Released this week, AITSL’s Australian Teacher Workforce Data Initiative’s National Trends: Teacher Workforce study offers a critical insight into “the story of teaching” across the country.

Involving 50,556 educators in 2023, the research canvasses key workforce trends from 2019 to 2023, shedding light on shifting demographics and roles, employment conditions and career plans – key factors impacting the nation’s teachers and school leaders at scale.

On the leadership front, senior leaders in schools are increasingly more experienced, the study found, with some 63 per cent now having been in the system for 10-29 years, up from 2019, when 57 per cent of senior leaders had the same experience.

There was also a ‘slight trend’ towards teachers sliding into senior leader roles earlier in their career.

While in 2019 and 2020, 32-34 per cent of senior leaders had at least 30 years under their belt, this had dropped to 28 per cent in 2023.

Generally older than the overall teaching workforce, in 2023 more than half of middle leaders were aged between 30 and 50, while the majority (64 per cent) of senior leaders were aged between 40 and 60.

Looking at gender, the study found men are proportionally over-represented in leadership roles, making up 22 per cent of the teaching workforce but 30 per cent of school leaders.

Working week breakdown 

The weekly working hours for leaders was higher than the standard full-time load of 38 hours.

Half of all middle leaders reported working between 41 and 55 hours per week, while half of senior leaders clocked up between 45 and 58 hours per week across the year.

Sandwiched between the directives of senior leadership and the dynamics of teaching staff, relatively little has been documented about the actual day-to-day practices of middle leaders and the unique tensions they face in their multi-faceted role.

This year, research led by Griffith University’s Professor Peter Grootenboer, teased out the messy and ‘on the fly’ nature of middle leadership in schools.

Shadowing middle leaders for five days proved an especially eye-opening method of data collection, Grootenboer said.

“We saw one middle leader, in the space of three hours, she had 150 transactional shifts that she had to do. Between working with parents, working with senior managers, working with students, working with other teachers.

“And so they were constantly just changing (tack) and trying to respond to things that were happening in the moment.”

Much of this leadership was done informally, the researcher noted, with middle leaders grappling with an influx of decisions that needed to be made on the spot.

This core work was largely absent from AITSL’s new Professional Standards for Middle Leaders, the report argued.

The workforce survey reflected the dynamic work of middle leaders in schools. It found that in both primary and secondary schools, this cohort spent between 9 and 13 hours per week interacting with students, performing administrative tasks and attending meetings, as well as taking on more general teaching responsibilities.

Meanwhile, senior leaders spent 17 to 20 hours on administrative tasks and meetings, and between 9 and 12 hours interacting with students and undertaking instructional leadership tasks and meetings.

Both middle and senior leaders also spent a significant amount of time interacting with parents, and on professional learning for staff.

One middle leader from a Victorian school told EducationHQ she was handed a promotion to be the head of a learning department very early on in her career, with the prevailing attitude being one of “sink or swim”.

“I felt that I was thrust into a position that obviously I wasn’t fully prepared for. I hadn't been skilled up to lead a team or in any of the processes.

“It was just, ‘you're in it now, you’ve got to sink or swim’.

“It was not until really my second year in the role that they gave me a chance to do a leadership course, and to actually learn about how to lead.”

The educator said middle leadership often felt a precarious space to inhabit, with her role up for grabs every year.

“Leadership positions are very fluid, because you may interview from year to year, or people may leave because there's such a turnover of staff.

“Your position never feels stable.”

Career plans unveiled

Middle leaders were more likely to have plans to stay for the long haul in the teaching profession (26 per cent) compared to classroom teachers (22 per cent).

Meanwhile, one third of senior leaders said they would stick around until retirement.

“[This] may be due to their increased job security and remuneration compared to middle leaders and teachers.

“Additionally, the slightly older age of senior leaders may play a factor in their intentions to stay until retirement,” the study noted.

Recent research has found vulnerable principals are grappling with the emotional toll of dealing with ‘engaged’ yet problematic parents, facing lawsuits, ethical dilemmas and escalating demands that undermine school policy.

‘Death by a thousand cuts’ is how school leaders describe the situation, the study found.

“[Participants] found themselves in situations where they had to decide between making exceptions for individual students, often at the insistence of vocal parents, or maintaining policies that ensured fairness across the school community,” lead researcher Carolyn Wade from Griffith University explained.