Topical Teaching

This is a topic I feel very strongly about and it goes to the heart of the future of our educational system.  Our system is not being fair to our young teachers.  The way they are trained and geared towards teaching is horrendous.  The lack of support they receive upon commencing their first job is even worse.  If the Government really cared about teacher shortages and low retention rates they would do something about it.  But the truth is that they are too clueless to think up a decent policy and too inert to care.

As schools grapple with Australia’s teacher shortage, the race to lure more people into the profession has begun. Governments are scrambling to offer scholarships and other incentives to get more students, mature-age graduates and workers in other professions to consider a career in the classroom. The strategy seems to be working, with education authorities reporting a rise in teacher graduate numbers.

In Victoria, more than 4200 people graduated as teachers last year, an extra 400 compared with the previous year. But what if the focus on stimulating teacher supply is the policy version of pouring water into a bucket riddled with holes?

A team of education researchers who have spent the past nine years interviewing teachers think this is the case. They argue that chronic teacher shortages won’t be solved as long as governments keep failing to confront the reasons why large numbers of teachers desert their jobs early.

“Poor pay is not the reason they’re giving for leaving the profession: it’s the workplace issues of highly stressful, poor working conditions,” says Dr Paul Richardson, who has been working with Monash University colleague Dr Helen Watt since 2002 on Australia’s first longitudinal study tracking the experiences of 1650 teachers from the time they started a university education course through their years in the profession. Twenty-seven per cent of those surveyed planned to quit teaching within their first five years of teaching. Dr Richardson says the finding has big implications for governments trying to entice other professionals to switch to teaching. Many of the teacher recruits planning to quit were people who had experience in other professions.

“These were people who had been in business commenting on conditions in their schools by saying, ‘There’s no support, you can’t get any photocopying done, you’ve got to do it all yourself!’

“One guy said: ‘I’ve been a solicitor and now I’ve got a one-metre desk in a staffroom where you can’t think.’ They were totally shocked by the working conditions and the lack of administrative support.”

Between 25 and 40 per cent of teachers leave the profession within five years of starting, according to estimates in numerous surveys by teacher unions and education academics. An accurate national figure is not publicly available because exit statistics are kept and collated differently by individual education authorities in each state and territory.

Of course teachers aren’t leaving because of the pay.  Our future teachers know that the pay isn’t great, and still sign up to join the profession.  Why?  Because they have a devotion to education, to helping our next generations achieve, to making a difference.  But what they don’t bank on is the lack of sufficient training and support they will get along the way.

I went to one of the elite Australian universities, with a highly distinguished Education faculty.  Only problem is, my university, like so many around the world failed to give me the practical insights and methods necessary for doing my job properly.  They were brilliant at filling us up with the theoretical, terrible at preparing us for the day-today issues that face classroom teachers.  Accountants are prepared for their job straight out of Uni, as are doctors, lawyers and architects.  Why can’t teachers go into their profession with the same amount of confidence and practical nous?  And it’s not just the best universities in Australia.  This applies to abroad as well.

As a first year teacher I was on a one-year contract. I had to show competency straight away or risk losing my job and reputation even before my actual degree arrived in the mail.  I couldn’t ask my colleagues too many questions, for I didn’t want to lose confidence in the people who would help decide whether or not I should be retained at the end of the year.

Teaching is a wonderful profession.  And I’m glad that I had the determination and passion to stick through the uncertain times and develop the skills on my own.  But that isn’t going to cut it for all young teachers.  They deserve better practical training and a true support system that watches over them – not to judge them, but to honestly help them.  Teachers wont leave like they are if they feel adequately supported and nurtured.

Governments are dumb when they respond to the problem by making more places for teaching training at University.  The more places they make available, the more teachers scurry away before making any lasting impact in the profession.  Why should anyone be surprised?  How can you sell the profession to our youth, when in reality they face such an uphill battle for acceptance, confidence and job security?

Wouldn’t it be worth investing in support systems and greater practical experience for our young teachers?  Nurture them, assist them, give them the tools and then watch them thrive.