers.

Lack of information and support

Lack of information and support also exacerbated the tribulations of the INNESTs’ professional entry in Australia. They were often misguided by wrong information about the pathway courses and other steps to pursue their profession in Australia.

Two teachers, Quang and Natalie, opted for master’s degrees in applied linguistics as their first courses in Australia, mistakenly believing they’d be able to then teach in schools. Natalie and Janaki were discouraged from pursuing teaching in Australia because they were non-native English speakers. Natalie was even derided about her career aspiration to teach English in Australia.

Another, Thi, said: “I couldn’t even differentiate these different work sectors, so how in the world could I find the right place to look for work?”

Laura, a high school teacher Laura from the Philippines, and primary school teacher Janaki didn’t feel confident about their teaching, so they moved to other sectors.

Tailored support and mentorship for these teachers would ensure experienced teachers who’ve already proven their passion for the profession would remain in the sector.

Another reason why the teachers, Jigna, Mahati and Janaki, did not stay in school teaching was they did not find any An inability to find fixed-term or permanent-contract work, rather than intermittent casual relief teaching (CRT), was another reason teachers opted to step away.

“I did not like the instability of the fact that I had to teach at different places,” Janaki said.

Solutions could include:

• Create professional support programs by connecting the teachers with other teachers, including retired teachers and teacher educators, who’d like to be involved in the programs.

• Create applications or websites with all the professional information integrated on-platform, which can be accessed by the teachers before they arrive onshore.

• Create inter/intra schools mentorship programs.

• Ensure teachers are permanently employed.

We can partially solve the teacher supply crisis by first recognising the problems and taking action, such as including these potential solutions in the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.

This article was co-authored with Associate Professor Rachel Wilson, from The University of Sydney’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.