It’s well known that the teaching profession in England faces many challenges linked to recruitment and retention.
For example, the recent Teaching Commission reporthighlighted several key issues, such as high turnover of new teachers, workload challenges and the fact that many teachers leave before retirement age.
However, England is not alone in facing these challenges, as we have uncovered in a new report, which delvesinto the issues in Australia, Sweden, the UK and the US.
The research reveals the common factors driving recruitment and retention challenges in all four nations: low pay, excessive workloads and a sense of diminished professional status.
It highlights how teacher shortages are invariably linked to wider developments at national level, including employment trends, shifts in working practices and changes in educational policy and governance. Also, it shows that shortages are disproportionately experienced locally by schools in the most challenging contexts.
Teacher recruitment issues around the world
Key challenges in each nation include:
- In Australia there was a near 20 per cent decline in applications for teaching degrees between 2023 and 2024, while only 50 per cent of those who started a teaching degree completed it. There has also been an increase in the proportion of teachers leaving or considering leaving the profession. Recruitment and retention challenges are particularly acute in rural and remote parts of the country.
- In Sweden violence towards teachers is one of the challenges raised, alongside concerns about high workloads, poor renumeration and work-related stress. Schools in remote areas and those that are distant from teacher training institutions tend to face the greatest challenges. Teachers negotiate their own salary with their employer based on individual and local conditions, with no guaranteed salary rises.
- In Connecticut, US, schools face significant teacher shortages, but these are most pronounced in the state’s 33 lowest-performing districts. A particular challenge is in creating a teacher workforce that more closely mirrors the student population. While 52.5 per cent of students identified as being of a racial and ethnic minority in 2022-23, this applied to only 11.2 per cent of educators.
In response to these issues, countries are deploying various interventions to address teacher shortages, largely focused on salary increases, incentive payments, bursaries and workload reduction initiatives.
- In Australia the State of Victoria has introduced several initiatives, including scholarships for secondary school teacher degrees, new employment-based programmes, additional support for trainee teachers to undertake placements in rural and remote schools and the reduction of face-to-face teaching time by 90 minutes a week. Sabbatical leave also enables teachers to bank 20 per cent of their annual salary over a one- to four-year period, following which they can take leave and receive the accrued salary owing.
- The Swedish government is reviewing the use of teachers’ time and trying to reduce administrative burdens. The government has launched an inquiry to address student violence against teachers, including looking at more powerful tools for principals to use when students offend, threaten or use violence.
- In Maryland, US, initiatives include teacher loan forgiveness on completion of five consecutive years of teaching in a low-income school, and scholarships for teaching students in key subject areas and for those who pledge to work in high-need public schools.
Our review of addresses several key themes and questions, with some tentative answers emerging:
What works in recruitment and retention?
Financial incentives are promising for attracting new teachers and increasing the number of teachers in schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged children, though with some caveats (for example, the bursaries in England may not be high enough).
Also, support in school for early career teachers, along with CPD, offers potential benefits for retention.
Do media campaigns work in attracting new teachers?
They mostly seem to appeal to those already committed to a career in teaching (and may be problematic if prospective teachers are attracted to what they think the job entails, only to find that the day-to-day reality is something different).
A promising , as part of the ongoing , is evaluating realistic job previews, which have shown some potential. These give candidates the opportunity to respond to “real life” scenarios and gain feedback from experienced teachers regarding their responses.
Does increased pay help?
Financial incentives do seem promising, although teachers may only stay while the incentive is available, and the challenges of making this work for the most disadvantaged schools are significant.
Does a reduced workload help?
There are few studies related to teacher workload and working conditions but a recent and her colleagues suggests that many of the interventions that have been evaluated seem to address “the symptoms rather than the cause of teacher shortages”.
For example, government policies aimed at improving the quality of teachers often lead to a reduction in the number accepted into teacher training, rather than the hoped for rise in status and demand.
A key issue that we uncovered is how few of these interventions are evaluated, meaning that there is limited evidence of what works.
For example, one of initiatives to address teacher shortages in hard-to-staff areas in Australia found that only 15 of the 147 programmes audited were identified as having been substantially evaluated.
Even where initiatives have been extensively evaluated, there are legitimate debates about how the evidence should be interpreted and attributed.
Encouragingly, a new $10 million research initiative in the US - the - will evaluate a range of initiatives to grow and retain teachers across nine states. Meanwhile, here in England, the Education Endowment Foundation is to explore options for flexible working.
In the meantime, our review helps to point towards important learning for policymakers and practitioners in England who are keen to learn from international experience in this important area.
Toby Greany is a professor of education at the University of Nottingham
Marian Mahat is associate professor of learning environments in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne
Chris Bradbeer is a research fellow in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne
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