Teachers Need Time and Support

Teaching has intensified, teachers are asked to take on more compliance and more work and there’s not enough time in the day for teachers to do everything they’re asked to, this means that many feel overworked and underappreciated.

A National Teacher Workforce Action Plan has been proposed by education ministers to address the teacher shortage with a focus on recruiting new teachers. Performance-pay incentives and making teaching degrees cheaper are among the strategies that have been floated.

However, Scientia Associate Professor Rebecca Collie, School of Education, UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture says for a plan to be effective, it must first address the working conditions for current teachers.

Assoc Prof Collie, an educational psychology researcher investigating teacher motivation and wellbeing, says teaching has become more complex in the past decade. Teachers now face greater demands, but this has not been accompanied by the provision of more time and support to manage those demands.

“This is important for retaining teachers, but also because any attempts to attract new teachers to the profession will be stymied by a ‘revolving door’ of teacher turnover if current conditions aren’t improved,” Assoc Prof Collie says.

Many teachers report working late into the night and on weekends, causing significant stress and leading to attrition.

“What teachers are being asked to do is a lot different now than it was a decade ago. It includes a lot more administrative and compliance work,” Assoc Prof Collie says.

“What hasn’t kept pace is the time teachers are afforded. It just adds other tasks to everything they’re already doing and takes away from the time to effectively prepare, plan and collaborate in relation to the core business of teaching.”

Teachers can also struggle to deal with disruptive student behaviour and regularly changing or unrealistic expectations from government and professional bodies, parents and school leadership.

“Disruptive students can be very stressful for teachers, particularly early career teachers who may be still developing the skillsets to deal with different student needs,” Collie says. “When you factor in the changing demands placed on them from the top down and the bottom up, it is understandable that many teachers feel stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

The result is a poorer learning experience for students and growing dissatisfaction for teachers.

“Our research shows it’s central that teachers have the time to build quality interpersonal relationships with students to engage them in their learning. These relationships are a big reason why teachers enter the profession and why they stay, but teachers just don’t have as much time to develop them as they had in the past.”

Efforts must also be made to foster a healthy and supportive environment for teachers to thrive.

“Reducing poor working conditions simply creates a neutral environment. So, at the same time, we must improve the things that make teaching a great profession to begin with,” Assoc Prof Collie says.

Research indicates the opportunity to have input in decision-making within schools and positive interpersonal relationships with both students and colleagues are factors that play a crucial role in ensuring teachers remain engaged in the profession.

“Those things play an essential role in teacher happiness and wellbeing. If teachers are happy at work, they’re more effective at work and want to stay at work,” Assoc Prof Collie says.

It’s also essential for teachers to have access to professional learning and mentoring opportunities relevant to the different demands they face across regions and schools.

“Giving teachers professional learning opportunities, effective feedback and mentoring so they can continue to build their skills is essential and this is something we need to make sure is accessible to teachers in all schools. If we hope to address the teacher shortage long-term, we must ultimately listen to what teachers say.

“There’s an excellent cohort of skilled teachers telling us this is why we want to leave or have already left. If we don’t deal with the root causes, if we don’t improve working conditions, then teachers – current or new – just aren’t going to stick around.”