Helen Dempsey PhD

There is an unprecedented worldwide shortage of teachers that is expected to reach beyond 40 million by 2030. In Australia, this number was reported to surpass 4,000 in 2025. One strategy being promoted to fill the gaps in the workforce is utilising unqualified teachers who are studying an initial teacher education qualification. Conditions for unqualified teachers within Australia vary depending on the state, and Western Australia has had unique requirements in comparison with the remainder of the country. The call to utilise unqualified teachers relies on little evidence of impact and outcomes for those involved and the system overall. Little evidence is currently available on why undergraduate pre-service teachers choose this pathway, the impact the role has on them and their course progression, and ultimately, their retention in the workforce. This longitudinal qualitative research seeks to understand what motivates pre-service teachers to undertake teaching before course completion within the Western Australian context from a participant’s perspective. Key motivations are identified and explored, leading to further research directions and links to evidence to support unqualified teachers in the future.

Australian teacher education programs must include a summative, capstone assessment of students' achievement against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (a teaching performance assessment). This program accreditation requirement seeks to ensure graduate teachers are adequately prepared for the academic and practical demands of career entry. Research has examined a range of issues related to these assessments however examination of school-based teacher educators' contributions to this process is limited. School-based teacher educators work across school and university settings with pre-service teachers, drawing on their knowledge of both settings to enhance teacher preparation. This research explored the perceptions of these teacher educators as trained panellists involved in the assessment of one teaching performance assessment. Using constructs drawn from Carlile's work on boundary objects (2002), researchers analysed the meaning (knowledge), language (syntax) and pragmatics (practice) emerging from their movement between the intersecting worlds of university and school. Findings highlight the teaching performance assessment acted as an influential boundary object which reshaped par-ticipants' practice, on both sides of this boundary. Participants reported expanded knowledge of university and school practices for preparing pre-service teachers. The implications of this include enhanced practice, increased knowledge of conducive conditions for preparing pre-service teachers and improved assessment enactment. These findings illustrate the benefits of expanded engagement of these educators and their effective transfer of inherent knowledge back and forth across the threshold between their intersecting teaching contexts.

Developing relationships with colleagues has been identified as one way to enhance teacher resilience and assists in negotiating a professional identity. For early career teachers, opportunities to participate in induction and mentoring programmes and engage in professional learning can assist in developing these relationships. However, for early career teachers who can only obtain casual work and work intermittently often in many different schools, these opportunities may be limited. This chapter presents longitudinal, qualitative research that explores how early career casual teachers negotiated their teacher identity. Drawing on data from focus groups, semi-structured interviews and reflective tasks, the chapter shares insights into how relationships are pivotal in the development of a strong teacher identity.