The preparation of Mathematics Teachers in Australia - ACDS

8.2 Suggestions for attracting more people to mathematics teaching
As described in Section 8.1, most of the practising teachers surveyed were attracted to the
profession through their interest in teaching and in mathematics. Only one in six listed salary as a
motivating factor. However, when asked what could be done to attract more teachers into the
profession, 50 per cent stated that salary improvements were needed (Table 8.3). A similar
response was received from secondary school science teachers in a previous study 21 . Heads of
mathematics also listed salary as a critical issue (Table 8.3).
Let’s be realistic – for the person who excels at Maths there are plenty of more exciting, better paid
jobs available e.g. Data Mining … While in 3 rd at university, the lecturer offered me work in the
statistics field. (If you want them as teachers, comparable salaries will need to be considered). I
chose a secure job [male teacher; age 46yrs; teaching experience 5yrs]
Pay them more and in proportion to their qualifications – not some ‘jump through the hoops’
professional measurement. This is really the only way – nothing else has ever worked (and there
have been, and still are, a great many schemes) [head of mathematics; 7-12 school]
The public perception of teaching was also an issue raised by many. Raising the profile and
status of mathematics teaching was seen as a priority (Table 8.3), as was raising students
awareness of the career paths for people with a strong mathematics background.
More exposure of the importance of maths – the enjoyment and satisfaction of teaching [female
teacher; age 52yrs; teaching experience 1yr]
The potential for use of Mathematics as a tertiary discipline and its support across many subject
areas need to be made more widely known so that students at school don’t think that they have to
study Maths because their parents want them to, but understand its need, use and value so that more
students want to study the subject further. If this doesn’t happen we will not have a pool of graduates
from which to draw our teachers in this subject [head of mathematics; 7-12 school]
Some comments referred to encouraging more ‘reasonable’ expectations of teachers.
Public perceptions need to be changed. Teachers are like any other workers. There are excellent,
capable, average and poor ones. Public seem to believe that if a teacher is not brilliant they are
useless and should be sacked. This is an unreasonable expectation of any profession [male teacher;
age 43yrs; teaching experience 13yrs]
The press needs to stop denigrating teachers – teaching a subject that parents of kids have struggled
through (themselves) receives little support from home – we need to sell our subject [female teacher;
age 53yrs; teaching experience 30yrs]
As in the related science study 22 , both teachers and heads advocated more supportive school
environments as a way of encouraging more people to consider a career in school teaching. Their
suggestions included the provision of professional development.
More support in the classroom and time to prepare quality units and resources [male teacher; age
33yrs; teaching experience 7rs]
Better preparation of teachers ie work unit to be used immediately. PD which also does this [female
teacher; age 49yrs; teaching experience 26 yrs]
More professional development. No requirement to teach other subjects. Updated curriculum and
resources. IT based instruction. [head of mathematics; 7-10 school]
Give them lots of room and professional opportunities. With low salaries the only retaining force is
working conditions – make it great for them [head of mathematics, 7-12 school]
The main difficulty for teachers, including mathematics teachers, is behaviour management. If
improved systems were in place at a department level to deal with difficult students, most teachers
would be far less stressed and more willing to stay in the profession [head of mathematics; 7-10
school]
21
Harris, Jensz & Baldwin (2005)
22
Harris, Jensz & Baldwin (2005)
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