Teacher Trainers Excluded from Workforce Supply Discussion

The teacher shortage is acute everywhere and as state governments cast about for solutions there is one voice that is conspicuously absent from the discussion in WA, that of the providers of teacher education.

Earlier consultation might have been valuable as the teacher shortage phenomenon was foreseen by many working in academia.

People like Dr Saul Karnovsky from Curtin’s School of Education have been left bemused by the exclusion of ITE providers in the framing of a solution to the teacher staffing crisis.

“At this point Curtin University has not been consulted for input of any state government plans or initiatives, which I would say is of issue. As active researchers across several areas in education, the government should be looking to ITE providers for advice and representation on relevant steering committee’s or task force groups.”

Karnovsky says it is encouraging to see that the State Government is prioritising teacher workforce solutions but is ignoring a significant body of knowledge in its investigations into teacher recruitment and attrition and a suggested cash splash probably isn’t going to deliver a lasting effect.

“The problem is that the research community have been asking for these reforms for many years. Research shows that teaching has a high attrition rate, with many leaving after 5-7 years in the classroom. Policy makers need to be asking hard questions about the work of teaching in modern schools to understand the drivers behind the current shortages.

“Rather than short term cash incentives, we need to carefully think about what we expect from teachers, particularly in terms of increasing accountability, audit, and performance requirements. Those countries who retain their teachers have learnt to trust the professional judgements of educators, who can be the drivers of education reform, rather than relying on a revolving door of policy makers with no experience in education,” he says.

“The strategies proposed by the State Government stem from desperation. Throwing more money at this problem is not going to create long-term solutions to the staffing crisis. Teachers don’t choose the profession for high salaries or cash incentives; they are called to teaching to make a difference in the lives of young people. The new plan may provide some short-term relief to schools who need to find enough teachers to put in front of students in 2023, but I worry that in two or three years, many of these new recruits will be overworked and burnt out due to inadequate training and support.”

Throwing teachers into schools with just three years of training instead of four is another strategy that seems destined for failure.

“I find the notion that three-year trained teachers will be moving into classrooms across WA uncomfortable. Many four-year trained teachers already find that they have inadequate skills to tackle the increasing complexity and challenges of working in school communities. This includes trauma informed practice, meeting student diverse learning needs and keeping up with administration requirements.

“Graduate teachers also report that they do not receive good mentoring or support in their first years on the job, where ‘being thrown into the deep end’ is a common experience. I worry that already stretched schools will be unable to provide the necessary mentoring and support for teachers who will need it. Graduate teachers require the opportunity to deeply reflect on their practice and learn rich concepts to understand the work of modern teaching, universities are the ideal place for this to occur.”

State schools are finding it difficult to find adequate staffing because of increasing attrition and research from this year shows that across primary and secondary sectors in Australia, 60% of teachers intend to leave the profession.

Teachers are leaving because they are demoralised by policy requirements that take time away from student learning. Their professional autonomy has been replaced by a culture of standardisation, accountability, and compliance.

“Teachers’ work is also not valued by the wider community, with many experiencing bullying by parents. Unless these factors change, we will continue to find ourselves in a teacher staffing crisis.

“I feel that the current plan is using band-aid solutions to treat the symptom of the issue, not the cause. The state government needs to think carefully about how the teaching profession and schooling system can be reformed to prevent significant attrition numbers in the future. The issue of teacher workload is the number one priority that must be fixed. I would like to see how the state government will initiate policy that unburdens teachers from unmanageable administration and compliance requirements,” says Karnovsky.

Image by Tim Mosshoder