John Hattie has recently released 7 x 1-2 page draft documents addressing the following areas:
- What is the nature of the shortage?
- What are the main drivers of increased shortages of teachers?
- Is it a workload issue?
- Are the claims around attrition, correct? (Two papers – D and E)
- Why since COVID have these issues emerged so strongly?
- What could a new career structure look like to make our profession attractive and retain great teachers and leaders?
Some of the insights available from these short documents include:
- Greatest increase in vacancy rates is in the early childhood sector – “exponentially increasing since COVID”
- Some of the key drivers for teacher shortage is the reduction in student:teacher ratio; high demand in early childhood education; way in which middle leaders are utilized; the increase in non-teaching staff in schools compared to enrolments – “Serious questions need to be raised about the value proposition of the major increase in the number of adults in schools. Care is required to create non-classroom pay incentives that then remove so many teachers from the greatest-in-school source of excellence we know about..”
- Reference to studies which rely on teachers self-reporting workload compared to actual time and motion studies, which yield different findings
- On attrition issues, Hattie posits that asking “Do you intend to stay in the profession in the next 5-10 years?” is the wrong question and has no correlation to reality. The real question could be “How many more years do you intend to work in schools?” which prompts a different response of approximately 16.3 years (according to TALIS Study)
- Hattie also references 6 key effects of COVID and the opportunities afforded by the Multi-Tiered Support System
- Hattie strongly supports the Australian Teacher Workforce Dataset (survey now live in Qld and all registered teachers encouraged to complete), and references the actions outlined in the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan
- Hattie argues that to address many of the issues, we need a new career structure for teachers – “There is a major need to recognise and esteem expertise wherever it occurs in schools, move the profession from individual autonomy to collective impact on students, and develop methods for using the many adults-other-than teachers to support the impact of teachers on students”. Hattie advocates that recognition and remuneration of Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers are central to this new career structure.
LEQ will continue to work with QCT and our other partners in this regard to ensure that the new streamlined model to be introduced in Qld meets the needs of our teachers, schools and the communities we serve.
Yvonne Ries
