The preparation of Mathematics Teachers in Australia - ACDS

(No) – Retiring from teaching in 2006 [male; age 58yrs; teaching experience 37yrs]
(No) - I will have retired from full time work by then. I may do relief/contract work [female; age 53yrs;
teaching experience 19yrs]
(No) – Career change – studying a Masters Degree in Property Investment (completed in 2006) [male;
age 36yrs; teaching experience 14yrs]
(No) – I will probably be raising a family [female; age 26yrs; teaching experience 5yrs]
Undecided about career plans (‘probably’ and ‘unsure’)
Teachers undecided about their career plans included a large number of young teachers and earlycareer
teachers (Table 7.3c), undecided for a variety of reasons.
(Probably) – It is my first year teaching. I am yet to commit to the profession in the long term [male; age
28yrs; teaching experience 1yr]
(Probably) – Will probably be overseas by then – will see what happens [female; age 29yrs; teaching
experience 8yrs]
(Unsure) – Mathematics is not my forte; if I can avoid teaching it I will [female; age 23yrs; teaching
experience 1yr; teaching junior and middle mathematics and science, and senior biology]
(Unsure) – Looking at furthering other areas of my life. A more flexible profession would be more suitable
[female; age 24yrs; teaching experience 2yrs]
(Probably) – Still interested in university lecturing but may not go for a few more years [male; age 27yrs;
teaching experience 5yrs]
(Probably) – Teachers are generally not respected, even by the executive staff in their own schools. No
appreciation for all the hard work is a deterrent [female; age 25yrs; teaching experience 3yrs]
Many explanatory comments referred to possible retirement or the stressful nature of the job. Changes
to curriculum were of particular concern to teachers from Western Australia.
(Probably) – Coming close to retirement – and having enough of the politics of the workplace (in general).
At this stage I’m still enjoying the classroom [female; age 50yrs; teaching experience 28yrs]
(Unsure) - Next year I am reducing to 0.8FTE in order to ‘have a life’ [female; age 52yrs; teaching
experience 30yrs]
(Unsure) – Children are getting more difficult and most of the time is not spent teaching unless you have a
high level maths group [female; age 45yrs; teaching experience 20yrs]
(Probably) – Introduction of OBE and the extra workload makes teaching mathematics less attractive and
rewarding [female; age 50yrs; teaching experience 15yrs; teaching middle and senior (all levels)
mathematics; Western Australia school]
(Unsure) – The new upper school units are disastrous and if they are as bad as I think, I will be looking for
alternative employment [male; age 45yrs; teaching experience 22yrs; teaching junior, middle and senior
(elementary & advanced) mathematics; Western Australia school]
Some teachers remarked on the relationship between mathematics and science teaching
responsibilities. For some schools, science teachers were expected to also teach mathematics and
therefore the decision for these teachers was one made by school management rather than personal
preference.
(Probably) – Small school, so may still be teaching maths [female; age 50yrs; teaching experience 10yrs;
teaching junior mathematics and science, and senior biology, chemistry and physics; Moderately
Accessible country school]
(Probably) – Well, there are relatively few continuing Math teachers in our school. So quite possible, not
definitely [male; age 26yrs; teaching experience 1yr; teaching middle school science and RE, senior
(elementary) mathematics and science; Highly Accessible metropolitan school]
(Yes) – Science teachers teach Maths! [male; age 31yrs; teaching experience 3yrs; teaching junior
mathematics and science; middle science; Highly Accessible metropolitan school]
Figure 7.2 further illustrates the relationship between career plans, age and experience. Those
teachers most committed to continue teaching were between the ages of 35 and 49 years, and there
was little difference between the three five-year age bands spanning this range. Several factors may
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