Longitudinal Teacher Education and Workforce Study (ltews) Final Report

3.1.2 Characteristics of the schools in which graduate teacher respondents were employed

Table 13 below shows the number and percentage of graduate respondents who were teaching at the time of the three LTEWS Graduate Teacher Surveys. The proportion of those with a teaching position in schools grew from 74 per cent in Round 1 to 83.9 per cent in Round 3.

Table 13. Graduate teachers with a teaching position

	Round 1		Round 2		Round 3
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Teaching	980	74.0	2,217	84.7	1,830	83.9
Not teaching	344	26.0	401	15.3	350	16.1
TOTAL	1,324	100.0	2,618	100.0	2,180	100.0

 

The following tables show information on the schools in which these graduate teachers were employed. Table 14 shows the jurisdiction in which the graduate teachers were employed as teachers.

Table 14. Schools employing graduates – by state/territory

	Round 1		Round 2		Round 3
	n	%	n	%	n	%
NSW	239	24.4	407	18.4	333	18.2
VIC	282	28.8	862	38.9	629	34.4
QLD	221	22.6	456	20.6	396	21.6
SA	39	4.0	72	3.2	76	4.2
WA	105	10.7	163	7.4	89	4.9
TAS	15	1.5	29	1.3	33	1.8
NT	22	2.2	69	3.1	151	8.3
ACT	9	0.9	107	4.8	79	4.3
In a school outside Australia	17	1.7	40	1.8	44	2.4
Not stated	31	3.2	12	0.5	1	0.1
TOTAL	980	100.0	2,217	100.0	1,831	100.0

Note: Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for percentage of schools across Australia by state/territory for 2011 are as follows: NSW 32.8 per cent; VIC 23.7 per cent; QLD 18.1 per cent; SA 8.0 per cent; WA 11.4 per cent; TAS 2.7 per cent; NT 2.0 per cent; ACT 1.4 per cent (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011b).

The largest percentage of employed graduate teachers in each of the three surveys is from Victoria (Round 1, 28.8 per cent; Round 2, 38.9 per cent; Round 3, 34.4. per cent). As noted earlier, the graduate teachers from this jurisdiction and from Queensland are part of the Australia Research Council funded SETE study. The SETE study was able to gather more responses to the survey, perhaps due to greater promotion of the project as a result of close links with the jurisdictional bodies who were partners in the project.

Table 15 shows the school sector in which graduate teachers are employed.

Table 15. Schools employing graduates – by school sector

	Round 1		Round 2		Round 3
	N	%	n	%	n	%
Government	683	71.4	1,503	68.0	1,247	68.2
Catholic	120	12.6	300	13.6	212	11.6
Independent	140	14.6	304	13.8	276	15.1
Other	13	1.4	102	4.6	94	5.1
TOTAL	956	100	2,209	100.0	1,829	100.0

The largest sector of employment for graduate teachers is the government sector, with 71.4 per cent of respondents in Round 1, and 68 per cent in Rounds 2 and 3.

Table 16 shows the type of schools in which graduate teacher respondents were employed. Schools are categorised as early childhood (which includes kindergartens), primary, secondary, and combined primary and secondary.

Table 16. Schools employing graduates – by school type

	Round 1		Round 2		Round 3
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Early Childhood	59	6.2	94	4.3	75	4.2
Primary	436	45.7	997	45.6	780	43.5
Secondary	459	48.1	833	38.1	678	37.8
Combined	n/a	-	264	12.1	260	14.5
TOTAL	954	100.0	2,188	100	1,793	100

Note: Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for percentage of schools types across Australia are as follows: primary 67.1 per cent; secondary 14.9 per cent; combined 13.6 per cent; special schools 4.4 per cent (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011b).

The proportions of school types in the LTEWS survey results show an over-representation of secondary schools compared to their proportion of the total number of schools in Australia – 37.8 per cent of respondents’ schools are secondary in Round 3 compared to 15 per cent of all schools across Australia. Primary schools are under-represented in the survey results compared to their proportion of total schools – 43.5 per cent in the Round 3 survey compared to 70 per cent of all Australian schools (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011b).

Table 17 shows the geographic location of schools where graduate respondents were employed during the three rounds of the LTEWS survey, as well as whether or not the school was a 'focus school' in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan 2010-2014. Geographic location is categorised according to the Australia Bureau of Statistics Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) in five categories for areas within Australia: major cities, inner regional, outer regional, remote and very remote (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011a).

Table 17. Schools employing graduates – by geographic location (ARIA) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focus schools as defined in the 2010–2014 Education Action Plan

	Round 1		Round 2		Round 3
	n	%	n	%	N	%
Geographic location (ARIA)
Major city	516	59.4	1120	61.2	935	60.1
Inner regional	189	21.7	417	22.8	310	19.9
Outer regional	123	14.2	199	10.9	207	13.3
Remote	26	3.0	48	2.6	47	3.0
Very remote	15	1.7	45	2.5	56	3.6
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Focus school
Yes	109	12.5	214	11.7	204	13.1
No	760	87.5	1615	88.3	1351	86.9
TOTAL	869	100	1,829	100	1,555	100

Across the three Graduate Teacher Survey rounds, the proportion of graduate respondents employed in schools located in major cities remained fairly constant (approximately 60 per cent), as did those in inner regional areas (between 20 to 23 per cent). The biggest change was the increase of graduate respondents in schools in very remote areas (which grew from 1.7 per cent in Round 1 to 3.6 per cent in Round 3). This can be accounted for by the increase in the number of responses from graduates located in the Northern Territory in Round 3.

Staff in Australia's Schools 2010 data for graduate teachers (McKenzie et al., 2011) does not show geographic location of schools by Australia Bureau of Statistics ARIA classification. It has three categories: metropolitan, provincial and remote. The percentages of LTEWS graduates in these three categories are as follows:

• 
  Metropolitan – 72.6 per cent
  
• 
  Provincial – 24.4 per cent
  
• 
  Remote – 3.0 per cent
  

In comparison to this SiAS 2010 data, there are more employed graduates in the LTEWS data who are venturing further away from highly populated areas.

Graduate teacher respondents in schools with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander focus were between 12 and 13 per cent of all respondents in each of the three LTEWS surveys. The Australian Government Department of Education (formerly Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations-DEEWR) does not have publicly available data on the proportion of Australian schools that have an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focus, and so it is not possible to report here whether the LTEWS figures are in proportion.

Table 18 shows the level of teaching for employed graduate teachers, according to age groups across Rounds 2 and 3 (October 2012 and March 2013). Across the two rounds, the largest percentage of graduates were teaching at the primary level, irrespective of age. The age groups with the highest percentage who were teaching at the early childhood level were the 40–44 and 45–49 year-old group. The age group with the highest percentage employed at the secondary level is the 25–29 year-old group (40 per cent in Round 2, and 41 per cent in Round 3). The age group with the highest percentage employed at the primary level is the 40–44 year-old group in both rounds (50 per cent in Round 2 and 49 per cent in Round 3).

Table 18. Graduate teachers with a teaching position – by level of teaching percentages in each age group

	20-24	25-29	30-34	35-39	40-44	45-49	50+	Total
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	N
Round 2
EC	3.0	3.9	2.4	4.8	8.1	8.2	5.9	4.3	94
Primary	46.3	42.9	48.6	45.5	50.7	46.9	41.6	45.8	995
Secondary	39.0	40.2	37.5	37.4	32.1	33.3	38.6	38.0	825
Comb K-12	11.6	13.1	11.5	12.3	9.1	11.6	13.9	11.9	259
TOTAL									2,173
Round 3
EC	2.0	4.7	4.0	3.0	6.6	7.4	4.4	4.2	75
Primary	47.5	39.7	41.0	41.5	48.9	45.9	45.1	43.5	777
Secondary	37.3	41.1	35.2	37.2	35.2	31.9	39.6	37.7	674
Comb K-12	13.2	14.5	19.8	18.3	9.3	14.8	11.0	14.6	260
TOTAL									1,786

The percentages show that for every age group, a similar proportion of graduate teacher respondents was teaching in primary and secondary, but those teaching early childhood are a little older. One explanation of this could be that this group of people are already early childhood practitioners with sub-bachelor qualifications and are updating their qualifications to a bachelor’s level in line with national reforms aiming for higher qualification requirements for early childhood professionals.

Table 19 below shows the teaching level for graduates with a teaching position by the proportion of age groups in each, across Rounds 2 and 3.

Table 19. Graduate teachers with a teaching position – by age percentages in each level of teaching

	Early Childhood	Primary	Secondary	Combined K-12	Total
	%	%	%	%	%	n
Round 2
20-24	21.3	30.6	31.0	29.3	30.2	656
25-29	25.5	26.7	30.2	31.3	28.5	620
30-34	6.4	12.4	11.5	11.2	11.6	253
35-39	9.6	8.5	8.5	8.9	8.6	187
40-44	18.1	10.7	8.1	7.3	9.6	209
45-49	12.8	6.9	5.9	6.6	6.8	147
50+	6.4	4.2	4.7	5.4	4.6	101
TOTAL						2,173
Round 3
20-24	10.7	25.0	22.6	20.8	22.8	408
25-29	36.0	29.6	35.3	32.3	32.4	579
30-34	12.0	12.0	11.9	17.3	12.7	227
35-39	6.7	8.8	9.1	11.5	9.2	164
40-44	16.0	11.5	9.5	6.5	10.2	182
45-49	13.3	8.0	6.4	7.7	7.6	135
50+	5.3	5.3	5.3	3.8	5.1	91
TOTAL						1,786

At the early childhood level, the largest proportion of graduate teachers was aged under 30 (47 per cent in Rounds 2 and 3), although this level, along with primary, also has a high proportion of graduate teachers in older age groups (both have 19 per cent of new graduate teaching employment in the 40–49 year-old bracket). At the primary, secondary and combined levels, the majority of graduate teaching employment is in the under-30 age group. This is similar to results from the SiAS 2010 report (McKenzie et al., 2011), although SiAS results showed a higher proportion of employment for graduates under 30 than did LTEWS (SiAS: 69 per cent for primary; LTEWS: 57 and 55 per cent over the two rounds. SiAS: 63 per cent for secondary; LTEWS: 61 and 56 per cent over the two rounds).

The LTEWS project had more graduate teachers aged over 40 at the primary level than did SiAS. For LTEWS, this was 22 and 25 per cent over the two rounds, and for SiAS it was 13 per cent. LTEWS and SiAS showed a similar proportion aged over 40 at the secondary level. For LTEWS, this was 19 and 21 per cent over the two rounds, and for SiAS it was 17 per cent. For LTEWS, at all three levels, there is a higher proportion aged 25–29 than there is 20–24: 30 per cent of graduates employed at the primary level are aged 25–29 compared to 25 per cent aged 20–24; and, 35 per cent of graduates employed at the secondary level are aged 25–29 compared to 23 per cent aged 20–24.

Table 20 below shows the distribution of employment for the 2011 graduate teachers by school type. Teachers were asked if their school was primary, secondary or combined, or if they were employed in an early childhood setting in Rounds 2 and 3 (October 2012 and March 2013 respectively).

Table 20. Graduate teachers with a teaching position – by school type

	Round 2		Round 3
	n	%	n	%
Early Childhood	86	3.9	75	4.2
Primary	992	45.2	780	43.5
Secondary	818	37.3	678	37.8
Combined K-12	298	13.6	260	14.5
TOTAL	2,194	100.0	1,793	100.0

Graduate teacher respondents show similar proportions of employment across the four school types for both rounds. Just over a third of graduates were employed in a secondary school, and approximately 45 per cent were employed in a primary school.