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Study to explore post-graduate teaching pathways

A prestigious Queensland Government grant will help researchers led by Australian Catholic University Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith explore ways to improve post-graduate pathways into teaching.

Professor Wyatt-Smith, Director of the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, has secured a $99 401 Education Horizon grant – the largest amount awarded in the recent 2022 funding round.

The grant will fund a project aiming to identify new ways of targeting and supporting diverse teaching candidates to counter a decline in program completion and meet the needs of the growing population of school-aged children.

“This project will identify the factors that encourage people from different careers, undergraduate degrees and industry backgrounds to choose teaching,” Professor Wyatt-Smith said.

“It will provide new data to enable evidence-informed decisions to reshape post-graduate teacher education programs and promote timely transition to the workforce.”

Professor Wyatt-Smith said it was expected the findings would build transferable knowledge to strengthen the pipeline of teachers with valuable prior workforce experiences as well as contribute to the building of a stronger economy.

ACU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor James McLaren said the grant was further testimony of the pioneering nature and importance of Professor Wyatt-Smith’s research.

“The nature of the research Professor Wyatt-Smith is undertaking demonstrates ACU’s commitment to ensuring the provision of a sustainable future workforce,” he said.

“Professor Wyatt-Smith continues to demonstrate the fundamental benefit of longitudinal studies that draw on large scale data sets to address systemic issues.”

The project is being undertaken in partnership with Griffith University, Central Queensland University and James Cook University. It is supported by the Queensland Council of Deans of Education, the Queensland College of Teachers, and the Australian Secondary Schools Principals’ Association.