Involving some 55 countries and economies, findings from the latest OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) – which are tabled every seven years – have captured the experiences and perspectives of teachers and school leaders from across the world, offering comparable data that reveals the state of their working lives, wellbeing and professional practices. 

Australia’s report, prepared by ACER, shows more than one third of our lower secondary and primary teachers report experiencing ‘a lot of stress’ in their jobs, and at more acute levels than those flagged in 2018. 

Around one in seven Australian teachers reported that their job had a substantial negative impact on their mental health, while one in ten reported a similar effect on their physical health. 

Crucially, teachers under 30 had higher stress levels than those aged over 50. 

Australia is something of an outlier when it comes to teacher stress, lead report author Dr Tim Friedman says. 

“There’s no shying away from it. We do stand out in that regard there,” he tells EducationHQ. 

“It’s probably [more] worldwide the trend that it’s the younger teachers, the less experienced teachers that are generally more stressed.”

Key sources of stress for secondary teachers included:

  • having too much admin work (69 per cent compared to the 52 per cent OECD average); 
  • too much marking (50 per cent compared to the 40 per cent OECD average); 
  • keeping up with curriculum and program changes (46 per cent compared to the 34 per cent OECD average); and 
  • managing classroom discipline (43 per cent compared to the 45 per cent OECD average). 

“We know things like higher administrative workload came up. We know managing classroom and classroom discipline came up. Curriculum changes, the increasing classroom diversity.

“But we also know that there was a positive relationship between self-efficacy or teacher confidence – it’s a positive relationship between that and reduced stress,” Friedman says. 

Greater diversity in Aussie classrooms

Australian classrooms were also found to be more diverse, with greater proportions of students with special needs, refugees, immigrants, those from a disadvantaged and/or a non-English speaking background. 

Educators reported huge increases in the proportion of students with special needs in their school since 2018, mirroring international trends. 

Despite these challenges, there are some good news stories to come from the data, Friedman says. 

Firstly, Australian teachers expressed high levels of job satisfaction, even though there was a clear drop here since the previous testing cycle. 

Almost three quarters of teachers said the advantages of teaching outweigh the disadvantages, and 71 per cent would pursue a career in schools again.

Australian teachers also scored highly in the collegiality stakes, with around 9 in 10 reporting they could rely on each other at their school. 

“It’s really strong,” Friedman says of the finding.

It mirrors that other data that we’re seeing about [Australian teachers having] a positive workplace environment. 

“We know as well that it has implications for student outcomes, because we know that they’re collaborating on learning development and things like that.

“I see that as a real positive, because those numbers are quite huge.”

Teachers also mostly expressed positive views towards their principals, with the majority reporting they encouraged all staff to have a say in important decisions, provided useful feedback, or monitored staff performance effectively.

An outlier in AI use

Australian teachers are among the top few countries with the highest reported levels of AI use.

Approximately two-thirds of secondary teachers said they used AI in their work in the previous year, and just under half of primary teachers said they’d used it within the same period. 

This was despite mixed views about the benefits and challenges of using AI in education, with widespread concerns that AI could make inappropriate or inaccurate recommendations. 

Teachers also noted the potential for it to enable students to misrepresent work as their own. 

“And then there’s really interesting insights about the reasons for those who aren’t using it,” Friedman says. 

“And they’re not using it because they don’t have the knowledge or skills. 

“You’ve got a certain block that believes that it shouldn’t be [used in education] – 42 per cent of those that said they don’t use it believe it shouldn’t be used in teaching at all.”

EducationHQ will cover this aspect of the TALIS report in more detail shortly. 

A look at the shortages 

Over two in five secondary teachers and over one-third of primary teachers were in schools where the principals believed that a shortage of teachers hindered quality instruction.

The AEU have highlighted that Australia ranks among the worst-performing countries for teacher shortages, particularly in public schools, which 'posing serious risks to equity and quality education delivery'.

The union's Federal President Correna Haythorpe says the TALIS findings on this front are a stark warning. 

“This report confirms what teachers have been saying for years, that Australia’s teacher shortage is real, it’s getting worse, and it’s impacting on teaching and learning,” Haythorpe said.

“Australia is now among the top three OECD countries for teacher shortages in public schools. That is unacceptable for a wealthy, developed nation.

“We urgently need national action to fix the teacher pipeline, from recruitment into initial teacher education to retaining experienced teachers in classrooms.”

The TALIS data holds many more insights on the teaching profession, Friedman suggests. 

“The data is just so rich, [our] national report could only scratch the surface in there.

“Within the OECD report, the appendices comprise just thousands of tables.

“So I would hope that more gets done with the data, because it was a lot of effort by our teachers to participate…”