The Vocational Major was introduced in Victoria, Australia in 2023 to raise the status of Vocational Education and Training (VET). To address demand for qualified VET teachers in secondary schools, VET trainers without a teaching qualification are granted permission to teach VET. This policy contributes to a vicious circle which maintains the low…

Teacher shortages have intensified across several OECD countries, making this an urgent priority for education systems. Between 2015 and 2022, the share of students whose principals reported shortages rose from 29% to 46.7% on average across the OECD. Simultaneously, rapid technological advances, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and broader…

Scholarly articles and the Australian media claim that 30-50% of Australian teachers leave teaching within their first five years in the role. The figures are considered to be well established although some articles acknowledge that they are estimates. In reality, there is no robust Australian evidence, and figures do not agree. What evidence…

This paper examines the effects of World War II on Australia's first rural teacher's college in 1945. The paper locates the college in wider national and international contexts. It looks at the effect of World War II on teacher supply and demand in countries affected by war. The war was a genuine reason for the basic conditions of the college in…

This book provides significant information regarding the policies and provisions for early childhood teacher education programs in universities in fourteen different countries. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is expanding rapidly across the globe with unprecedented numbers of children attending EC centres, requiring the investment in…

Australian STEM education seems caught in a whirlpool of problems that are contributing to one another. Student engagement and performance in STEM are declining, but we do not have the supply of qualified teachers we need to improve learning. The STEM curriculum is unbalanced and fragmented, leading to less interest among students. It is not…

Curriculum delivery in higher education is changing rapidly, notably in the area of online delivery. Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Australia is no exception to this, and this article explores this growth with a particular focus on its implications for workforce planning for teachers. In this planning in Australia, ITE students are usually…

Many developed countries, including Australia, struggle to recruit and retain adequate numbers of school teachers. Over the past decade every Australian state has experienced teacher shortages and, at various times, there has been a national shortfall of qualified teaching staff. This paper considers the reporting of teacher shortage in four…

The staffing of rural, remote and isolated schools remains a significant issue of concern in Australian education. In this paper we provide a comprehensive account of the Australian research related to the staffing of rural schools post 2004. The review identifies the overarching themes of the opportunities and challenges of staffing rural…

The teaching workforce is in a constant state of change, susceptible to fluctuating federal and state governments, policy directions within the various bureaucracies that control the curriculum, teachers' accreditation and certification requirements and universities that regulate entry into initial teacher education programs, and eventually the…

This paper provides a brief overview of the current teacher workforce situation in Australia. It highlights workforce trends and projected growth, and areas where the collection and analysis of additional data may assist in the targeting of effective policy. Demand for teachers is on the rise. The population of primary students is set to increase…

Recent Australian government initiatives in the early childhood education and care sector are placing demands for an increase in the number of degree qualified early childhood teachers. Many universities are now offering courses with dual qualifications as a way to provide alternate career opportunities for pre-service teachers; however it cannot…

A concern commonly raised in literature and in media relates to the declining proportions of students who enter and remain in the "science pipeline", and whether many countries, including Australia and New Zealand, have enough budding scientists to fill research and industry positions in the coming years. In addition, there is concern…

Australia has an ageing academic workforce and the nation's capacity to refresh, build and maintain this workforce during a period of expansion in tertiary education participation needs urgent consideration. To inform possible strategies to recruit and retain academic staff, this study investigates the current attitudes of the academic profession…

The problem of teacher retention has intensified in Australia, particularly in rural areas, with a number of studies suggesting that beginning teachers are not entering the profession with a commitment to remaining there. This paper reports on a study of 102 new teachers graduating from a rural campus of a major Australian university. Utilising a…