Fixing Australia’s dire teacher shortage

The teaching profession in Australia is facing significant and concerning challenges. The shortage of teachers working in schools is causing daily disruptions to the education of students across the country.

With shortfalls predicted to increase, and concerns about attracting potential teachers to the profession both short and long-term, solutions are needed.

On Tuesday, the federal government released a $10 million advertising campaign, called Be That Teacher, aimed at raising the profile of teaching in Australia.

Everyone can think back to a teacher who made all the difference for them.

For me, that was my economics teacher.

We want more people to decide to be that teacher. The one who changes lives.

That’s why we’re launching ‘Be That Teacher’. pic.twitter.com/F7Zju5TWzh

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) October 31, 2023

It’s pleasing to see the drive to recruit more teachers into the workforce with such a positive campaign. However, it’s going to be crucial to put as much attention on retention of teachers (and the experience teachers have once they do enter the classroom) as it is attracting people into teaching.

Improving respect for, and trust in, the teaching profession is also an important focus.

Our research has shown that despite a bump in appreciation for teachers over the COVID-19 years, many teachers are not feeling valued for the work they’re doing every day in schools, and that this is a contributing factor for those considering leaving the profession.

Policy responses are very important, and this campaign is a lovely insight into the core of teachers’ work – their capacity to make a difference to lives and to shape the communities we live in.

In response to teacher shortages, there have been many initiatives over the past 20 years to attract, prepare and retain teachers for hard-to-staff schools, and more recently a number of federal and state level announcements, including the federal government’s recent teaching workforce action plan. A prominent focus has been on attracting future teachers to the profession.

However, teacher shortages are at dire levels now. For example, the NSW Department of Education yesterday released figures that show there are 10,000 classes per day not being adequately staffed due to teacher shortages.

With significant numbers of teachers reporting that they’re considering leaving the profession, on top of those who have already resigned or moved out of full-time teaching roles, we need to be thinking about why teachers are not feeling able to engage in their chosen careers in healthy and sustained ways.

The burning issue really should be, what can we alter in order for teachers to feel supported enough to be able to stay in the teaching workforce?

As a part of our Educational Workforce for the Future Research Impact Lab at Monash University, we’re looking at some of these issues with our projects, including one on the work of educational leaders, because good teachers who want to stay are produced by good leadership; and another on teacher retention, to understand the impact of extreme teaching shortages on those teachers still in the classroom.

Importantly, we need to focus on fully resourcing schools and adequately supporting teachers. Doing this will not only retain teachers, but will make attracting future teachers much easier.

Teaching should be an attraction

In fact, a teaching career should be incredibly attractive to young people considering their career options.

Research has shown that when asked about their career aspirations, young people rate the capacity to make a difference and contribute to their communities as important.

A teaching career offers these opportunities in unparalleled ways. But, no matter how many positive and enthusiastic campaigns are developed, things won’t change unless we engage with some deep and challenging questions about the nature of modern teaching work.

We agree with the federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare, that “teaching is the most important job in the world”, and it’s clear that both recruiting and retaining teachers is an urgent issue.

So, any campaign to improve the status of teachers and teaching is welcomed, and we hope that across the country our teachers feel the higher levels of appreciation that they deserve.