FACULTY FOCUS
campusreview.com.au
Keeping the best
WSU dean of education
discusses the reasons behind
teaching graduate burnout and
what can be done about it.
Michele Simons interviewed
by Kate Prendergast
A
lmost half of teaching graduates
leave the workforce within five years
of entering it.
The push factors are complex, often
context-specific and interlocking. But
understanding and addressing the major
reasons behind teacher attrition is vital
to high-quality education, governments,
schools, parents and the graduates
themselves. In essence, the entire schooling
ecosystem.
Attracting and Keeping the Best Teachers
presents an in-depth understanding of the
problem, as well as ways in which we can
disrupt traditional thinking around career
pathways, abolish damaging myths and
prejudices, and rewire the system.
The book is co-edited by Anna Sullivan,
Bruce Johnson and Michele Simons, who
are also contributing writers.
Simons, dean of education at Western
Sydney University, spoke with Campus
Review about the book and the issues it
grapples with.
CR: Up to 50 per cent of new graduates leave
teaching within five years of entry. What are
the consequences for schools, universities
and individuals?
MS: In the first instance, schools, and
education systems more broadly, are faced
with the need to divert increased resources
into recruitment and induction to fill the
vacancies caused by this attrition. They must
also deal with the consequences of losing
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the expertise of these graduates and the
risk of undertaking subsequent recruitment
processes which offer no guarantees of
being able to fully replace the expertise they
have lost.
This is particularly the case in a context
where the supply of teachers is coming
under increasing pressure. There are
effectively fewer teachers around to fill
increasing numbers of vacancies for all
types of employment – casual, contract and
permanent. Existing shortages of teachers
in specific subject areas such as maths,
technology and applied science, as well as
teachers willing to be placed in regional and
remote schools, are exacerbated.
There are significant costs to the teachers –
social, emotional as well as economic losses.
There is the dislocation that occurs when
teachers need to move home as a result of
losing their employment. There is also the
coming to terms with the realisation that
personal and career aspirations are shattered
as a consequence of the decision to leave
the profession.
Perhaps of greatest importance is the
impact this attrition can have to the learning
of students. Learning is built on relationships,
and it’s compromised when students are
constantly asked to build relationships with
new teachers or adjust to learning in different
class groupings as they are shifted into
combined year level classrooms to ensure
they have a teacher to support their learning.
One of the ideas underpinning the book is
that it’s damaging to think of early career
teachers as ‘liabilities’ or ‘problems to be
fixed’. Why is this a push factor?
When new graduates are constantly faced
with negative messages about their perceived
capabilities from the media and other sources
– including from inside the profession they
have just joined – motivation and enthusiasm
can quickly drain away. The graduates
often feel like the skills and knowledge they
accumulated during their studies are being
dismissed and are of little value.
This is a harsh reality to live with, given that
completing a teacher education program
is now arguably harder than ever. Instead
of celebrating achievements and the new
knowledge, energy and expertise that these
new graduates bring, what is emphasised is
what they cannot do. This is not a good way
to build confidence or ease the transition of
new graduates into the profession.
Another reason this set of circumstances
can weigh heavily on early career teachers
is that they know they make up only a small
fraction of the overall teaching workforce.
If we are to ensure that all children have an
experience of school that works for them, we
need to ensure that all teachers – regardless
of their career stage – are supported to be as
effective as they can be.
The overemphasis on early career teachers
can act to mask sometimes deeper issues
which need to be addressed – such as
dealing with mid-career burnout or a reward
system that encourages the brightest and
best to leave the classroom if they want to
advance their careers.
What are some of the other reasons people
are choosing to leave the profession?
A recent review of attrition suggests that for
some teachers, the decision to leave the
profession is a positive one. Their career in
teaching is one of a number of occupations
that they will fill over their working lives.
That said, there is also evidence to suggest
that teachers, and sometimes good teachers,
choose to leave for a variety of reasons that
are not so positive.
Research shows that for some teachers the
lack of certainty around their employment
– constantly being employed casually or on
short term contracts is a reason. It’s hard
to plan a life when there is no certainty of
employment.
Other reasons include the frustration,
disillusionment and burnout that teachers
experience as they are challenged to
cope with increased demands such as
administrative tasks, managing the learning
of increasingly diverse groups of students,
and feeling, if not actually having, their work
increasingly scrutinised.
We haven’t always perceived new teachers so
poorly. What’s behind this shift?
I think that we are living in a time when there