Australian Teacher Workforce Initiatives in Hard-to-Staff Schools: What’s the Problem Represented to Be?

• In Event: Educators' Responses to Issues Teachers Are Facing Globally

Abstract

The scarcity of teachers has long been considered a challenge across education systems, including in Australia with the COVID-19 pandemic only compounding already existing shortages. The current dearth of teachers has led to the implementation of emergency workforce measures, such as the recent National Teacher Workforce Plan. This paper explores how Australian workforce initiatives over the past twenty years have sought to recruit, prepare, and retain teachers within historically hard-to-staff schools. The paper argues that the constitutive role of workforce policy texts in constructing responses to teaching workforce shortages has led to an overreliance on teacher supply and recruitment and suggests that an emphasis on alternative framings must be considered that address broader workforce planning concerns.

Authors

• Amy McPherson, University of Newcastle

• Jo Lampert, Monash University