Exploring the Profile of Teachers of Secondary Science: What Are the Emerging Issues for Future Workforce Planning?

Australia requires a flexible and scientifically literate population if we are to maintain and possibly raise our competitive edge for innovation in an ever-changing global economy (DEST, 2006). Central to achieving this outcome is a workforce of competent teachers of Science with the pedagogical expertise, subject knowledge and enthusiasm necessary to engage our students as life-long learners of science. While we recognise that this process of student engagement begins in the early years and continues throughout formal education, this paper focuses specifically on secondary schooling. In the paper, we report on a study to capture the demographic profile and academic qualifications of secondary teachers of science in South Australia. Analysis of this data identifies potential workforce issues for our future science teachers around: (i) permanency for our new graduates; (ii) the lack of subject knowledge expertise for senior teachers, particularly for Physics; and (iii) the inequity regarding the proportion of qualified secondary science teachers in metropolitan schools when compared to rural schools. It is our view, that by considering these impeding issues now there is an opportunity to implement counteractive strategies and so minimise the future impact. Importantly, we consider that the findings presented here are relevant to secondary science teachers across Australia. (Contains 9 tables and 7 figures.)