The Teacher Shortage is a Myth!

Since COVID-19 took a hold and battered our health workers and to a lesser extent, our teachers, a seemingly mass exodus from the education system has occurred, with cries of a teacher shortage emblazoned across media airwaves. However, this ‘teacher shortage’ is a myth, and the unwillingness for trained teachers to continue in their roles is a symptom of issues ingrained in the ‘industry’ (as this is where the sector is heading) rather than the impacts of an admittedly major, but comparatively fleeting event.

Some elements of the reported ‘teacher shortage’ are unmistakably real. For example, enrolment in initial teacher education courses has dropped significantly in recent years. This is despite the campaigns many state governments have engaged in extolling the virtues of a career as a teacher. Interestingly, according to Australian parliament figures, in 2020, more than 89,000 students were enrolled in initial teacher education courses in Australian universities. However, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) reported that in 2019, the rate of completion of initial teacher education courses was at its lowest figure since 2005, suggesting that many are lost to the profession before they even begin. In the short time since then, many sources report a 14-15% drop in students seeking to begin these studies in 2023. Combine this with an acceleration of exits from the profession and alarm bells are sounding. In fact, recent Monash University research suggests more than 59% of current teachers are considering leaving the role, so what we have experienced so far may well be the tip of the iceberg. On top of this, AITSL reports a growth in student population of in excess of 1% annually across the early childhood to secondary education sectors. These aspects of the ‘teacher shortage’ are very well illustrated. However, what is very clear is that there is no actual shortage or people trained to do this work, it is their willingness that is in increasingly short supply.

So why, in a relatively well-paying role (at least compared to the Australian Tax Office’s data related to both average and median wage) are so many people willing to exit the profession? Well, firstly, this wage is often considered by people in the role as insufficient to remunerate them for the large range of responsibilities and workload. Professor Robyn Brandenburg, from Federation University, has suggested her research has pointed to concerns regarding workload, a lack of respect, wages and mental and physical wellbeing as the major reason for trained teachers leaving the role.

Anybody who has been in the role is familiar with extensive unpaid overtime. The hours being paid (generally around 37-38 per week) do not generally account for even their time spent at the workplace, let alone the many additional hours spent at home planning and preparing classroom materials (often purchased out of one’s own funds due to the red-tape and timeframe often required to purchase for students through the school’s processes). Some would argue that the school holidays in addition to the standard four weeks annual leave make up for this, but these “holidays” are rarely free of work either, with many schools inviting (encouraging) their staff to come in over the break to prepare. In any case, the two weeks reward between terms barely scratches the surface in terms of being able to replenish from the mental, physical and emotional load carried by 10-12 weeks of school.

Many teachers identify a lack of respect as a considerable factor in their exit from the classroom. Fiona Longmuir; from the Faculty of Education at Monash University, claims that up to 70% of teachers don’t feel respected. This reportedly takes many forms; a lack of recognition or trust by leadership, student behaviour, parent communication and expectations, and of course the governing bodies, who continually erode faith in teacher independence and skills by insisting each and every teacher have a similar approach, as well as the constant presence of standardised testing to assess students’ capabilities (once the bastion of the student’s teachers exclusively). The irony of a group of teachers chained to a singular approach, being charged with creating inquisitive, independent minds and resilient people is only too real to those on the ‘front line’. How can students develop the ability to be resilient if they only ever encounter one type of instruction? One personality? One set way of responding to their inappropriate behaviour? This does not mirror the ‘real world’ and only does students and teachers a disservice.

Speak to any teacher and the odds are that they will identify student behaviour as an issue. School absence during COVID-19 has certainly had an impact on this, but it attributable to a range of factors. There has been a considerable shift in society’s viewpoint of teachers in terms of looking at student behaviour. Teachers have nothing to gain from reporting inappropriate behaviour – it only increases their workload, yet many parents are loath to accept that their child would behave in any other than an angelic fashion. Personally, I have had instances where my life has been threatened and I have been physically attacked for suggesting otherwise. Add to this the lack of any consistent and tangible support from leadership and this is enough to send many teachers scurrying for the exit. This is beyond even the threat of physical harm that many teachers face on a daily basis. A 2019 study suggested that up to 70% of teachers had been threatened, bullied or harassed in the prior 12 months, which included one in ten that reported being the victims of physical attacks at the hands of students. 60% reported similar related to parents. I was engaged recently in a conversation with a number of my colleagues regarding the daily threat of physical harm that can be part of the role. The consensus was that most of us had just accepted the fact that in some form or another, at some time in our experiences as a teacher, we would be subject to violence and abuse. What other profession could say that this was accepted as part of their role? Even health workers have signs prominently displayed indicating a zero tolerance to aggressive behaviour, often accompanied by security staff. The fact that so many teachers have come to accept this as inevitable is a sad indictment on the state of the profession.

Perhaps the biggest of all frustrations is with employers - this seems particularly relevant to government schools. Despite assurances that workload issues will be addressed in any new agreement, only ‘band-aid’ solutions are ever found, and these are generally unworkable in real terms. In any case, there is never long before another new initiative is introduced, in which the teacher is expected to become an expert almost instantaneously (often before the initiative this one is replacing was even rolled out properly or given the time to assess its effectiveness). The cult of personality that engulfed researchers such as John Hattie (despite containing some really relevant and important directions) have been a nightmare for teachers. Firstly, because of the misunderstanding or deliberate misuse of Hattie’s findings. A prominent example is the over- simplified notion that Hattie suggests class sizes do not matter (which is very much out of context in terms of the overall discussion) - this has been used by many Principals to justify larger class sizes. This, of course, is at the expense of both teachers (whose workload increases markedly with every additional student) and the students (who now receive less individual attention than they previously would have). The other element of Hattie’s research used to a disastrous end is based around Hattie’s assertion that the biggest single factor in influencing a student’s achievement is the capacity of the teacher. Not many teachers would argue this (though there are many, many issues outside of this that can have a dramatic impact on student achievement - both positive and negative). However, school leaders have often seen this as a ‘green light’ to bombard teachers with professional development, rarely tailored to the individual, and often completely irrelevant to teachers with specialist roles in schools. Again, the irony of teachers having to create individualised programs for students, but having to take part in en masse training, regardless of their prior knowledge, is difficult to fathom, or escape. Attached to this is generally a considerable amount of additional work finding data, reading, trialling or observing certain approaches. Certainly, the aim could be considered admirable, but the method in which it is undertaken may be doing more harm than good.

Outside of this, frustrations abide relating to the employment of educational “experts” as consultants who compete to have their approaches adopted by school systems, and then foisted upon teaching staff. This has created an industry of consultants, who are very successful in bolstering their bank accounts but struggle to create any lasting in change in educational settings before the next ‘big thing’ comes along. There is a high degree of angst surrounding this amongst the teaching profession who often believe that the many millions of dollars spent on these consultants and programs could be better used in building new schools, improving existing ones or providing additional staffing towards lowering administrative duties, general workload and/or class numbers.

Many consider that a teacher’s day starts at 9am and ends at 3.30pm and that as the students arrive and exit, so does their teacher. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The extent of unpaid overtime has already been addressed in terms of preparing for teaching, but in case further evidence is needed, an Australian Education Union survey in 2022 suggested teachers work an average of 15 hours unpaid overtime each week. However, the number of roles teachers need to take outside of their own classroom responsibilities are nearing a ridiculous magnitude (if not having already reached this point). Curriculum committees, Professional Learning Communities, Communities of Practice, school council, consultative committee… the list is extensive. All these bodies are aimed (at least in stated purpose) at improving practice and school operations, which could be considered a noble pursuit, but when the value of the time that could have been used directly planning for students’ learning is compared to value of the many procedures that permeate these other gatherings, and the outcomes that result, you would be hard pressed to find a teacher who could say they are in a better position to educate their students by spending their time in this fashion.

The elephant in the room is that for teachers, teaching is no longer their core responsibility; which sounds utterly insane, but is becoming, if not already being, the reality for teachers. If we examine why most people become teachers, it would be safe to assume that working with students and helping them to learn would be high on the list of reasons. Taking people away from this core role is sapping their will for the role and we are losing teachers well before we should. The Hunter Institute for Mental Health, in a 2017 study, suggested up to half of new graduate teachers leave within the first five years of practice, citing workload and a lack of support as some of the major reasons for this. It is for this very reason that the ‘teacher shortage’ is a myth. It is one that the governments are happy to play along with because it removes the burden of responsibility for creating a system that is so difficult to abide without causing oneself sometimes irreparable harm. The myth of the teacher shortage is used as an excuse to ignore the systemic issues within education departments. As I write, the Victorian Education Department is negotiating with initial teacher education programs to make receiving ‘Permission To Teach’ easier to achieve (this is a system by which not yet fully qualified teachers are given permission to be able to be employed as teachers in schools), further undermining the quality of teaching and the respect that it deserves, whilst opening up to cash-strapped schools even more opportunities to forego experienced staff for the cheaper option. This too, ignores the fact that the position of teacher has reached the stage where so many feel it is untenable, that they are choosing to exit the profession, thereby exacerbating the depth of the myth and applying yet another ‘band-aid’ remedy to the bigger issues.

The only way that the teacher shortage can be addressed, is by dealing with the myriad of issues plaguing the school system, and in particular the role of, and support for teachers. There are more than enough trained teachers in the population who want to work, are good at what they do and first and foremost, want to help students achieve their best, but at what cost to them personally? As Kevin Costner was told in the movie Field Of Dreams, “Build it and they will come!” Efforts to improve the current status would likely see people flooding back to the sector, but until the system is fixed, we will continue to see low take up of initial teacher education courses and the continued exit of good people from the system, and the myth will become an infinite reality.

Further Reading
AITSL (2023). Australian Teacher Workforce Data National Trends.
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/research/australian-teacher-workforce-data/atwdreports/national-trends-ite-pipeline

Clark, S. and Ferguson, H. (2022). Report of the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review—implications for higher education.
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2022/March/ITE_Report
 
Heffernan, A., Bright, S. and Longmuir, F. (2020). How do Australia’s teachers feel about their work?
https://www.monash.edu/education/teachspace/articles/how-do-australias-teachers-feel-about-their-work
 
ATO (2021). Taxation Statistics 2020-21.
https://www.ato.gov.au/About-ATO/Research-and-statistics/In-detail/Taxation-statistics/Taxation-statistics-2020-21/?anchor=IndividualsStatistics#Table3Individuals
 
Miles, D. (2023). Workload, lack of respect among key causes of why teachers leave profession, research finds. ABC.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-26/teaching-crisis-studied-in-national-research-by-federation-uni/102254252
 
AEU (2022). State of our schools survey results.
https://www.aeuvic.asn.au/sites/default/files/vgsa/210430%20State%20of%20our%20Schools-FINAL.pdf?_t=1619736721