ANISH BADGERI: Why don't our brightest students want to be teachers?
Astronaut. Firefighter. Teacher?
When I pose the question of 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' to my students, I am guaranteed to receive a range of responses, from the aspirational ('I want to become a neuroscientist') to the grounded ('I want to be happy').
The response I hear least often is 'I want to become a teacher'.
My own pathway into teaching was anything but straightforward. I attended a fully selective school where the only perceived legitimate career options were medicine, law, or engineering. Most of my close friends from high school work in those fields today.
As someone who was considered a 'high achiever', I felt the weight of social expectation to not 'waste my potential' on a profession perceived as less prestigious.
Reflecting on my experience has led me to consider the structural and societal barriers that discourage passionate and capable young people from entering education. Though I've only been teaching for seven years, I've had the privilege of working with some exceptional educators who are deeply passionate and intellectually driven by their work.
Yet, simultaneously, public discourse about teaching in Australia focuses on declining entry standards, the ongoing teacher shortage particularly in disadvantaged communities, and burnout experienced by early career teachers.
So why is it that we are struggling to attract passionate young high achievers into the profession?
This is a question that the Grattan Institute sought to answer in a 2019 report. By their metrics, only 3.3 per cent of Australian university students aged 20 and younger with an ATAR of 80 or above pursued an undergraduate teaching course.
The report fairly posited that financial incentives such as scholarships and competitive pay for newly created 'master teacher' and 'instructional specialist' roles would help alleviate some of the barriers by providing more of a career challenge.
Soon after the Grattan report, the Federal Government launched its 'high achieving teachers' program in 2020, which was further expanded in 2022 through the national teacher workforce action plan. The Government sought to partner with 10 providers to promote employment-based pathways into teaching careers, with close to 1500 of these places expected for 2025.
The only non-university partner is Teach For Australia, which is also the largest provider. As an alumnus of the TFA program, I have a strong belief in its mission and purpose. The program sees strong retention rates, with 85 per cent of its alumni working in the education sector and 70 per cent continuing to make a difference in schools.
There is a vast untapped reservoir of potential future teachers in Australia.
As an Australian from a culturally diverse background, I'm acutely aware of the under representation of people from diverse backgrounds in a range of industries.
Education is no exception. While people born overseas make up 31.5 per cent of the Australian population, they only comprise 17 per cent of the teacher workforce as of 2020, according to the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.
Beyond the data, there is a strong cultural sentiment that acts as a barrier for culturally and linguistically diverse Australians to pursue a career in education.
My parents made the decision to migrate to Australia because of a deep appreciation of the opportunities it would offer my brother and me, particularly in terms of education. This is a recurring theme of the Australian migrant experience, and there is often a deep reverence for educators among migrant communities and families.
However, when it comes to career aspirations, this respect does not necessarily translate into a desire to pursue a career pathway in education. Despite the stereotype, children from migrant communities often experience an implicit pressure to pursue perceived 'prestigious' careers, as if to compensate for the sacrifices made by their parents or grandparents.
It begs the question — why is teaching not perceived as a 'prestigious' career?
When we consider bringing more high achievers to the field, it's important to acknowledge that people can be high achievers in a variety of domains — arts, sports, music to name a few.
Some models, such as Gardner's model of Multiple Intelligences, posit that intelligence also includes interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligences.
There are also large swathes of communities whose children face structural barriers to achieving their potential because of the nature of educational disadvantage in Australia.
However, one broadly adopted scale for measuring high achievement is the ATAR system.
Despite the criticisms it faces, it forms the bedrock of pathways determination into tertiary courses (including teaching) and is therefore a useful metric for this discussion.
When considering ATAR, the bastions of high achieving students are our selective schools.
Data from the Government's MySchool platform presents some interesting insights into what these schools look like.
There is an entirely separate, and often fierce, debate about selective schools and the tutoring industry that accompanies them. However, what I am seeking to highlight is that there is a complex relationship between high achievers and culturally and linguistically diverse communities that needs to be considered when developing policies around attracting high achievers into teaching.
At one of the consistently high performing selective schools in NSW, James Ruse Agricultural High School, 97 per cent of students have a language background other than English. A similar story plays out at MacRobertson Girls High School and Melbourne High School in Victoria, with 88 per cent and 87 per cent of their student populations having a language background other than English respectively. At my alma mater of Perth Modern School, which is the only fully selective high school in WA, 68 per cent of students have a language background other than English.Yet, the culture in these schools promotes the narrative that to be successful is to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer.
This is not the fault of any one individual or group, but a byproduct of widespread social stigma against teaching and misconceptions about the prestige of the profession.
Shifting this social stigma is a large task, and requires ongoing awareness building about the incredible work that educators and support staff at schools do on a daily basis. Starting with a community that already has a profound value for education and educators is a step in the right direction, not only for the profession itself but for the aspiring young teachers who are yearning for the permission to pursue their passion.
After all, apparently those that can't do, teach. But those that teach, inspire.
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