Exploring determinants influencing employability trajectories of international graduate teachers in Australia

Australia has faced the shortage of teachers for many years. The country has tried to solve this problem by supporting international graduate teachers to stay in the country after their graduation. However, very little knowledge has been known about how international graduate teachers develop their teaching career in Australia. To fill this gap, this study explored determinants influencing international graduate teachers’ employability trajectories. The study deployed the bioecological model, the Graduate Capital Model and the notion of agentic capital as the conceptual frameworks. The findings reported various external and internal factors determining short and long-term career trajectories of international graduate teachers. The key factors were the impacts of migration policies, school’s culture, human and social capitals. The graduates could manage to overcome various obstacles if they knew how to enact their agentic capital. This study contributed to the current gap about the contributions of capitals to teachers’ employability. The insights imply that various stakeholders need to collaborate to support international graduate teachers to better adapt to the school and strategise their resources.