The research project, involving three universities and eight industry partners, will identify the obstacles early career teachers face, how difficulties are approached and overcome, and the factors that encourage new teachers to remain in the profession.
Professor of Education at UniSA's Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies, Bruce Johnson, says the difficulties and challenges faced by new teachers that often lead to them leaving the profession are well documented.
"It is estimated that between 25 and 40 per cent of beginning teachers in the Western World are `burnt-out' and likely to leave the teaching profession in the first five years," Prof Johnson says.
"However, there is little research on how those early career teachers that remain in the profession overcome the difficulties they face and develop a commitment to teaching.
"This project will investigate how early career teachers negotiate and deal with challenges to their personal and professional wellbeing during their first years of teaching.
"We are aiming to find out what internal strengths are important in developing resilient new teachers, and how we can foster these qualities."
Prof Johnson says the project will also identify positive policy initiatives and school based strategies that help to support early career teachers and increase their resilience.
"Finding out what external support strategies help new teachers and which ones make an impact on their decision to remain in the profession is crucial," he says.
"Of course we need to retain all of our valuable teachers, but in particular we need to focus on how to best support and encourage our newest teachers in the profession, who will be the leaders of tomorrow's generation of teachers."
This project is being supported by the Australian Research Council through an ARC Linkage grant.
