Teaching profession becoming a hard sell

Description

With the steady drum beat of doom in the news about the teacher workforce, from teacher abuse to burnout and shortages, it is entirely fair to ask: why teach?  We asked over 5000 teachers what advice they would give young people considering a teaching career. Some key themes about the positive aspects of teaching were evident. Other research we conducted (the Australian Youth Barometer) asked young people what they want out of work. The ability to make a difference by making a positive contribution to society is ranked in the top three. But job security and flexible hours rank higher, which poses a challenge to attracting young people in the context of growing casualisation of the teaching workforce and repeated concerns expressed by teachers about excessive hours and expectations...