Australian Teacher Workforce Data

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time,with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similarpercentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participatingstates and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Improvements were made to the collection of the learner levels taught in the 2022 ATWD Teacher Survey. Respondents received state and territory-specific labels for the Prep and Foundation curriculum levels, and subheadings were usedto divide year levels into Secondary, Primary, Foundation and Prep. With these changes having been implemented, there has been a reduction in the proportion of individuals reporting that they are teaching at both the primary andearly childhood learner levels, as well as an increase in the proportion teaching only at the primary learner level.

Initial validation indicates that this methodological change has increased the alignment between the proportion of early childhood ITE graduates and the proportion of the early childhood workforce across early learning centers andschools. Additionally, the proportion of teachers in primary schools and combined schools remained consistent from 2021 to 2022, as did the sum of teachers of primary learners (alone) and primary and early childhood learners.

Full validation will be undertaken when the linked data becomes available.

In 2020, 53% of ATWD Teacher Survey respondents were aged between 40 and 59. Nearly one quarter were aged 60 or older (24%). The highest proportion of registered teachers aged over 60 were in VIC (31%), while NSW had the lowest proportion(20%).

In 2020, 20% of registered teachers were born overseas. This had increased by 3 percentage pointssince 2018 (17%). At a state and territory level, WA had the highest proportion of teachers born overseas (29%), while TAS had the lowest proportion (14%).

In 2020, almost three quarters (73%) of the teacher workforce were employed under an ongoing/permanent arrangement. 13% of the teacher workforce were employed under a fixed-term contract of less than 1 year, with 4% on fixed-term contractsof more than one year. 10% of the teacher workforce were employed under a casual/casual relief contract.

Between 2018 and 2020, there was a 7-percentage-point increase in the proportion of teachers employed under ongoing / permanent contracts (2018: 67%; 2020: 73%). The proportion of teachers on fixed-term contracts of less than 1 yearfell 6 percentage points (2018: 19%; 2020: 13%), whilst the proportion of those on casual/casual relief contracts and fixed-term contracts over 1 year remained stable.

In 2020, more than half (60%) of the teacher workforce were employed full-time (0.95-1.00FTE), whereas over one-quarter (27%) worked part-time and less than 4 days a week (˂0.79 FTE) and 13% were employed to work part-time and at least 4 days a week (0.80-0.94 FTE).

The NT recorded a higher proportion teachers employed to work full-time(0.95-1.00 FTE; 84%).

In 2020, most respondents who participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey (94%) had completed their ITE qualification in Australia rather than overseas.

The proportion of respondents who had received their qualification overseas increased by three percentage points from 2019 (3%) to 2020 (6%). A similar increase was seen across all states and territories that participated in the surveyduring this period, including in the three states and territories participating since 2018 (NSW, SA and NT).

In 2020, 77% of registered teachers were women. At a state and territory level, the NT had the highest proportion (80%) of women, and TAS had the lowest proportion (72%).

In 2020, 45% of the teacher workforce taught exclusively at the secondary learner level, 29% exclusively at the primary learner level, 12% taught early childhood and primary learner levels, and 9% taught exclusively early childhoodlearners. A small group (6%) taught secondary and either primary and/or early childhood learner levels.

In 2020, SA had a lower proportion of teachers who taught at the secondary learner level (31%) when compared to the national average (45%).

In 2020, VIC had a lower (22%) proportion who taught at the primary learner level when compared to the national average (25%), while WA had a greater proportion (33%).

In 2020, classroom teachers were the most common type of position for those deployed in schools (59%). Compared to the national average, a greater proportion of the workforce in QLD (65%), and a smaller proportionin the NT (55%), were classroom teachers.

Nationally, middle leaders were the second most common type of position for those deployed in schools (21%). VIC had a higher proportion of middle leaders (2020: 27%) than the national figure.

Nationally in 2020, there were similar proportions of casual/relief teachers(CRTs) (10%) and senior leaders (10%). Some states had more CRTs than senior leaders (VIC:+7 percentage points, SA: + 4 percentage points, TAS: +2 percentage points), while others had fewer CRTs than senior leaders (NT: -8 percentage points, WA: -6 percentage points, ACT: -3 percentage points, NSW: -2 percentage points).

Compared to 2019, in 2020, a greater proportion of the teacher workforce in schools were working as teachers (+3 percentage points; 2019: 57%; 2020: 59%), with an equivalent reduction in the proportion of middle leaders (-3 percentagepoints; 2019: 23%; 2020: 21%). A similar trend was seen in some states and territories participating in both of these years (NSW - classroom teachers: +2 percentage points, middle leaders: -3 percentage points; QLD - classroomteachers: +5 percentage points, middle leaders: -4 percentage points; SA - classroom teachers: +8 percentage points, middle leaders: -4 percentage points) but not in VIC (classroom teachers: -2 percentage points, middle leaders:-1 percentage points) or the NT (classroom teachers: -3 percentage points, middle leaders: -1 percentage points).

In 2020, over two thirds the teacher workforce had been registered with their currentregulatory authority for 10 years or more (67%). At a state and territory level, QLD had the highest proportion of teachers registered for 10 years or more (73%), while ACT had the lowest proportion (58%).

In 2020, the proportion of teachers who had been registered with their current regulatory authority for less than 5 years was 17%. This varied across states and territories, which could indicate differences in the proportions of teachersthat were new to the profession and/or differences in the proportion of teachers that were new to the state or territory. QLD had the lowest proportion of teachers registered for less than 5 years (13%), while NSW had the highestproportion (22%).

In 2020, 90% of the teacher workforce held full registration. At a state and territorylevel, ACT had the highest proportion of teachers with full registration (94%).

TAS was the state or territory with the highest proportion of provisionally registered teachers (27%); the proportion in other states varied between 8% and 11%.

A very small proportion of ATWD Survey Respondents held permission to teach / limited registration status (0.6%). This was comparable to the proportion of teachers with limited registration in TRA records (0.4%). Of the states andterritories where permission to teach / limited registration could be reported at the jurisdictional level, WA had the highest proportion (4%) among their survey respondents.

From 2018 to 2020, there was little fluctuation in the percentage of teachers working in regional or remote areas, which remained at 26% overall. Three in four teachers in all participating states and territories- were based in Metroareas (74%). This trend was similar across states and territories, with the exception of TAS and the NT, where the majority of teachers were based in regional/remote areas (70%)

In 2020, teacher was the most common role within schools and ELCs (68%), with leader being the least common (8%).

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of leaders with teaching responsibilities decreased by 5 percentage points (2018: 16%; 2020: 11%), whilst the proportion of leaders increased 4 percentage points (2018: 4%; 2020: 8%).

In 2020, 25% of registered teachers had commenced working in the teaching profession 10 to 19 yearsearlier. One in five had been in the profession for 20 to 29 years (21%), 19% for 30 to 39 years, and 13% for 40 or more years. Less than one quarter had been in the profession for less than 10 years: 11% for 1 to 5 years (earlycareer teachers), and 11% for 6 to 9 years.

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of registered teachers that were early career teachers dropped by five percentage points (2018: 16%; 2020: 11%). Overthe same period, the proportion of registered teachers that were in the profession for 40 years or more had increased by four percentage points (2018: 9%; 2020: 13%).

AIn 2020, at the state and territory level, ACT (34%) and NT (30%) had a larger proportion of teachers who had been in the profession between 10 and 19 years than the national average (25%). The ACT had fewer teachers with 30 years’ experienceor more (21%) than the national average (32%), while in the NT, the proportion of those who joined the workforce less than 10 years ago (18%) was smaller than the national average (22%).

In 2020, the most common experience category for leaders was 10 years or more in leadership positions (2020: 37%), with 18% of leaders having led for 2 years or less.

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of leaders with less than two years’ experience decreased 4 percentage points (2018: 22%; 2020: 18%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, withcounts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similarpercentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating statesand territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Improvements were made to the collection of the learner levels taught in the 2022 ATWD Teacher Survey. Respondents received state and territory-specific labels for the Prep and Foundation curriculum levels, and subheadings were used todivide year levels into Secondary, Primary, Foundation and Prep. With these changes having been implemented, there has been a reduction in the proportion of individuals reporting that they are teaching at both the primary and earlychildhood learner levels, as well as an increase in the proportion teaching only at the primary learner level.

Initial validation indicates that this methodological change has increased the alignment between the proportion of early childhood ITE graduates and the proportion of the early childhood workforce across early learning centers and schools.Additionally, the proportion of teachers in primary schools and combined schools remained consistent from 2021 to 2022, as did the sum of teachers of primary learners (alone) and primary and early childhood learners.

Full validation will be undertaken when the linked data becomes available.

In 2020, classroom teachers exhibited the following characteristics:

• Almost half were over 50 years of age (45%), with 16% aged 60–68 years, and 2% over retirement age.
• Two-in-ten (20%) teachers were born overseas.
• Typically employed under ongoing/permanent arrangement (77%), with more than half (60%) contracted to work full-time.
• Most commonly women (78%).
• Typically held full registration (90%) and had been registered for at least 10 years or more with their current regulatory authority (63%).
• Most taught learners exclusively at the secondary level (46%), or primary level (35%); while 14% of classroom teachers taught early childhood learners, typically as well as at the primary learner level.
• Were highly experienced, with 71% joining the profession more than 10 years of experience. 16% were early career teachers.

The following trends were observed in the characteristics of classroom teachers:

• An increasing proportion of classroom teachers were employed on an ongoing contract, with a six percentage point increase from 2018 (68%) to 2019 (74%) and another increase of three percentage points in 2020 (77%).
• Those working part-time but at least four days per week (0.80-0.94 FTE) decreased by three percentage points from 2019 (18%) to 2020 (14%).
• The proportion of classroom teachers teaching at the primary learner level decreased by 12 percentage points from 2018 (47%) to 2019 (35%) but remained stable between 2019 and 2020 (35%). This was partly off-set by a 7 percentage point increase in classroom teachers teaching learners at both primary and early childhood learner levels.
• Classroom teachers were more likely to be fully registered in 2020 than in 2018 (+4 percentage points; 2018: 86%; 2020: 90%).
• The proportion of early career teachers decreased 6 percentage points from 2019 (21%) to 2020 (16%), and fewer had been registered for less than 5 years with their current regulatory authority (2019: 23%; 2020: 19%).

In 2020, middle leaders exhibited the following characteristics:

• Almost half were over 50 years of age (48%), with 16% aged 60–68 years, and 2% over retirement age.
• Typically employed under ongoing/permanent arrangements (92%), with 74% contracted to work full-time.
• 16% were born overseas.
• Almost all held full registration (98%) and had been registered for at least 10 years with their current regulatory authority (78%).
• 88% engaged in teaching, with most teaching learners who were exclusively at the secondary level (66%), or primary level (19%); while 9% of middle leaders taught early childhood learners, typically as well as primary learner level.
• Were experienced, with just 15% having joined the teaching profession less than 10 years ago.

From 2018 to 2020, trends and changes over time in the characteristics of middle leaders may be particularly influenced by the different arrangements and expectations in each new state and territory which began participating in the ATWDTeacher Survey.

The following trends were observed in the characteristics of middle leaders:

• From 2018 to 2020, more middle leaders were employed under an ongoing/permanent arrangement (+4 percentage points). However, fewer were employed full-time (-4 percentage points).
• The presence of middle leaders in positions without face-to-face teaching responsibilities has increased steadily: four percentage points from 2018 (4%) to 2019 (8%), and another four percentage points in 2020 (12%).
• Between 2018 and 2020, middle leaders who had been registered for more than 10 years increased 6 percentage points (2018: 72%; 2020: 78%), while those registered for less than 10 years decreased 5 percentage points (2018: 27%; 2020: 22%).

In 2020, senior leaders exhibited the following characteristics:

• Two in three were over 50 years of age (60%), with 20% aged 60–68 years, with 2% over retirement age.
• More than one-in-ten (12%) were born overseas.
• Were typically employed under ongoing/permanent arrangements (85%), with 77% contracted to work full-time.
• Almost all held full registration (98%) and had been registered for at least 10 years with their current regulatory authority (89%).
• 46% engaged in face-to-face teaching, while 54% were in a leadership only position. For those engaged in face-to-face teaching, they most commonly taught learners who were exclusively at the primary (40%) or secondary level (32%). One in five (21%) of senior leaders taught early childhood learners, typically as well as the primary learner level.
• Most likely to have been a leader for 10 years or more (35%), compared to 6 to 9 years (20%), 3 to 5 years (27%), or 1 to 2 years (18%).
• Very experienced, with 95% having joined the teaching profession at least 10 years ago. In terms of leadership experience, 35% had been in an equivalent position for more than 10 years.

 The following trends and were observed in the characteristics of senior leaders:

• From 2018 to 2020, more senior leaders were employed under an ongoing/permanent arrangement (+6 percentage points), but fewer reported that they were employed full-time (-8 percentage points).
• The proportion of women in senior leadership roles decreased 2 percentage points from 2018 (71%) to 2020 (69%).
• From 2018 to 2020, there was an increase in the proportion of senior leaders who had been in a similar role for 10 years or more (2018: 31%; 2020: 35%). In contrast, the proportion of senior leaders who had been leading for 1 to 2 years decreased by seven percentage points (2018: 25%; 2020: 18%).
• The presence of senior leaders in leadership-only positions underwent a large change in 2020, from 31% in 2019 to 54% in 2020. This may reflect changes in how teaching load was allocated across positions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a smaller proportion of leaders engaged in teaching, the reductions were evenly distributed across all learner levels, with no changes from 2019 to 2020 among senior leaders.

In 2020, casual/relief teachers (CRTs) exhibited the following characteristics:

• Almost half were over the age of 60 (49%), with 31% having started in the profession over 40 years ago. Only 14% were early career teachers.
• Typically undertaking paid work equivalent to less than 4 days per week (0.79 FTE or less; 88%). Just 8% were working the equivalent hours of a full-time position (0.95-1.00 FTE) under their casual arrangement.
• One-quarter (25%) were born overseas.
• Most commonly taught learners across both early childhood and primary levels (34%), followed by exclusively secondary learner levels (33%).
• Typically held full registration (76%).

The following trends and were observed in the characteristics of casual/relief teachers (CRTs):

• Between 2018 and 2020, CRTs who had been registered with their current regulatory authority for 10 years or more increased (+14%, 2018: 50%; 2020: 64%), while those who had been registered for less than 5 years decreased (-11%, 2018: 34%; 2020: 23%).
• The proportion of early career teachers among CRTs decreased 10 percentage points from 2018 (23%) to 2020 (14%), while the proportion of those who joined the profession over 40 years prior increased 12 percentage points from 2018 (20%) to 2020 (31%) over the same period.
• More likely to be fully registered in 2020 than in 2018 (+9 percentage points; 2018: 67%; 2020: 76%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Everyone in the teacher workforce and deployed in a school was asked about the school they work in or had worked in most recently. Responses were sought through a drill-down menu which first required the selection of the school’s state, the school’s suburb, and finally the name of the school. If a teacher could not find their school in the list an open text box was provided.

The drill-down menu was populated with schools from ACARA’s records. When a teacher responded using the open text box it was not always possible to identify a clear match.

An equivalent process was used for those working in Early Learning Centers.

The percentage of school characteristics are calculated using only data from those with a school which could be conclusively identified, it does not include the teacher workforce who are not in schools, the non-teacher workforce, or those in schools but where the specific school could not be conclusively identified.

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of regional/remote teachers on fixed term contracts less than 1 year decreased 6 percentage points (2018: 18%; 2020: 12%).

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of regional/remote teachers on ongoing contracts increased by 10 percentage points from 63% in 2018 to 72%. In comparison, the proportion of metropolitan teachers on ongoing contracts increased 5 percentage points to 73% (2018: 68%; 2020: 73%).

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of the teacher workforce employed in regional/remote areas on both fixed term contracts longer than 1 year (2020: 4%) and casual contracts (2020: 10%) remained stable.

In 2020, nearly two-thirds (60%) of the teacher workforce in regional/remote areas were employed full-time (0.95-1.00 FTE). Whereas 27% were part-time and at least 4 days a week (0.80-0.94 FTE) and 14% were part-time and less than 4 days a week (<0.79 FTE).

In 2020, 97% of the teacher workforce in regional/remote areas were deployed in schools, a 2-percentage point increase from 2018 (95%). In contrast, the proportion of the teacher workforce deployed in Early Learning Centres was 3%.

In 2020, 44% of the teacher workforce working in remote/regional areas taught exclusively at the secondary learner level, 29% exclusively at the primary learner level, 14% taught early childhood and primary learner levels, 7% taught exclusively early childhood learners and 7% taught secondary and either primary and/or early childhood learner levels.

In 2020, classroom teachers was the most common type of position for those deployed in schools (59%). Middle leadership roles were the second most common type of position for those deployed in schools (19%). In 2020, there were similar proportions of casual/relief teachers (10%), and senior leaders(12%).

Compared to 2019, in 2020 a greater proportion of the teacher workforce in schools were working as classroom teachers (+4 percentage points; 2019: 56%; 2020: 59%), with reductions in the proportion of middle leaders (-3 percentage points; 2019: 22%; 2020: 19%) and senior leaders (-2 percentage points; 2019 14%; 2020: 12%. A similar trend was seen in metropolitan areas (classroom teachers: +2 percentage points, middle leaders: -3 percentage points, senior leaders: -1 percentage points).

Whilst metropolitan areas had a similar pattern to regional/remote areas from 2018 to 2020, they consistently had a slightly higher proportion of middle leaders (+2 percentage points), while they had a slightly lower proportion of senior leaders (-4 percentage points in 2018, falling to -2 percentage points in 2020).

In 2020, 68% of the teacher workforce in regional/remote areas were in teachers with no leadership responsibility. 12% were in teachers with leadership responsibilities, and 12% were leaders with teaching responsibilities. 8% were leaders with no teaching responsibilities.

From 2018 to 2020, there was a 4 percentage point increase in the proportion of leaders with no teaching responsibilities (2018: 4%; 2020: 8%). The proportion of teachers with leadership responsibilities was stable across the period (2018: 13%; 2020: 12%), briefly increasing to 16% only for 2019. The proportion of leaders with teaching responsibilities fell 4 percentage points (2018: 16%; 2020: 12%).

In 2020, 27% of the teacher working in regional/remote areas had commenced working in the teaching profession 10 to 19 years ago. One in five had been in the profession 20 to 29 years (21%), 18% for 30 to 39 years, 11% for 40 or more years. Less than one quarter had been in the profession for less than 10 years: 12% for 1 to 5 years (early career teachers), and 11% for 6 to 9 years.

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of registered teachers that were early career teachers dropped by five-percentage points (2018: 17%; 2020: 12%). Over the same period, the proportion of registered teachers that were in the profession for 40 years or more had increased by three-percentage points (2018: 8%; 2020: 11%).

In comparison, in 2020, metropolitan areas had a more experienced teacher workforce, (40 or more years: +3 percentage points; 30-39 years: +1 percentage point), whilst having a lower proportion of early career teachers (-1 percentage point) and teachers who had been in the profession for 10-19 years (-3 percentage points).

In 2020, leaders were more likely to have been a leader for 10 years or more 32%), and least likely to have been leading for 1-2 years (17%). Almost one quarter had been leading for 3-5 years (24%), and one fifth had been leading for 6-9 years (20%)

From 2018 to 2020, there was an increase in the proportion of leaders that had been in leadership positions for over 10 years. Initially 29% in 2018, it peaked at 35% in 2019 before falling to 32% in 2020. This differed to metropolitan areas which experienced a decrease of 3 percentage points from 2018 to 2019 (2018: 40%; 2019: 37%) before increasing by 2 percentage points in 2020 to 39%.

From 2018 to 2020, there was a 3 percentage point increase in the proportion of regional/remote leaders with 3-5 years experience (2018: 24%; 2020: 27%), the same trend was observed for those with 6-9 years experience (2018: 18%; 2020: 21%).

From 2018 to 2020, there was an 8 percentage point fall in the proportion of regional/remote leaders with 1-2 years of leadership experience (2018: 29%; 2020: 19%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Improvements were made to the collection of the learner levels taught in the 2022 ATWD Teacher Survey. Respondents received state and territory-specific labels for the Prep and Foundation curriculum levels, and subheadings were used to divide year levels into Secondary, Primary, Foundation and Prep. With these changes having been implemented, there has been a reduction in the proportion of individuals reporting that they are teaching at both the primary and early childhood learner levels, as well as an increase in the proportion teaching only at the primary learner level.

Initial validation indicates that this methodological change has increased the alignment between the proportion of early childhood ITE graduates and the proportion of the early childhood workforce across early learning centers and schools. Additionally, the proportion of teachers in primary schools and combined schools remained consistent from 2021 to 2022, as did the sum of teachers of primary learners (alone) and primary and early childhood learners.

Full validation will be undertaken when the linked data becomes available.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, withcounts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similarpercentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating statesand territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Everyone in the teacher workforce and deployed in a school was asked about the school theywork in or had worked in most recently. Responses were sought through a drill-down menu which first required the selection of the school’s state, the school’s suburb, and finally the name of the school. If a teacher couldnot find their school in the list an open text box was provided.

The drill-down menu was populated with schools from ACARA’s records. When a teacher responded using the open text box it was not always possible to identify a clear match.

The percentage of school characteristics are calculated using only data from those with a school which could be conclusively identified; it does not include the teacher workforce who are not in schools, the non-teacher workforce, or thosein schools but where the specific school could not be conclusively identified.

In 2020, two-thirds (66%) of respondents worked in major cities, with the smallest proportion of teachers working in remote and very remote schools. Respondents working in inner regional areas saw a slight increase of 3 percentage points(2018: 17%; 2020: 20%), while those in remote and very remote areas saw a small decrease (2018: 5%; 2020: 3%).

In 2020, almost seven-in-ten respondents (67%) were employed in government schools. A similar proportion of respondents were from the Catholic (17%) and independent (16%) sectors.

The jurisdiction with the highest proportion of government sector respondents was from the NT (77%), with the lowest from VIC (60%) and NSW (61%). The highest proportion of independent sector respondents was from NSW (21%), with the Catholicsector recording its highest in VIC (22%).

School type refers to whether respondents work in primary schools, secondary schools, special schools or combined schools.

Nationally in 2020, the predominant group of respondents worked in primary schools (40%), with respondents from secondary schools not far behind (34%). This is broadly repeated across all states and territories, with the greatest differencesbetween primary and secondary respondents recorded in SA (15 percentage points) and NT (16 percentage points).

Only in NSW in 2020 did respondents from secondary schools outnumber those from primary schools (secondary: 39%; primary: 38%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Everyone in the teacher workforce  and deployed in a school was asked about the school they work in or had worked in most recently. Responses were sought through a drill-down menu which first required the selection of the school’s state, the school’s suburb, and finally the name of the school. If a teacher could not find their school in the list an open text box was provided.

The drill-down menu was populated with schools from ACARA’s records. When a teacher responded using the open text box it was not always possible to identify a clear match.

The percentage of school characteristics are calculated using only data from those with a school which could be conclusively identified; it does not include the teacher workforce who are not in schools, the non-teacher workforce, or those in schools but where the specific school could not be conclusively identified.

Classroom teachers - 66% worked in major cities, 20% in inner regional, 12% in outer regional and 2% in remote and very remote schools.

Middle leaders - 68% worked in major cities, 19% in inner regional, 11% in outer regional and 2% in remote and very remote schools.

Senior leaders - 61% worked in major cities, 21% in inner regional, 13% in outer regional and 5% in remote and very remote schools.

Casual/relief teachers - 64% worked in major cities, 23% in inner regional, 11% in outer regional and 2% in remote and very remote schools.

Overall, the teacher workforce saw small shifts in the distribution of school remoteness from 2018 to 2020, with the majority of all positions working in major cities and the minority in remote and very remote schools.

There was a small increase in the proportion working in inner and outer regional areas of +2 to +4 percentage points: classroom teachers (2018: 28%; 2020: 32%) and middle leaders (2018: 26%; 2020: 30%), senior leaders (2018: 32%; 2020:34%), casual/relief teachers (2018: 30%; 2020: 33%).

There was a smaller decline in the proportion working in remote and very remote areas across all positions (-2 percentage points): classroom teachers (2018: 4%; 2020: 2%), middle leaders (2018: 4%; 2020: 2%), senior leaders (2018: 7%; 2020: 5%), casual/relief teachers (2018: 4%; 2020: 2%).

Classroom teachers were more likely to be employed in government schools (70%) than in Catholic schools (15%) or independent school sector (15%).

Middle leaders were more likely to work in government schools (54%) than in independent schools (25%) or Catholic schools (21%). Working at independent and Catholic schools was more common among middle leaders than other positions.

Senior leaders were more likely to work in the government schools (73%) than in the Catholic (15%) and independent school sector (11%).

Casual/relief teachers were more likely to be employed in government schools (70%) than in Catholic schools (17%) or independent schools (13%).

Most schools in Australia are government schools. Consistent with this, in 2020, all positions were most commonly found in government schools. More than two-thirds of senior leaders (73%), classroom teachers (70%) and casual/relief teachers  (CRTs) were working in government schools.

Independent schools in 2020 were the least common school sector for all positions except middle leaders (CRTs: 13%; classroom teachers: 15%; senior leaders: 11%), whereas there were 4 percentage points more middle leaders in independent schools (25%) than Catholic schools (21%).

The proportions of each position in each sector were relatively stable from 2019 to 2020.

In 2020, the most common school type for all positions except middle leaders were primary schools: casual/relief teachers (CRTs) (48%), classroom teachers (43%) and senior leaders (56%). Middle leaders were predominantly employed in secondary schools (primary schools: 23%; secondary schools: 44%).

In 2020, a greater percentage of senior leaders (6%) than those in other positions worked in special schools (casual/relief teachers: 3%; classroom teachers: 3%; middle leaders: 2%).

Less than half (43%) of classroom teachers worked in primary schools, 33% in secondary schools, 21% in combined schools, and 3% in special schools.

Less than half (44%) of middle leaders worked in secondary schools, 31% in combined schools, 23% in primary schools and 2% in special schools.

Over half (56%) of senior leaders worked in primary schools, 22% in secondary schools, 16% in combined schools. A greater proportion of senior leaders (6%) than those in other positions (2-3%) worked in special schools.

Around half (48%) of casual/relief teachers had most recently worked in primary schools, 31% in secondary schools, 18% in combined schools, and 3% in special schools.

From 2018 to 2019, the proportion of middle leaders working in combined schools decreased by 10 percentage points (2018: 39%; 2019: 29%), but then slightly increased by 2 percentage points in 2020 (31%).

An increase was observed in the proportion of classroom teachers working in secondary schools from 2018 (29%) to 2019 (34%) which continued through 2020 (34%). A similar pattern of increase then stability was observed across CRTs (2018: 27%; 2019: 30%; 2020: 31%) and middle leaders (2018: 39%; 2019: 44%; 2020: 44%). This may reflect a different composition of positions across the states and territories which first started participating in 2019, compared to those which first started participating in 2018.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

From 2018 to 2022 the proportion of full-time classroom teachers engaged in 20 to 24 hours of face-to-face teaching ranged from 34% to 38%, with the greatest proportion occurring during the impact of Covid-19 in 2020 of 38%. The lowest proportion of classroom teachers teaching 20 to 24 hours occurred in 2021 (31%).

Just over half of middle leaders (53%) in 2022 recorded teaching more than 20 hours in 2022, compared to 86% of classroom teachers. The proportion of full-time middle leaders teaching 0 to 9 hours changed from 9% in 2018, to a high of 17% in 2021.

Just over a third of senior leaders (34%) in 2022 recorded teaching more than 20 hours in a week, compared to 53% of middle leaders.

The impact of Covid-19 saw the proportion of senior leaders teaching 0 to 9 hours increase from 45% in 2019 to 64% in 2020 and 65% in 2021. This shift of senior leaders moving out of the classroom halted in 2022, with a similar proportion of teachers teaching 0 to 9 hours in 2022 as in 2019 (2019: 45%, 2022: 48%).

Just over a third of full-time casual/relief teachers teach more than 30 hours per week. For part-time casual/relief teachers, 43% teach between 10-19 hours per week.

During 2020, there was a decrease in the proportion of part-time casual teachers who taught more than 20 hours (2019: 37%, 2020: 28%). A similar decrease in the proportion teaching more than 20 hours per week then occurred one year later, between 2020 and 2021 (2020: 87%, 2021: 64%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

In 2020, planning lessons (31%) and supervision (10%) were the only workplace duties on which more than 10% of classroom teachers spent 10 hours or more each week. The next highest proportions were for marking tasks (9%) and administration tasks (9%).

From 2018-2020, the number of hours spent on administration, extracurricular activities, marking, liaising with parents, pastoral activities, or on planning, supervision and teamwork by classroom teachers and casual/relief teachers (CRTs) did not change notably in most cases.

For CRTs, the times spent on planning lessons went down, with the proportion of CRTs spending 0-4 hours on planning lessons increasing 11 percentage points (2018: 70%; 2020: 81%). By contrast, CRTs were spending a greater proportion time on supervision or counselling of students, with 10 or more hours a week on supervision increasing from 4% in 2018 to 13% in 2020.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Administrative tasks were the workplace duty which most senior leaders reported spending more than 10 hours per week performing (83%), following by interacting with students (51%) and with parents (16%). By contrast, more than two-thirds of senior leaders spent few hours on community-related activities (0-4 hours: 86%) and professional learning for school staff (0-4 hours: 70%).

Middle leaders (63%) were more likely than senior leaders (37%) to spend 10 hours or more each week on teaching responsibility other than face-to-face teaching such as marking, or planning and preparation.

There were no major changes from 2018-2020 in the time senior leaders spent on administrative tasks, community-related activities, or on interacting with parents and students.

Senior leaders spent lower amounts of time on professional learning for school staff over this period, with the proportion spending 5-9 hours decreasing (2018: 29%; 2020: 21%) and the proportion spending 0-4 hours increasing by 13 percentage points (2018: 57%; 2020: 70%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.

2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

In the first ATWD Teacher Workforce Report, the ratio of working hours to contracted hours was calculated using the mean and based on full-time hours of 40 hours per week. All subsequent reporting has adopted 38 hours per week for full-time working hours to ensure consistency over all versions of the survey and all states and territories.

There are two methods used in the ATWD for calculating the ratio of hours worked to contracted hours. For those working full-time these lead to the same result. Each method is appropriate to use at different times. A simple average is used when each band of contracted part-time hours is large enough to be reported individually (average of individuals: worked divided by paid hours). When the bands of part-time hours are reported in a combined manner the calculation is done at the workforce level: the data is weighted in accordance with each teacher’s contribution to total workforce FTE (sum of worked FTE divided by sum of paid FTE). The weighted methodology is used in this tile.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.

2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

In the first ATWD Teacher Workforce Characteristics Report, the ratio of working hours to contracted hours was calculated using the mean and based on full-time hours of 40 hours per week. All subsequent reporting has adopted 38 hours per week for full-time working hours to ensure consistency over all versions of the survey and all states and territories.

There are two methods used in the ATWD for calculating the ratio of hours worked to contracted hours. For those working full-time these lead to the same result. Each method is appropriate to use at different times. A simple average is used when each band of contracted part-time hours is large enough to be reported individually (average of individuals: worked divided by paid hours). When the bands of part-time hours are reported in a combined manner the calculation is done at the workforce level: the data is weighted in accordance with each teacher’s contribution to total workforce FTE (sum of worked FTE divided by sum of paid FTE). The weighted methodology is used in this tile.

In 2020, of classroom teachers working in schools, 58% were employed full-time. Those working full-time reported working 145% of their paid working hours (mean: 55 hours). Part-time teachers were contracted to work on average for 27 hours (mean: 0.72 FTE) and reported working 152% of their paid hours (mean: 41 hours).

From 2018 to 2020, it can be observed that working part-time consistently meant working more as a proportion of paid hours (2018: 149%; 2020: 152%), when compared to full-time teachers (2018: 147%; 2020: 145%), and that the gap has widened since 2018 (2018: 2 percentage points; 2020: 7 percentage points).

In 2020, middle leaders employed on a full-time basis in schools reported working 149% of their paid working hours (mean: 57 hours).

Only full-time data can be reported for middle leaders at present.

In 2020, senior leaders employed on a full-time basis in schools reported working 157% of their paid working hours (mean: 60 hours).

Only full-time data can be reported for senior leaders at present.

In 2020, of casual/relief teachers (CRTs) working in schools 9% were working the equivalent of full-time hours. Those working full-time reported working 121% of their paid working hours (mean: 46 hours). CRTs working less than full-time hours were on average contracted to work for 16 hours per week (mean:0.42 FTE) and reported working 125% of their paid hours (mean: 20 hours).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

The reported data on formal induction experiences includes formal induction across both first and subsequent schools in the first five years of their career. Induction experiences spanning first and subsequent schools are combined in reporting.

Not all items were measured in 2022

The proportion of early career teachers who received a formal induction process was 61% for those with 1-2 years of teaching experience, and 66% for those with 3-5 years of teaching experience.

The proportion of early career teachers who received a formal induction process increased in the period between 2018 and 2020 among teachers with 1-2 years of experience (2018: 50%, 2020: 61%) and - even more markedly - among teachers with 3-5 years of experience (2018: 44%, 2020: 66%).

Among teachers with 3-5 years of experience, this trend can be observed in NSW (2018: 42%, 2020: 68%) and SA (2019: 59%, 2020: 76%). In QLD and VIC, the proportions decreased over the same time period (QLD: 72% in 2019 to 68% in 2020; VIC: 66% in 2019 to 59% in 2020).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

This question is asked to all early career teachers who indicated that they received a formal induction process and provides an understanding of what that process involves.

Some activities were removed from the 2022 ATWD Teacher Survey. This means that some activities only have data for 2018 to 2021, while others have data for 2018 to 2022.

The three most frequent activities in 2020 were participation in an orientation program (93%), interaction with the leadership team (88%), and collaboration (88%) for early career teachers with 1-2 years of experience.

While the 3 least frequent activities in 2020 were follow up from the initial teacher education (ITE) institution (31%), a reduced face-to-face teaching load (53%), and specific time allocated for induction activities (58%).

The 3 most frequent activities in 2020 were participation in an orientation program (97%), Collaboration (93%), and observation and feedback (88%) for early career teachers with 3-5 years of experience.

While the 3 least frequent activities in 2020 were follow up from the initial teacher education institution (29%), a reduced face-to-face teaching load (56%), and specific time allocated for induction activities (60%).

From 2018-2020, the proportion of early career teachers with both 1-2 years of experience and 3-5 years increased by 5 or more percentage points only for specific time allocated for induction activities increased (1-2 years - 2018: 51%, 2020: 58%; 3-5 years - 2018: 53%, 2020: 60%), while no experiences were provided notably less often.

For those with 1-2 years of experience, there were also increases in the proportion who reported participating in internal networks (2018: 73%; 2020: 78%) and external networks (2018: 57%; 2020: 62%), interactions with leadership (2018: 83%; 2020: 88%) and opportunities for structured discussions with other early career educators (2018: 60%; 2020: 65%).

For those with 3-5 years of experience, there were also increases in collaboration with colleagues (2018: 84%; 2020: 93%) and reduced face-to-face teaching time (2018: 51%; 2020: 56%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

In this tile, those subjects are grouped by Key learning Area (KLA). As KLAs combine multiple subjects, all of the subjects a teacher taught are identified for each KLA and if any are in-field they are classified as in-field in the KLA, if none are ‘in-field’ but they have ‘some training’ in any then they are classified as ‘some-training’, otherwise they are classified as ‘no-training’. At the KLA level, being classified as in-field indicates that a teacher is ‘in-field’ in one or more subjects that they taught within the KLA in that year.

Those in the teacher workforce were asked which subjects they taught and the level of tertiary education they had received in that subject. Teachers were recorded as teaching in-field when they had received at least one semester’s worth of tertiary learning in both content and pedagogy.

Three levels of teaching in-field are reported. Those who are potentially in-field (‘in-field’) have had at least one semester of tertiary training in both content and pedagogy in the subject. Those with ‘some training’ reported one semester of either content or pedagogy in a subject, and those with ‘no training’ reported no content or pedagogy in a subject. Those with ‘some training’ and those with ‘no training’ are both classified as out of field.

This data should be interpreted as the proportion of teachers of a subject who are out-of-field/in-field, but it does not indicate the proportion of classes taught by out-of-field or in-field teachers. This data does not include those who might be in-field for a subject but who did not teach it in that year.

Data for 2021 and 2022 will be released in the future. Additional detail on the amount of training received was collected in these years and allows those in the ‘in-field’ category to be more firmly identified.

In 2020, teachers of English were the least likely to be out-of-field (26%), and teachers of Technology were least likely to be in-field (44%). For teachers of subjects in other KLAs, 28% of those teaching Science were in-field, as were 30% of those teaching LOTE, 32% of those teaching Performing Arts, 35% of those teaching Mathematics, 36% of those teaching Humanities, 37% of those teaching Health/PE and 38% of those teaching Art.

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of teachers reporting out-of-field teaching decreased across all KLAs. Performing Arts saw the largest increase, with a 14-percentage point fall from 46% in 2018 to 32% in 2020.

A 12-percentage point decrease in the proportion of those who were teaching out-of-field teaching was observed in four KLAs between 2018 and 2020: Art (2018: 50%; 2020: 38%), Health/PE (2018: 49%; 2020: 37%), LOTE (2018: 42%; 2020: 30%) and Mathematics (2018: 47%; 35%).

From 2018 to 2020, there was a 10-percentage point decrease in the proportion of Science teachers reporting that they were teaching out-of-field (2018: 37%; 2020: 28%). Similarly, English teachers reported an 8-percentage point decrease over the same period (2018: 34%; 2020: 26%).

The smallest increase was a 4-percentage point decrease in the proportion of teachers engaged in out-of-field teaching, which was observed in both Technology (2018: 48%; 2020: 44%) and Humanities (2018: 40%; 2020: 36%).

• Arts: Visual arts, Media arts
• TechnologyTechnology: Design and Technologies, Digital Technologies
• >Science: Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Human Biology, Earth and Environmental Science, Psychology
• Performing Arts: Dance, Drama, Music
• Mathematics: Mathematics, General Mathematics, Essential Mathematics, Specialist Mathematics, Mathematical Methods
• LOTE: Languages other than English
• Humanities: Geography, History, Economics and Business, Civics and Citizenship, Accounting, Legal Studies, Modern History, Ancient History, Philosophy, Theory of Knowledge
• Health/PE: Physical Education, Health Education
• English: English, Literature, Essential English, English as an Additional Language or dialect

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

In this tile, those subjects are grouped by Key learning Area (KLA). As KLAs combine multiple subjects, all of the subjects a teacher taught are identified for each KLA and if any are in-field they are classified as in-field in the KLA, if none are ‘in-field’ but they have ‘some training’ in any then they are classified as ‘some-training’, otherwise they are classified as ‘no-training’. At the KLA level, being classified as in-field indicates that a teacher is ‘in-field’ in one or more subjects that they taught within the KLA in that year.

Those in the teacher workforce were asked which subjects they taught and the level of tertiary education they had received in that subject. Teachers were recorded as teaching in-field when they had received at least one semester’s worth of tertiary learning in both content and pedagogy.

Three levels of teaching in-field are reported. Those who are potentially in-field (‘in-field’) have had at least one semester of tertiary training in both content and pedagogy in the subject. Those with ‘some training’ reported one semester of either content or pedagogy in a subject, and those with ‘no training’ reported no content or pedagogy in a subject. Those with ‘some training’ and those with ‘no training’ are both classified as out of field.

This data should be interpreted as the proportion of teachers of a subject who are out-of-field/in-field, but it does not indicate the proportion of classes taught by out-of-field or in-field teachers. This data does not include those who might be in-field for a subject but who did not teach it in that year.

Data for 2021 and 2022 will be released in the future. Additional detail on the amount of training received was collected in these years and allows those in the ‘in-field’ category to be more firmly identified.

Rates of out-of-field teaching remain high among classroom teachers. One in four classroom teachers who taught Science (24%), English (25%), LOTE (27%) and Performing Arts (27%) were out-of-field in 2022. More than one in four classroom teachers in the KLAs of art (32%) the humanities (36%), and technology (44%) were teaching out of field.

Middle leaders engaged in teaching were more likely to be in-field than classroom teachers. Middle leaders were between 2 and 12 percentage points less likely to be out-of-field across all KLAs. The difference was only small for Arts (2 percentage points), Science (3 percentage points), and Mathematics (4 percentage points); and largest for Health/PE (12 percentage points) where middle leaders (23%) were notably less likely to be teaching out-of-field than classroom teachers (35%).

In some KLAs, senior leaders were less likely than classroom teachers to be in-field in the subjects that they taught (English: 14%; Health/PE: 29%; senior leaders: 29%). While in others, they were more likely to be out-of-field (Arts: 42%; Science: 31%; Humanities: 40%).

Classroom teachers were less likely than casual/relief teachers (CRTs) to be teaching out-of-field. Among CRTs, around half were out of field in all KLAs they taught a subject in (ranging from 42% to 58%).

Across most KLAs, the proportion of classroom teachers reporting out-of-field teaching decreased between 2018 to 2020, however, rates remain high. It is unclear how much of this is due to the shift to online teaching during responses to Covid-19 in 2020, and whether it will return to pre-Covid levels in 2022.

Out-of-field teaching decreased by 10 percentage points for Health/PE (to 35% in 2020), Mathematics (to 34% in 2020) and Performing Arts (to 27% in 2020).

There was no notable reduction in out-of-field teaching in the Humanities (2018: 33%, 2020: 36%) and Technology (2018: 44%, 2020: 44%).

Across most KLAs, the proportion of middle leaders reporting out-of-field teaching decreased a small amount between 2018 to 2020. Rates remain high, however. In most KLAs there are only small sample sizes in 2018, and the subjects with large reductions are those taught by fewer people and should be treated with caution.

Reductions in out-of-field teaching from 2019 to 2020 are more modest for core curriculum areas like English (2019: 22%; 2020: 19%) and Mathematics (2019: 33%; 2020: 29%). While there was no reduction in science (2019: 22%, 2020: 21%).

Across most KLAs, the proportion of senior leaders reporting out-of-field teaching decreased a small amount between 2018 to 2020. Rates remain high, however. In most KLAs there are only small sample sizes in 2018, and the subjects with large reductions are those taught by fewer people and should be treated with caution.

Reductions in out-of-field teaching by senior leaders from 2019 to 2020 were large in English (2019: 31%; 2020: 14%), and more modest for Mathematics (2019: 41%; 2020: 29%) While there was no reduction in science (2019: 30%, 2020: 31%).

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of casual/relief teachers (CRTs) reporting out-of-field teaching decreased across all KLAs. Mathematics saw the largest decrease, with a 24-percentage point rise from 26% in 2018 to 50% in 2020 in the proportion of CRTs with in-field tertiary qualifications.

• Arts: Visual arts, Media arts
• TechnologyTechnology: Design and Technologies, Digital Technologies
• >Science: Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Human Biology, Earth and Environmental Science, Psychology
• Performing Arts: Dance, Drama, Music
• Mathematics: Mathematics, General Mathematics, Essential Mathematics, Specialist Mathematics, Mathematical Methods
• LOTE: Languages other than English
• Humanities: Geography, History, Economics and Business, Civics and Citizenship, Accounting, Legal Studies, Modern History, Ancient History, Philosophy, Theory of Knowledge
• Health/PE: Physical Education, Health Education
• English: English, Literature, Essential English, English as an Additional Language or dialect

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

In this tile, those subjects are grouped by Key learning Area (KLA). As KLAs combine multiple subjects, all of the subjects a teacher taught are identified for each KLA and if any are in-field they are classified as in-field in the KLA, if none are ‘in-field’ but they have ‘some training’ in any then they are classified as ‘some-training’, otherwise they are classified as ‘no-training’. At the KLA level, being classified as in-field indicates that a teacher is ‘in-field’ in one or more subjects that they taught within the KLA in that year.

Those in the teacher workforce were asked which subjects they taught and the level of tertiary education they had received in that subject. Teachers were recorded as teaching in-field when they had received at least one semester’s worth of tertiary learning in both content and pedagogy.

Three levels of teaching in-field are reported. Those who are potentially in-field (‘in-field’) have had at least one semester of tertiary training in both content and pedagogy in the subject. Those with ‘some training’ reported one semester of either content or pedagogy in a subject, and those with ‘no training’ reported no content or pedagogy in a subject. Those with ‘some training’ and those with ‘no training’ are both classified as out of field.

This data should be interpreted as the proportion of teachers of a subject who are out-of-field/in-field, but it does not indicate the proportion of classes taught by out-of-field or in-field teachers. This data does not include those who might be in-field for a subject but who did not teach it in that year.

Data for 2021 and 2022 will be released in the future. Additional detail on the amount of training received was collected in these years and allows those in the ‘in-field’ category to be more firmly identified.

In most KLAs, secondary teachers in regional and remote schools were 3 to 6 percentage points more likely to be teaching out-of-field than the teacher workforce in metropolitan schools. However, in some subject areas teachers at regional and remote schools were much more likely to be teaching out-of-field in 2020 than those in metropolitan areas.

Specifically, regional and remote teachers were more likely to be teaching in the following KLAs out-of-field:

• LOTE: 17 percentage points more likely to have been out-of-field (regional and remote: 42%; metropolitan teachers: 26%).
• Performing Arts: 16 percentage points more likely to have been out-of-(regional and remote: 43%; metropolitan teachers: 27%).
• Technology: 11 percentage points more likely to have been out-of-(regional and remote: 51%; metropolitan teachers: 40%).

From 2018 and 2020, the proportion of the teacher workforce in regional and remote schools reporting out-of-field teaching generally decreased, as was also seen in metropolitan areas. However, rates of out-of-field teaching remained high in regional and remote areas in 2020.

The largest decreases in out-of-field teaching occurred in Art (2018: 54% 2020: 40%) and Mathematics (2018: 51%; 2020: 37%) which both saw a 14-percentage point decrease, and Performing Arts with a 13-percentage point decrease (2018: 55%; 2020: 43%).

From 2018 to 2020, there was a 10-percentage point decrease in the proportion of Health/PE teachers reporting that they were teaching out-of-field (2018: 48%; 2020: 38%), and an 8-percentage point decrease in out-of-field teaching for those teaching Science (2018: 38%; 2020: 30%).

• Arts: Visual arts, Media arts
• TechnologyTechnology: Design and Technologies, Digital Technologies
• >Science: Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Human Biology, Earth and Environmental Science, Psychology
• Performing Arts: Dance, Drama, Music
• Mathematics: Mathematics, General Mathematics, Essential Mathematics, Specialist Mathematics, Mathematical Methods
• LOTE: Languages other than English
• Humanities: Geography, History, Economics and Business, Civics and Citizenship, Accounting, Legal Studies, Modern History, Ancient History, Philosophy, Theory of Knowledge
• Health/PE: Physical Education, Health Education
• English: English, Literature, Essential English, English as an Additional Language or dialect

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

To obtain information about Biology as a science subject, two subjects were combined: ‘Biology’ and ‘Human Biology’. A teacher is classified as in-field if they were in-field for either or both off these subjects. If neither subject was ‘in-field’ but the teacher had ‘some training’ in one of them then they are classified as ‘some training’, otherwise they are classified as ‘no training’. These two categories represent out-of-field teaching.

In 2020, around three in five teachers of each core science subject were in-field (Chemistry: 62%; Biology: 60%; Physics: 59%).

From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of science teachers reporting out-of-field teaching decreased across each of Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

There was a 5-percentage point decrease in the proportion of those teaching Biology and Physics reporting that they were teaching out-of-field (Biology - 2018: 45%, 2020: 40%; Physics - 2018: 46%, 2020: 41%). For those teaching biology, this was not a linear trend, with the proportion of teachers who were out-of-field was notably lower in 2019 (36%) than 2020.

From 2018 to 2020, there was a 7-percentage point decrease in the proportion of those teaching Chemistry reporting that they were teaching out-of-field (2018: 45%; 2020: 38%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Teachers who indicated not having completed professional learning in the year-to-date were recorded as having undertaken zero hours.

The amount of professional learning is year-to-date, and may not reflect the amount of professional learning completed by the end of the year.

In 2020, 26% of the teacher workforce had completed 40 or more hours of professional learning at the time of the ATWD Teacher Survey, 32% between 20 and 39 hours, and 33% had completed fewer than 20 hours.

This does not indicate the amount of professional learning completed by the end of the calendar year.

Overall, the number of hours of professional learning completed annually by the teacher workforce decreased in the period between 2018 and 2020. This trend is reflected in the proportion of the workforce completing fewer than 20 hours of professional learning. There was a 12–percentage-point increase in the proportion of the workforce receiving fewer than 20 hours of professional learning during 2020 (33%) compared to 2019 (20%).

This pattern can be observed across almost all states and territories for which data were available in both 2019 and 2020.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Teachers who indicated not having completed professional learning in the year-to-date were recorded as having undertaken zero hours.

The amount of professional learning is year-to-date, and may not reflect the amount of professional learning completed by the end of the year.

At the time of the ATWD Teacher Survey in 2020, more professional learning had been undertaken by those with more senior and secure positions.

Almost half of senior leaders (46%) had undertaken 40 hours or more of professional learning, and only 15% indicated fewer than 19 hours. Nearly one-third of middle leaders (30%) had undertaken 40 hours or more, and 27% fewer than 19 hours.

One-in-five classroom teachers (21%) had undertaken 40 hours or more of professional learning, and one-in-three indicated fewer than 19 hours (36%). Among CRTs, 17% had undertaken 40 hours or more, but almost half (46%) had completed 19 hours or less.

The typical amount of professional learning undertaken in 2020 was lower than in 2018 for classroom teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders. Among CRTs, however, 26% consistently completed 30 hours or more of professional learning.

For senior leaders, from 2019 to 2020 there was a 16 percentage-point reduction in the proportion who had completed more than 40 hours of professional learning.

Among classroom teachers, there was a steady reduction in the proportion completing more than 40 hours of professional learning from 2018 to 2020 (2018: 36%, 2019: 32%, 2020: 21%). The proportion who had not completed 20 hours of professional learning at the time of the survey also increased by 13 percentage points from 2019 to 2020.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Teachers who indicated not having completed professional learning in the year-to-date were recorded as having undertaken zero hours.

The amount of professional learning is year-to-date, and may not reflect the amount of professional learning completed by the end of the year.

At the time of the ATWD Teacher Survey in 2020, 32% of the regional/remote teacher workforce reported they had undertaken 19 hours or less of professional learning. 27% had spent 20-29 hours, 14% had spent 30-39 hours, and 26% hand spent over 40 hours undertaking professional learning.

From 2018 to 2019, the proportion of teachers in regional or remote areas undertaking 40 or more hours of professional learning remained steady, before decreasing 7 percentage points in 2020 to 26% (2018: 40%; 2019: 39%). Conversely, the proportion of regional/remote teachers not on leave decreased slightly (2018: 23%; 2019: 20%), before increasing to 32% in 2020. This trend was broadly similar in metropolitan areas.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Teachers who indicated not having completed professional learning in the year-to-date were recorded as having undertaken zero hours.

The amount of professional learning is year-to-date and may not reflect the amount of professional learning completed by the end of the year.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time,with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similarpercentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participatingstates and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Some individuals may leave a profession prior to retirement. Understanding the intentions of teachers to stay in the teaching profession until retirement provides important insights into how teachers view the long-term sustainabilityof their own personal teaching career.

Future ATWD reporting will be able to report on attrition in addition to attrition intentions. These future analyses will be able to identify attrition from the workforce while ruling out transitions between states/territoriesand between sectors. It is important to acknowledge that intentions may not equate to behaviour. Not all who intend to leave the profession before retirement will do so, and some who do not intend to leave nevertheless do.However, understanding the proportion of teachers and leaders intending to leave the profession or the number of years they intend to remain will help predict changes in the future size of the teacher workforce.

Teachers who reported that they intended to leave the profession before retirement are asked this question. However, they are re-categorised into the ‘remain until retirement category’ if (1) they indicated that retirementwas a reason for intending to leave or that (2) their age + years intending to remain exceeded retirement age.

For 2018-2020, age came from the linked ATWD data, incorporating age information from both ITE and regulatory authority data sources. These are not available for the preliminary data in 2021-2022. For 2021, no correction basedon age and years intending to remain could be applied. It is expected that the finalised 2021 data will have fewer in the leave before retirement category and more in the stay until retirement category. For 2022, the age informationwas collected in the ATWD Teacher Survey for this purpose. In both cases, small changes may occur with the publication of the linked data.

With the addition of questions in 2022, small changes to the logic used to make these reclassifications occurred. To ensure longitudinal consistency, the data for 2018-2020 has been revised. This update did not cause any largechanges, and did not alter the meaning of any reported trends or comparisons.

Since 2018, the proportion of the teacher workforce intending to leave before retirement has fallen, with a drop of 5 percentage points from 2019 to 2020 (21%). The states/territories participating in these years did change, butsimilar patterns can be seen in each state/territory. SA reported the lowest proportion of teachers intending to leave (17%).

In 2020, almost half (46%) of the teacher workforce indicated that they intended to stay in the profession until retirement while another 33% were unsure about whether they would continue to work until retirement. Uncertainty wasgreatest in VIC in 2020 (48%).

The proportion of the teacher workforce who intended to leave the profession before retirement across all participating states and territories, but who intended to remain in the profession for more than 10 years declined from 2018(21%) to 2019 (18%), and then increased by 6 percentage points (2020: 24%). The NT saw the largest increase (+12 percentage points) in the proportion of those intending to remain for at least another 10 years (2018: 10%; 2020:22%).

The proportion of the teacher workforce intending to remain for less than 10 years across all states and territories in 2020 was 51%. This was lowest in SA (40%) and highest in VIC (54%). SA recorded the largest increase (+3 percentagepoints) in those who intend to remain for just 1 year (2018: 6%; 2020: 10%).

In 2020, SA had the highest proportion of teachers uncertain about the years they intend to remain in the profession (32%). This was higher than the proportion in all participating states and territories (24%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Some individuals may leave a profession prior to retirement. Understanding the intentions of teachers to stay in the teaching profession until retirement provides important insights into how teachers view the long-term sustainability of their own personal teaching career.

Future ATWD reporting will be able to report on attrition in addition to attrition intentions. These future analyses will be able to identify attrition from the workforce while ruling out transitions between states/territories and between sectors. It is important to acknowledge that intentions may not equate to behaviour. Not all who intend to leave the profession before retirement will do so, and some who do not intend to leave nevertheless do. However, understanding the proportion of teachers and leaders intending to leave the profession or the number of years they intend to remain will help predict changes in the future size of the teacher workforce.

Teachers who reported that they intended to leave the profession before retirement are asked this question. However, they are re-categorised into the ‘remain until retirement category’ if (1) they indicated that retirement was a reason for intending to leave or that (2) their age + years intending to remain exceeded retirement age.

For 2018-2020, age came from the linked ATWD data, incorporating age information from both ITE and regulatory authority data sources. These are not available for the preliminary data in 2021-2022. For 2021, no correction based on age and years intending to remain could be applied. It is expected that the finalised 2021 data will have fewer in the leave before retirement category and more in the stay until retirement category. For 2022, the age information was collected in the ATWD Teacher Survey for this purpose. In both cases, small changes may occur with the publication of the linked data.

With the addition of questions in 2022, small changes to the logic used to make these reclassifications occurred. To ensure longitudinal consistency, the data for 2018-2020 has been revised. This update did not cause any large changes, and did not alter the meaning of any reported trends or comparisons.

In 2020, classroom teachers were more likely to indicate that they intended to stay until retirement (44%) than leave before retirement (23%). Another 33% were unsure about whether they would continue to work until retirement.

The proportion of teachers intending to leave before retirement has fallen by five percentage points from 2019 (28%) to 2020 (23%), while the proportion of those intending to stay in the profession has increased by six percentage points (2019: 38%; 2020: 44%).

The proportion of classroom teachers who intended to leave the profession before retirement who planned to continue in the profession for 10 years or more was four percentage points higher in 2020 than in 2018. This trend was not linear, with a three-percentage point decrease from 2018 (20%) to 2019 (17%), followed by an increase of seven percentage points the following year (2020: 24%).

Around one-in-four teachers who intended to leave before retirement were unsure of how long they would continue in the profession, with this being relatively stable over time (2018: 24%; 2020: 25%).

In 2020, the proportion of classroom teachers intending to remain in teaching for less than 10 years was 51%.

In 2020, middle leaders were more likely to continue in the profession until retirement (46%) than leave before retirement (21%), while 33% were unsure of their intentions.

The proportion of middle leaders intending to leave before retirement decreased by four percentage points from 2019 (26%) to 2020 (21%).

In 2020, one-in-four (27%) middle leaders who intended to leave the profession before retirement planned to continue working for at least another 10 years, with more than half (57%) of middle leaders intending to continue working for five or more years.

Between 2019 and 2020, the proportion of middle leaders intending to leave the workforce within 10 years declined by eight percentage points (2019: 60%; 2020: 52%), while those intending to stay more than 10 years saw a comparable increase (2019: 20%; 2020:27%).

In 2020, more than half (56%) of senior leaders intended to remain in the profession until retirement, while 28% were unsure about their intentions.

There has been a steady year-on-year decline in the proportion of senior leaders intending to leave before retirement, with a four-percentage point decrease from 2018 (23%) to 2019 (19%) and another four percentage points in 2020 (15%).

One-in-three (32%) senior leaders intended to continue working in schools for 10 years or more in 2020, while another 26% intended to remain in the profession for five to nine years.

The proportion of senior leaders who intended to continue working in the profession for 10 years was relatively stable from 2018 (25%) to 2019 (23%) but increased by nine percentage points from 2019 to 2020 (32%).

Those intending to stop working within one year decreased by two percentage points from 2019 (10%) to 2020 (8%).

The proportion of casual/relief teachers intending to leave before retirement has fallen eight percentage points from 2018 (25%) to 2020 (18%).

In 2020, half (48%) of CRTs intended to stay in the profession until retirement (+9 percentage points; 2018: 39%; 2020: 48%). Another 33% were unsure about whether they would continue until retirement.

In 2020, the proportion of casual/relief teachers(CRTs)  who intended to leave the profession before retirement and stop working in one year or less decreased five percentage points from 2019 (17%) to 2020 (13%).

CRTs who intended to leave the workforce were not intending to stay in the workforce longer in 2020 than in 2019, but rather had become more uncertain about how long they intended to remain. In 2019, 26% of CRTs were unsure how long they would continue in the profession. This increased eight percentage points to 33%.

In 2020, senior leaders were the most likely to intend to stay until retirement (56%), followed by casual/relief teachers (48%), middle leaders (46%), and classroom teachers (44%).

Among those intending to leave the profession before retirement in 2020, planning to remain for 10 years or more was related to the seniority and stability of position:

• Senior leaders – 32%
• Middle leaders – 27%
• Classroom teachers – 24%
• Casual/relief teachers – 17%

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Some individuals may leave a profession prior to retirement. Understanding the intentions of teachers to stay in the teaching profession until retirement provides important insights into how teachers view the long-term sustainability of their own personal teaching career.

Future ATWD reporting will be able to report on attrition in addition to attrition intentions. These future analyses will be able to identify attrition from the workforce while ruling out transitions between states/territories and between sectors. It is important to acknowledge that intentions may not equate to behaviour. Not all who intend to leave the profession before retirement will do so, and some who do not intend to leave nevertheless do. However, understanding the proportion of teachers and leaders intending to leave the profession or the number of years they intend to remain will help predict changes in the future size of the teacher workforce.

Teachers who reported that they intended to leave the profession before retirement are asked this question. However, they are re-categorised into the ‘remain until retirement category’ if (1) they indicated that retirement was a reason for intending to leave or that (2) their age + years intending to remain exceeded retirement age.

For 2018-2020, age came from the linked ATWD data, incorporating age information from both ITE and regulatory authority data sources. These are not available for the preliminary data in 2021-2022. For 2021, no correction based on age and years intending to remain could be applied. It is expected that the finalised 2021 data will have fewer in the leave before retirement category and more in the stay until retirement category. For 2022, the age information was collected in the ATWD Teacher Survey for this purpose. In both cases, small changes may occur with the publication of the linked data.

From 2018 to 2020, there was a decrease of six percentage points in the proportion of teachers working in regional and remote areas who intended to leave before retirement (2018: 28%; 2020: 22%). This change was comparable to that for teachers working in metropolitan areas (2018: 25%; 2020: 21%). However, as of 2020, teachers in regional and remote areas had more similar intentions to leave as teachers in metropolitan areas than they did in 2018.

On the other hand, there was an increase of 9 percentage points in the proportion of regional teachers who intended to stay in the profession until retirement (2018: 36%; 2020: 45%). This change was slightly larger than for teachers working in metropolitan areas (2018: 40%; 2020: 46%). However, as of 2020, teachers in regional and remote areas had more similar intentions to stay as teachers in metropolitan areas than they did in 2018.

The proportion of teachers in regional and remote areas who intended to remain teaching for 10 years or more increased by two percentage points (2018: 21%; 2020: 23%). This increase was comparable to the three-percentage point increase for teachers in metropolitan areas (2018: 21%, 2020: 24%).

From 2018 to 2020, there was a decrease of three percentage points in the proportion of teachers in regional and remote areas who intended to remain teaching for one year or less (2018: 11%; 2020: 9%). By contrast, there was no change for teachers in metropolitan areas (2018: 9%; 2020: 9%).

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Some individuals may leave a profession prior to retirement. Understanding the intentions of teachers to stay in the teaching profession until retirement provides important insights into how teachers view the long-term sustainability of their own personal teaching career.

Future ATWD reporting will be able to report on attrition in addition to attrition intentions. These future analyses will be able to identify attrition from the workforce while ruling out transitions between states/territories and between sectors. It is important to acknowledge that intentions may not equate to behaviour. Not all who intend to leave the profession before retirement will do so, and some who do not intend to leave nevertheless do. However, understanding the proportion of teachers and leaders intending to leave the profession or the number of years they intend to remain will help predict changes in the future size of the teacher workforce.

Teachers who reported that they intended to leave the profession before retirement are asked this question. However, they are re-categorised into the ‘remain until retirement category’ if (1) they indicated that retirement was a reason for intending to leave or that (2) their age + years intending to remain exceeded retirement age.

For 2018-2020, age came from the linked ATWD data, incorporating age information from both ITE and regulatory authority data sources. These are not available for the preliminary data in 2021-2022. For 2021, no correction based on age and years intending to remain could be applied. It is expected that the finalised 2021 data will have fewer in the leave before retirement category and more in the stay until retirement category. For 2022, the age information was collected in the ATWD Teacher Survey for this purpose. In both cases, small changes may occur with the publication of the linked data.

When examining the data, the counts increase from year to year due to growing numbers of participants who participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand change over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in the percentage of registered teachers with a characteristic could reflect a change in the composition of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect a new state or territory has joined the ATWD with a dramatically different composition. A change in percentage from year-to-year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions have a similar percentage to the continuing jurisdictions. Cross-year trends that are described refers to the participating states and territories in the survey for each of those years.

In 2018, the ATWD Teacher Survey was participated in by NSW, SA and NT. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

With the addition of questions in 2022, small changes to the logic used to make these reclassifications occurred. These changes have been applied to all intentions data charts containing 2021 or 2022 data from the unlinked Teacher Survey. No changes for reasons for leaving exceeded 3 percentage points, and they did not change the summary of the findings.

Across respondents in the teacher workforce who as of 2020 intended to leave the profession, 85% selected workload and coping as a reason for considering leaving. This represents the most frequent category of reason for intending to leave the profession.

The four most common categories of reasons for leaving cited by those intending to leave the profession before retirement were: workload and coping, recognition and reward, classroom factors, and school culture. These categories shared a consistent trend nationally, recording increases from 2018 to 2019 (workload and coping: 86% to 87%; recognition and reward: 67% to 70%; classroom factors: 47% to 54%; school culture: 41% to 45%). This was then followed by similar decreases from 2019 to 2020 (workload and coping: 87% to 85%; recognition and reward: 70% to 64%; classroom factors: 54% to 49%; school culture: 45% to 43%).

Nationally, the proportion intending to leave due to regulatory requirements has steadily declined from 2018 (53%) to 2019 (43%) to 2020 (39%). For states and territories involved in the ATWD in 2018, the largest reduction from 2018 to 2020 was in NT (-15 percentage points). For those states and territories participating from 2019 to 2020, NT again experienced the largest decline from 2019 to 2020 (-13 percentage points).

Though similar to the national trend, teachers in SA intending to leave due to issues relating to classroom factors reported a large increase from 2018 to 2019 (58%, +26 percentage points) which then dropped to below the national average in 2020 (National: 50%; SA: 44%).

In 2020, respondents who intended to leave the profession before retirement due to regulatory requirements were most prevalent in NSW (49%) followed by TAS (46%). In all other states and territories, the range was from 25% to 35%.

Reasons for leaving related to leaving or taking a break from teaching and not being suited to teaching have remained largely stable at around one in three and one in four respectively. Both recorded very small decreases across the three years.

In 2020, NSW data includes a very small number of respondents registered in the ACT who could not be reported alone. This does not change the reporting for NSW, and ensures accurate data for all participating states and territories can be reported. In 2018 and 2019, ACT did not participate, while in 2021 and 2022 ACT is reported separately.

The reason items in each category of reasons to leave are provided below. For a respondent to be represented within a category, they were required to have selected at least one reason from within the category.

The process used to derive the categories of reasons is explained in the Technical Report for the ATWD Teacher Workforce Characteristics Report.

• Workload and coping: The workload is too heavy; I am finding it too stressful/it is impacting my wellbeing or mental health; To achieve a better work/life balance.
• Recognition and reward: Changes imposed on schools from outside (e.g. by government); Insufficient pay; Dissatisfaction with performance appraisal processes; The poor public image of the profession.
• Classroom factors: Insufficient support staff; Class sizes too large; I’m facing challenges with student behaviour management.
• School culture: I am not enjoying working in schools; Unsatisfactory relationships with other staff; Insufficient professional recognition within the school.
• Regulatory requirements: The demands of professional regulation (e.g. professional learning, practice, etc.) are too heavy.
• Not suited to teaching: To seek employment outside of education; I never intended teaching to be a long-term career; I have found that I am not suited to working in schools.
• Break from teaching: To seek employment elsewhere in education; Parental/family reasons.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Some individuals may leave a profession prior to retirement. Understanding whether teaches intend to stay teaching until retirement provides important insights into how teachers view the long-term sustainability of their own personal teaching career.

Future ATWD reporting will be able to report on attrition in addition to attrition intentions. These future analyses will be able to identify attrition from the workforce that excludes transitions between states/territories and between sectors. It is important to acknowledge that intentions may not equate to behaviour. Not all who intend to leave the profession before retirement will do so, and some who do not intend to leave nevertheless do. However, understanding the proportion of teachers and leaders intending to leave the profession or the number of years they intend to remain will help predict changes in the future size of the teacher workforce.

Teachers who reported that they intended to leave the profession before retirement are asked this question. However, they are recategorised into the ‘remain until retirement category’ if (1) they indicated that retirement was a reason for intending to leave or that (2) their age + years intending to remain exceeded retirement age.

For 2018–2020, age came from the linked ATWD data, incorporating age information from both ITE and regulatory authority data sources. These are not available for the preliminary data in 2021-2022. For 2021, no correction based on age and years intending to remain could be applied. It is expected that the finalised 2021 data will have fewer in the leave before retirement category and more in the stay until retirement category. For 2022, the age information was collected in the ATWD Teacher Survey for this purpose. Although some changes may occur with data finalisation, they are expected to be smaller than for 2021.

With the addition of questions in 2022, small changes to the logic used to make these reclassifications occurred. These changes have been applied to all intentions data charts containing 2021 or 2022 data from the unlinked ATWD Teacher Survey. No changes for career intentions exceeded 3 percentage points, and they did not change the summary of the findings.

Between 2018 and 2020, workload and coping was the most frequently selected category of reason by classroom teachers who intended to leave the profession before retirement (2018: 89%; 2020: 87%).

In 2020, almost two-thirds (64%) of classroom teachers cited that one of their reasons for intending to leave the profession was due to a lack of recognition and reward. Although this has remained the second most indicated reason since 2018 (70%), in 2020 it was selected five percentage points less often.

From 2019 to 2020, classroom factors, the third most cited reason by classroom teachers was selected by five percentage points fewer teachers (2019: 60%; 2020: 55%).

The proportion of classroom teachers intending to leave due to the heavy demands of professional regulation has steadily declined from 2018 (55%) to 2020 (41%).

Between 2018 and 2020, workload and coping was the most frequently selected category of reason middle leaders who intended to leave the profession before retirement (2018: 87%; 2020: 87%).

The second most common type of reason selected by middle leaders has consistently been recognition and reward from 2018 (65%) to 2020 (66%). The proportion who selected this reason increased in 2019 (71%) and then decreased by five percentage points in 2020, back to 2018 levels.

From 2019 to 2020, classroom factors, the third most cited reason for intending to leave dropped by five percentage points (2019: 47%; 2020: 42%) and was selected as often as school culture reasons in 2020 (42%).

The proportion of middle leaders intending to leave due to the demands of professional regulation has steadily declined from 2018 (49%) to 2020 (35%).

Between 2018 and 2020, workload and coping was the most frequently selected category of reason senior leaders who intended to leave the profession before retirement (2018: 88%; 2020: 86%).

In 2020, almost two-thirds (63%) of senior leaders intended to leave due to a lack of recognition and reward. Although this remained the second most indicated reason from 2018 to 2020, it has reduced in frequency since 2018 (69%) and 2019 (69%).

Between 2018 and 2020, the proportion of senior leaders planning to leave due to the demands of professional regulation has steadily declined (2018: 45%; 2020: 36%). This was the third most cited category of reasons by senior leaders in 2020, while all other roles indicated classroom factors instead.

From 2019 to 2020, the proportion of senior leaders who cited classroom factors as a reason for intending to leave decreased by seven percentage points (2019: 39%; 2020: 32%), going from the third most selected reason in 2019 to the fifth in 2020. This decrease coincides with a reduction in senior leaders who have teaching responsibilities from 69% in 2019 to 46% in 2020.

Between 2018 and 2020, workload and coping was the most frequently selected category of reason by casual/relief teachers who intended to leave the profession before retirement (2018: 76%; 2020: 69%). Despite being the top reason for CRTs intending to leave the profession, it was selected less frequently than by those in other roles in 2020 (middle leaders and classroom teachers: 87%; senior leaders: 86%).

In 2020, half (49%) of CRTs indicated that one factor underpinning their intention to leave was a lack of recognition and reward. Although this remained the second most indicated reason for intending to leave, the frequency with which it was selected had fallen since 2019 (60%).

From 2019 to 2020, classroom factors, the third most selected type of reason by CRTs was selected nine percentage points less often (2019: 57%; 2020: 46%).

The proportion of CRTs intending to leave due to the demands of professional regulation has steadily decreased from 2018 (50%) to 2020 (35%).

The reason items in each category of reasons to leave are provided below. For a respondent to be represented within a category, they were required to have selected at least one reason from within the category.

The process used to derive the categories of reasons is explained in the Technical Report for the ATWD Teacher Workforce Characteristics Report.

• Workload and coping: The workload is too heavy; I am finding it too stressful/it is impacting my wellbeing or mental health; To achieve a better work/life balance.
• Recognition and reward: Changes imposed on schools from outside (e.g. by government); Insufficient pay; Dissatisfaction with performance appraisal processes; The poor public image of the profession.
• Classroom factors: Insufficient support staff; Class sizes too large; I’m facing challenges with student behaviour management.
• School culture: I am not enjoying working in schools; Unsatisfactory relationships with other staff; Insufficient professional recognition within the school.
• Regulatory requirements: The demands of professional regulation (e.g. professional learning, practice, etc.) are too heavy.
• Not suited to teaching: To seek employment outside of education; I never intended teaching to be a long-term career; I have found that I am not suited to working in schools.
• Break from teaching: To seek employment elsewhere in education; Parental/family reasons.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Some individuals may leave a profession prior to retirement. Understanding whether teaches intend to stay teaching until retirement provides important insights into how teachers view the long-term sustainability of their own personal teaching career.

Future ATWD reporting will be able to report on attrition in addition to attrition intentions. These future analyses will be able to identify attrition from the workforce that excludes transitions between states/territories and between sectors. It is important to acknowledge that intentions may not equate to behaviour. Not all who intend to leave the profession before retirement will do so, and some who do not intend to leave nevertheless do. However, understanding the proportion of teachers and leaders intending to leave the profession or the number of years they intend to remain will help predict changes in the future size of the teacher workforce.

Teachers who reported that they intended to leave the profession before retirement are asked this question. However, they are recategorised into the ‘remain until retirement category’ if (1) they indicated that retirement was a reason for intending to leave or that (2) their age + years intending to remain exceeded retirement age.

For 2018–2020, age came from the linked ATWD data, incorporating age information from both ITE and regulatory authority data sources. These are not available for the preliminary data in 2021-2022. For 2021, no correction based on age and years intending to remain could be applied. It is expected that the finalised 2021 data will have fewer in the leave before retirement category and more in the stay until retirement category. For 2022, the age information was collected in the ATWD Teacher Survey for this purpose. Although some changes may occur with data finalisation, they are expected to be smaller than for 2021.

With the addition of questions in 2022, small changes to the logic used to make these reclassifications occurred. These changes have been applied to all intentions data charts containing 2021 or 2022 data from the unlinked ATWD Teacher Survey. No changes for career intentions exceeded 2 percentage points, and they did not change the summary of the findings.

The reason items in each category of reasons to leave are provided below. For a respondent to be represented within a category, they were required to have selected at least one reason from within the category.

The process used to derive the categories of reasons is explained in the Technical Report for the ATWD Teacher Workforce Characteristics Report.

• Workload and coping: The workload is too heavy; I am finding it too stressful/it is impacting my wellbeing or mental health; To achieve a better work/life balance.
• Recognition and reward: Changes imposed on schools from outside (e.g. by government); Insufficient pay; Dissatisfaction with performance appraisal processes; The poor public image of the profession.
• Classroom factors: Insufficient support staff; Class sizes too large; I’m facing challenges with student behaviour management.
• School culture: I am not enjoying working in schools; Unsatisfactory relationships with other staff; Insufficient professional recognition within the school.
• Regulatory requirements: The demands of professional regulation (e.g. professional learning, practice, etc.) are too heavy.
• Not suited to teaching: To seek employment outside of education; I never intended teaching to be a long-term career; I have found that I am not suited to working in schools.
• Break from teaching: To seek employment elsewhere in education; Parental/family reasons.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, withcounts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similarpercentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating statesand territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

In 2022, for the first time, registered teachers were asked ‘what are the reasons you choose to stay or might choose to stay in the profession’.

Teachers were presented with a list of reasons for staying in the profession as well as open text boxes to provide additional reasons. This analysis presents data on the list of presented reasons.

The reasons presented were:

The reasons presented were:

• School culture / environment
• My skills are not transferable
• I enjoy face-to-face teaching
• Teaching is a personally rewarding profession
• I am well paid relative to my skills and experience

Teachers who indicated that they intended to leave the profession before retirement are not asked this question. Neither are those who were reclassified into the ‘remain until retirement category’ on the basis that (1)they then indicated retirement was a reason for intending to leave or that (2) their age + years intending to remain exceeded retirement age.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, withcounts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similarpercentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating statesand territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

In 2022, for the first time, registered teachers were asked ‘what are the reasons you choose to stay or might choose to stay in the profession’.

Teachers were presented with a list of reasons for staying in the profession as well as open text boxes to provide additional reasons. This analysis presents data on the list of presented reasons.

The reasons presented were:

• School culture / environment
• My skills are not transferable
• I enjoy face-to-face teaching
• Teaching is a personally rewarding profession
• I am well paid relative to my skills and experience

Teachers who indicated that they intended to leave the profession before retirement are not asked this question. Neither are those who were reclassified into the ‘remain until retirement category’ on the basis that (1)they then indicated retirement was a reason for intending to leave or that (2) their age + years intending to remain exceeded retirement age.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

The data in this tile was first collected in the 2022 ATWD Teacher Survey.

Teachers reported the year they last worked as a teacher or leader, and could indicate if they were still working as a teacher or school leader. This ensures that individuals who may be temporarily between positions are not included.

For years since leaving the profession, two groupings were identified, those who most recently worked within the last two years, and those who had not (including where the exact duration could not be determined). Data for the ACT is not included in the preliminary data for 'all participating’ states and territories.

For intentions to return to the profession, data for the ACT, NT and TAS are not reported in this preliminary data due to small cell sizes.

In 2018, NSW, SA and NT participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. In 2019, VIC and QLD joined the ATWD Teacher Survey and in 2020, all remaining states and territories joined (WA, TAS and ACT), providing national coverage.

When examining the data, year-to-year total counts increase due to the growing number of participants responding to the ATWD Teacher Survey. The percentage should be used to understand changes in relative proportions over time, with counts only being compared within the same year.

When comparing data across years, a change in a reported percentage could reflect a change in the composition and experiences of the national workforce. However, it might also reflect the fact that:

1. A new state or territory with a different workforce composition joined the ATWD Teacher Survey in a certain year.
2. A state had a very high response rate relative to the other states and territories. This occurred in SA in 2018 and QLD in 2022 and resulted in a large portion of the sample coming from these states.

A change in percentage from year to year is more likely to reflect a change in the national trend when it is present in more jurisdictions, and when the newly joined jurisdictions and those with higher response rates have a similar percentage to the jurisdictions that have previously participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey. National trends that are reported based on data collected over a period of time (i.e. longitudinal data) refer to the participating states and territories in the ATWD Teacher Survey for each of those years.

With the release of linked data for 2018-2022 in the future, response rate differences across states and territories will be able to be taken into account.

Registered teachers who participated in the ATWD Teacher Survey provided information about where they are deployed. Those not deployed in a school or early childhood setting (the teacher workforce) were then asked what year they stopped ‘working in schools and / or early childhood setting as a teacher / leader?’. Those who confirmed that they had stopped working in the teacher workforce were then asked how likely they were to return to the workforce. Respondents could choose between “I am actively looking to return to teaching”, “I would consider returning to teaching”, and “I would not consider returning to teaching”.

All respondents not deployed in a school or early childhood setting were then asked what would need to change for them to return to teaching from the following factors:

• More teaching jobs in my subject area
• More jobs in the area I want to live
• A higher salary
• A reduction in workload
• More pathways to leadership

Multiple options could be selected.

In addition, registered teachers could select “nothing would need to change”. If they selected this option then no other options could be selected.