Prospects for the Profession of Teaching in the New Millennium

At the end of the 1980s and throughout the 1990s, there was concern in Australia that few young people were being attracted to teaching as a career (Abbott-Chapman, Hull, McCann and Wyld, 1991; Meade, 1990; Porter, 1990; Speedy, 1989; Taylor, 1991).  This concern continued as the 1990s reached their end (Eltis, 1997b; Meyenn, 1997; Walker, 1996).  As well, the proportion of people with high academic ability entering postgraduate teacher education programs had declined (Dinham, 1995; Eltis, 1997a; Ingvarson, 1997; Meyenn, 1997; Senate Employment, Education and Training References Committee, 1998).  As the decade ended, teaching may have become "the occupation of last choice among those seeking to enter the professions" (Hill, 1998, p.  9).

Furthermore, the collective perception of teachers that the public accords them low status in comparison to other professionals has resulted in the loss of many experienced practitioners who, suffering from low morale, are retiring early or leaving the profession to seek other employment (Dinham and Scott, 1998; Eltis, 1997a, 1997b; Ingvarson, 1997; Preston, 1997; Senate Employment, Education and Training References Committee, 1998).

Preston (1997, 1998) has predicted that disparities between the rate at which practising teachers are leaving the profession and the rate at which qualified teacher education graduates are entering the profession will contribute to serious shortages of teachers in the new millennium.  It is probably too late to prevent the impending crisis in teacher supply that Preston (1997, 1998) has predicted for Australia.  However, one way to prevent such shortages from recurring is to act now to improve the professional status of teachers.