Flexible work arrangements for teachers – from split shifts and job-sharing to hybrid and online delivery – are the key to easing teacher burnout and improving outcomes for students, according to CQUniversity’s education expert Professor Ken Purnell, and could also go a long way to addressing our critical shortages in the profession at present, he says.

“Our education system was built around industrial-age routines, not human ones,” Purnell explains.

“It’s time to reimagine schooling so that it works with people’s rhythms – not against them.”

“… we spend an awful lot of time trying to attract teachers and then fail dismally over time, we're seeing the evidence that we don't retain them as well as we should, so why are they walking?” 

Purnell undertook some research of his own for the Queensland Education Department several years ago, and what emerged were many and varied reasons.

“… we can look at bullying or we can look at behavioural issues and all those sorts of things which are absolutely true, but that flexibility for teachers really matters,” he tells EducationHQ.

“There really is a lack of flexibility on the employment side to accommodate the actual needs of their staff.”

“Job-sharing and reduced administrative loads allow skilled teachers to stay in the profession during different life stages,” Professor Ken Purnell says. “It’s not about doing less – it’s about working smarter and sustaining great teaching.”

The academic says a strong body of evidence, from both here and overseas, already shows flexibility really matters and that with it, teacher wellbeing improves dramatically, staff feel more valued, which in turn assists with their ability to do their job.

The big problem is school leaders are not taking heed, he suggests. 

“Cultural inertia, outdated policies and fears about equity are holding schools back,” he says.

“But we’ve seen through the pandemic and numerous trials that flexibility, when designed well, strengthens education – it doesn’t weaken it.”

“We know from both research and practice that flexibility benefits everyone. Teachers gain better work-life balance, students perform more effectively, and schools operate more efficiently,” he says.

The evidence is clear, he adds, what’s missing is widespread adoption.

“There’s a lack of inertia, if you like, and the leadership that we need, it's not necessarily a lack of evidence, it's a bit of a lack of courage to make flexibility more standard practice rather than the exception,” he says.

Purnell says while policy in some jurisdictions is quite decent, leadership teams in schools particularly need to seize the initiative and ask ‘well, what can we do?’

“It also needs to be led by teachers requesting this and saying ‘hey, we'd like to try a split shift please’, ‘we'd like to do this with administration type of jobs’, ‘we'd like to’ – whatever it is – and listen carefully.”

Split shifts have been trialled with great success in Queensland and other states, where large schools have undertaken starting earlier (say 7-9am) and later (10-12pm), for their arrangements.

“And that frees up resources for the school, including those expert science teachers and people who are involved in kitchens, or industrial technology and so on,” Purnell explains.

“We don't want to overburden with extra work, but freeing up of resources is critical.

“For the teachers the key thing is that the better they feel, the better they are able to help their students achieve and improve the mental wellbeing of themselves and their students.”

Staggered-start trials in Sydney have demonstrated reduced road congestion, improved teacher wellbeing, and smoother family routines, while at Mountain Creek State High School on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast a flexible split-shift timetable being trialled has been a huge success.

“They undertook significant consultation with their community – carers, parents, students and teachers and so, and the results were ‘we're going to give this a go’ – and they've never looked back. They've found that the advantages to them exceed the initial angst of having to say 'we want to try something new'.”

In days gone by there's been policies that have made job sharing very difficult to do, the expert says. 

Naturally, teachers retiring early is a major problem, and losing this ‘most valuable resource’ because they find that school life doesn't quite suit them anymore, is a travesty according to Purnell.

“Job-sharing and reduced administrative loads allow skilled teachers to stay in the profession during different life stages,” Purnell says.

It’s not about doing less – it’s about working smarter and sustaining great teaching, he shares.

“I know some folks here, for example, want to go into a semi-retirement phase when they're 50, or whatever it might be, and really as a school principal if I was one these days, I'd be saying 'let's help you do that', but often it's 'oh no there's a door, we don't need you, we'll replace you with somebody else'.

“It's very short-sighted, and that lack of investment particularly in our ageing demographic – we've got a bulk of people in their mid-late 20s and then a bulk of people in their 50s in the workforce, there's that sort of dual end and we need to cater for both and flexibility is going to help an awful lot for everybody.”

We already know what works, Purnell says.

“What’s needed now is the courage and leadership to make flexibility a standard feature of Australian schooling.”