Teacher recruitment and retention: Challenges and opportunities

A new report has been produced for Universitas 21 following a desk review of approaches to addressing teacher recruitment and retention challenges across a selection of education systems.

The report was co-authored by Professor Toby Greany from the University of Nottingham and Associate Professor Marian Mahat  and Dr Chris Bradbeer, both from the University of Melbourne.

Further information

The overarching objective of this report is to develop a better understanding of the issues impacting on teacher recruitment and retention faced at national system level, and then highlight initiatives emerging through policy and strategy. To accomplish this, the Universitas 21 Dean of Education group initiated a review of teacher recruitment and retention across several educational contexts. Four countries were selected that were relevant in the context of Universitas 21 Deans of Education group: Australia (New South Wales and Victoria), Sweden, UK (England and Scotland), and USA (Connecticut and Maryland). The review involved a desktop scan of relevant government departments, teacher organisations and unions, media reports, and international organisations such as UNESCO and OECD. The intent is to document publicly available information at national and/or state level.

The findings have illustrated the complexity of the issues pertaining to recruitment and retention. Issues are deeply embedded in educational context and history, which are often long-term and often cyclical (and political) in nature, stemming as they do from broader economic and social influences. At the national level, shortages are tied in with employment trends, shifts in working practices, educational policy, and changes in governance. At the local level, shortages are disproportionally experienced, with communities in economically, socially, and geographically marginalised areas frequently over-represented in associated statistics. Nevertheless, there are promising avenues to explore, particularly in understanding how best to evaluate the efficacy of different interventions designed to increase rates of recruitment and retention of teachers.

View or download the report