Teacher Shortage and Newly Qualified Teachers in Australia: A Physical and Health Education Case Study

Abstract

By examining Physical and Health Education (PHE) graduates, this paper highlights how tracking the professional pathways of education graduates can provide important information that can inform degree administration and curricular reform. PHE graduates, from 2003 until 2008, from one particular metropolitan sandstone university were surveyed on current employment status one year after graduation; reflection on their pre-service training was also provided. In the case of these PHE graduates we find that despite regular media ‘panics’ regarding teacher shortages, employment opportunities in the PHE field are slim. Furthermore, many of those who did find jobs were employed to teach in non-PHE learning areas. A dominant theme reported in regard to graduates’ pre-service training was a perceived lack of experience in ‘behaviour management’. We argue that this information is important to degree administration (such as admissions) and to curricular reform (through the offering of a double method and revitalising behaviour management across the curriculum). In the current information age the tracking of graduates is less of an obstacle than it was previously and we argue that there remains an urgent need to research the professional pathways of teachers in various education settings and across curriculum areas. Such tracking can be conceptualised, and serve a productive purpose, as longitudinal evaluation of teacher education programs.