Influences of employment classification upon the lived experiences of beginning career change teachers within New South Wales Department of Education high schools

Over the past two decades, international and Australian research has investigated the high numbers of beginning teachers resigning from the teaching profession. Beginning teacher resignations have financial impacts upon education departments, high schools and individuals, while also impacting students’ learning and causing teacher shortages. Within New South Wales (NSW), Australia this issue is becoming more critical against the backdrop of an ageing teaching workforce and forecast increases in student numbers. One of the strategies utilised by the New South Wales Department of Education (NSW DoE) to improve the size and quality of the teacher workforce is the increased recruitment of career changers, as they bring with them a range of skills and experiences that can be utilised within the school and classroom environments. Complicating their entry into the Australian teaching profession is a changing employment context in which beginning teachers can increasingly only secure temporary positions. The aim of this study was to explore, describe and interpret the lived experiences of beginning career change teachers (BCCTs) in NSW DoE high schools with a focus on gaining an understanding of how policy frameworks and school-based practices contribute to the provision of professional development and support (PD&S) for BCCTs and to their retention. Drawing upon Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model, this study viewed BCCTs as being at the centre of a complex, multi-layered ecosystem. It examined the impacts of NSW DoE policy frameworks within the exosystem and differing school-based practices (microsystem) upon individual BCCTs’ transition into teaching and upon their decision to remain in or leave the teaching profession. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach was used, wherein both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) data were collected, analysed separately and then merged. The overarching finding of this study is that employment in temporary or permanent positions significantly influences BCCTs’ access to PD&S opportunities within the NSW DoE exosystem and within individual high schools (microsystems). This research found a lack of knowledge in and communication between the NSW DoE where policy is developed, high schools where policy is implemented into school-based practices, and individual BCCTs. Additional findings identified that there are differences between the PD&S that BCCTs and BFCTs can access and in their sense of efficacy; however, these were not statistically significant results. The research found that BCCTs face a number of impediments to participation in PD&S opportunities, including workload pressures and family commitments. Nevertheless, the majority of the BCCTs indicated that the reasons they retrained as a teacher were still valid and that they would remain within the teaching profession irrespective of the lack of permanent employment and the continual challenges