Teachers’ Priorities for Change in Australian Schools to Support Staff Well-Being

Abstract

This study explored Australian school teachers’ priorities for change within schools in order to support staff psychological well-being. We began by holding a focus group and, in corroborating with the existing literature on stressors reported by school teachers, identified seven key areas for change in schools that teachers thought would most support their well-being at work. An online survey was then conducted with teachers from across Australia (N = 960), who ranked each of these suggestions in order of importance. Results found that the most important needs for change according to teachers were smaller class sizes and improved measures for student behaviour management. These results offer insight into areas for organisational change that teachers think are most important for their own well-being. We discuss the findings in relation to psychological research as well as current issues within the Australian education sector.

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The Asia-Pacific Education
Researcher
ISSN 0119-5646
Volume 26
Combined 3-4
Asia-Pacific Edu Res (2017) 26:117-126
DOI 10.1007/s40299-017-0332-7
Teachers’ Priorities for Change in
Australian Schools to Support Staff Well-
Being
Adam Garrick, Anita S.Mak, Stuart
Cathcart, Peter C.Winwood, Arnold
B.Bakker & Kurt Lushington

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REGULAR ARTICLE
Teachers’ Priorities for Change in Australian Schools to Support
Staff Well-Being
Adam Garrick
1
•Anita S. Mak
1
•Stuart Cathcart
1
•Peter C. Winwood
2
•
Arnold B. Bakker
3
•Kurt Lushington
2
Published online: 3 April 2017
ÓDe La Salle University 2017
Abstract This study explored Australian school teachers’
priorities for change within schools in order to support staff
psychological well-being. We began by holding a focus
group and, in corroborating with the existing literature on
stressors reported by school teachers, identified seven key
areas for change in schools that teachers thought would
most support their well-being at work. An online survey
was then conducted with teachers from across Australia
(N=960), who ranked each of these suggestions in order
of importance. Results found that the most important needs
for change according to teachers were smaller class sizes
and improved measures for student behaviour manage-
ment. These results offer insight into areas for organisa-
tional change that teachers think are most important for
their own well-being. We discuss the findings in relation to
psychological research as well as current issues within the
Australian education sector.
Keywords Teachers Well-being Schools 
Education department Organisational change
Teaching is recognised internationally as a high-stress
occupation and teacher stress is linked to reduced staff
performance (Yong and Yue 2007). In the Australian
education sector, concerning trends have been identified by
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Devel-
opment (OECD) including student results consistently
falling over the past decade (Tovey and Patty 2013).
Recent governments have attempted to address this through
measures such as national standardised testing and curric-
ula (Donnelly 2011), but the OECD has found that the most
important influences on student learning that are open to
policy influence are teacher-related factors (OECD 2005).
Teacher stress can have serious implications for the healthy
functioning of the individual, the school, and the quality of
education provided to students (Yong and Yue 2007).
Hence, it is vital for educational researchers to explore
ways to improve teacher mental well-being, and a poten-
tially useful source of information are teachers’ own per-
ceived priorities for change.
Australia has seen a consistent rise in the incidence of
teacher stress, including workers’ compensation cases
(ABCNews 2010a; Hiatt 2010). There is a significant body
of psychological research exploring sources of stress for
school teachers internationally, including managing student
discipline, workload, poor working conditions, and lack of
support from management (e.g. Timms et al. 2007; Yong
and Yue 2007). For teachers working in Australia, some of
the reasons for current increasing job stress include rapid
curriculum change, extra tension caused by notional liter-
acy and numeracy testing, and deteriorating student beha-
viour—including physical attacks on teachers (Hiatt 2010).
Making schools more attractive and supportive places to
work for staff will likely impact student learning outcomes.
A review by the Department of Education Queensland
found that difficulties in attracting and retaining quality
staff were impacting the state’s ability to meet its educa-
tional objectives for students (Masters 2010). Other
research has also found that higher job resources help
&Adam Garrick
adamgarrick@outlook.com
1
Faculty of Health, Centre for Applied Psychology, University
of Canberra, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
2
Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, University
of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia
3
Department of Work and Organizational Psychology,
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
123
Asia-Pacific Edu Res (2017) 26(3–4):117–126
DOI 10.1007/s40299-017-0332-7
Author's personal copy

teachers to be more immersed in their teaching and this has
positive flow-on effects for student performance (Bakker
2005).
While there is a large body of international and Aus-
tralian research aimed at identifying work-related stressors
for teachers (e.g. Easthope and Easthope 2007; Yong and
Yue 2007), there is a dearth of published research explor-
ing what types of interventions teachers themselves think
will help improve their work-related well-being. This is a
significant gap in the literature. With current nationwide
reviews of Australia’s education system, it is timely to
explore the opinions of teachers regarding what changes
they feel are most needed to support their well-being at
work.
Teachers’ priorities for change in schools may vary
depending on demographic characteristics. For example,
Smithers and Robinson (2005) found that turnover is
concentrated in young teachers and older teachers
approaching retirement; young teachers often cite low
salary and personal circumstances as reasons for leaving,
while older leavers cite workload. For a better under-
standing of the needs of different cohorts within the
teaching workforce, it will be useful to compare teachers’
priorities for change based on such characteristics as gen-
der, time spent working at their school, and the state or
territory of their employment.
Preliminary Focus Group
We conducted a preliminary focus group with the aim of
identifying key changes within Australian schools that
teachers feel are most urgently required in order to support
their well-being. These qualitative data, interpreted within
the existing literature on teacher stressors, were then used
to guide the second part of the study, a quantitative large-
scale survey in which teachers ranked in order of impor-
tance the different areas for change identified in the focus
group.
The focus group was conducted in Adelaide, South
Australia. We used a purposive sampling method to select
four teachers to participate in the focus group. The sample
included two males and two females, with work experience
levels of 2, 4, 11, and 28 years. All participants had worked
in primary and secondary schools, as well as schools in
both rural and metro environments (except for one partic-
ipant who had only worked in rural schools). While this is
too small to provide a representative sample of Australian
teachers, the focus group allowed us to obtain perspectives
from individuals with a variety of teaching experiences and
ranging from early to relatively late in their teaching
careers. The focus group followed a semi-structured format
and lasted for 90 min. The discussion was audio recorded
and later transcribed. The focus group identified a list of
seven areas for change as being most important for
improving teacher well-being: class sizes; funding for
school resources; managing student behaviour; salaries;
school-level management; training/professional develop-
ment; and workload. We will briefly summarise the focus
group’s comments and describe findings from the existing
literature regarding these seven areas and why they are
relevant as a means of promoting teacher mental well-
being.
Class Sizes
The focus group discussed the need for smaller class sizes
in order for teachers to feel more effective in their roles.
Teachers expressed that with smaller classes they could
gain a greater sense of mastery, such as through increased
opportunities to tailor their lesson plans, pay individualised
attention to students and check student learning during
lessons. Participants acknowledged that smaller class sizes
also had positive flow-on effects such as reduced workload
(e.g. less marking and teacher–parent contact), as well as a
greater ability to manage student behaviour.
Disputes between state education departments and tea-
cher unions often centre on demands for smaller class sizes
(e.g. ABCNews 2009). Research has found that in smaller
classes, teachers can provide more focused and effective
teaching strategies with individual students and that student
behaviour problems are easier to contain (Wilson 2006).
However, critics of the push for smaller class sizes say that
there is little to no correlation between class size and stu-
dent performance, except for certain student groups such as
those with special needs (e.g. Chilcott 2012). It has also
been suggested that a reduction in class sizes could lower
the quality of teaching, because in the absence of extra
financial investment governments would be forced to lower
teacher salaries to fund the hiring of more teachers
(Creighton 2013).
Funding for School Resources
The focus group identified lack of funding for class
resources as a significant problem that can drain teacher
motivation and satisfaction. Two participants said that they
regularly pay for resources from their own salaries in order
to feel better about the teaching activities they are offering
students, but that this leads to a sense of resentment
towards the school for not providing such resources.
This concern is consistent with reports that deficits in
funding for school resources contribute to teacher stress
around inability to provide adequate educational
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opportunities for students and reduction of teacher aide
hours with associated increases in class disruption (Chilcott
2011). A large-scale survey of Australian schools found
that over 80% of schools needed to engage in fundraising
of some sort, with 61% of principals rating fundraising and
voluntary contributions as ‘‘very important’’ to the school
budget (AEU 2010).
Managing Student Behaviour
The focus group raised concerns around poor school-level
support in managing difficult student behaviour, contribut-
ing to a reduced sense of efficacy and lowered mood that
often carries over when the teacher returns home. Examples
included being unable to remove problematic students from
the classroom because no other staff are available to super-
vise the student/s, and teachers’ complaints about students
not being taken seriously by management.
Previous research has established that difficulties in
managing student behaviour is a significant stressor for
teachers. For example, teachers leave the profession at the
highest rate within their first five years of teaching, with the
most frequently cited reason being working with children
who have ‘‘complex behaviour’’ (McMillen 2013). In QLD
in 2012, state schools handed out approximately 20,000
student suspensions for physical misconduct and made
almost 100 incident reports involving violence or threats of
violence (Chilcott and Vogler 2013). Teachers report fear
related to students with severe behaviour disorders threat-
ening other students and staff not having training in how to
manage such behaviour (McMillen 2013). Some states
have seen recent legislative changes to attempt to manage
this, such as giving rights to principals to keep students in
detention on weekends or assign community service
(Chilcott and Vogler). Unions have suggested the potential
need for additional security features to be installed in
schools, such as security cameras or protective glass for
administration staff (Chilcott and Vogler).
Salaries
The focus group voiced concerns around teacher salaries,
which were perceived as low relative to the amount of
education, responsibility, and workload required for the job
and that this impacted motivation. In recent years, there has
been frequent industrial action taken by teachers across all
Australian states and territories as teacher unions negotiate
higher salaries for staff (e.g. ABCNews 2010b). Research
has found that dissatisfaction with pay negatively impacts
teachers’ perceptions of their own performance (Alam
and Farid 2011). Low teacher salaries in Australia have
also been criticised as a contributor to lower teacher
quality, as higher-performing school graduates feel less
incentivised to pursue a career in education (Ingvarson
2016). Starting salaries for teachers in Australia is rela-
tively high compared to teachers in other countries, and is
also comparable to starting salaries of Australian new
graduates in other career fields of equivalent education
(Jamieson 2013; McGaw 2016). However, Australian tea-
cher salary progression is unfavourable compared to other
professions (the top of the pay scale is only 1.4 times the
starting salary) and is typically based on years of service
rather than performance (McGaw). Australian teachers
reach the maximum salary step within a decade, compared
to other nations which might take up to 45 years, and this
pay ceiling can dissuade teachers to stay in the profession
(Ricci 2015).
School-Level Management
The focus group identified the importance of school man-
agement teams for staff morale and personal motivation at
work. Concerns were raised around common problematic
practices within school management, including lack of
positive feedback to staff, difficulty in having direct access
to speak with management, and a perceived priority on
performance outcomes over staff well-being.
A report from the Grattan Institute stated that teachers
think school management does not recognise or reward
effective and innovative teaching (Jensen 2010). A study
with Tasmanian teachers found that staff feel stronger
pressure in recent years to conform to the values or ideas of
principals due to fear of being marginalised, and a sense
that school administration place their allegiance with the
education department rather than their own school and staff
(Easthope and Easthope 2007). Teachers have expressed a
desire for administration to offer more care and support to
staff, and to be more active in communicating staff feed-
back around issues such as rapid curriculum change to
education departments (Easthope and Easthope). Teachers
have also expressed dissatisfaction with school manage-
ment creating unreasonable levels of work demands with-
out providing the necessary resources for staff to
effectively complete tasks, which may erode an individ-
ual’s sense of mastery and increase exhaustion (Timms
et al. 2007).
Training/Professional Development
Focus group participants raised issues around training that
they thought required change, including a lack of relevant
training opportunities to choose from and needing to go to
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training on weekends or holidays because staff are unable
to take time off from regular classes. Research findings
show that opportunities for professional development are
important for sustaining and improving levels of work
engagement among staff (Bakker and Bal 2010). However,
professional development for teachers in Australia has
been described as inconsistent and ‘‘largely neglected’’,
particularly for new teachers adjusting to their role (Fer-
guson-Patrick 2011). It has been criticised as too pre-
scriptive and not trusting teachers to identify their own
professional training needs (Comber et al. 2004), which is
problematic given the strong correlations between teacher
self-efficacy and burnout (Skaalvik and Skaalvik 2010).
Workload
The focus group discussion commented on the unreason-
ably high workload required as a teacher, and expressed
that this can leave them feeling exhausted, stressed, and
time-pressured. The participants pointed out that their
school days are often so tightly scheduled that they may not
have time to eat lunch, and they regularly engage in unpaid
work-related activity outside of work hours (e.g. lesson
preparation and marking).
The literature indicates that Australian teachers report
their workload to be increasing every year, which will
likely lead to increasing burnout and health problems
within the teaching workforce (AEU 2010; Dorman 2003).
Over one-third of Australian teachers spend over 50 h per
week on school-related activities (AEU 2010). A report by
the Queensland Independent Education Union (QUIEU
2005) concluded that teachers are experiencing increased
content of jobs, less time for rest breaks, deadline tight-
ening, and the concept of working until the job is done (e.g.
completing paperwork that is not factored into the hours of
the school day). A study by Timms et al. (2007) found that
teachers report workload to be the major source of dissat-
isfaction in their work environment and concluded that
current workloads are unsustainable.
The Main Study
This paper’s overall aim is to identify the priorities that
Australian teachers place on the areas most in need of
change within schools, and how these priorities might
differ based on teacher demographic characteristics. For
our main study, we conducted a cross-sectional online
survey study with a national sample of Australian school
teachers. We asked participants to rank in order of
importance each of the seven changes identified from the
preliminary focus group study. The survey also measured
participants’ gender, number of years spent teaching at
their current school, and the Australian state or territory of
their employment, as these factors may inform how chan-
ges can be tailored to address key concerns among different
cohorts.
Method
Participants
The online survey was accessed 1136 times and completed
960 times. The sample included 237 males (25%) and 707
(75%) females, with mean age 46.0 years (SD =11.0).
Our sample appears representative of the national teaching
workforce, as a previous representative national survey
(N=2335) of teachers in Australia found a mean age of
43.1, with 30% of respondents being male and 70% female
(MCEETYA 2004). The mean length of employment at
participants’ current school was 7.0 years (SD =6.45).
The participants were based in 5 different states within
Australia: 594 from Western Australia (WA); 131 from the
Australian Capital Territory (ACT); 119 from New South
Wales (NSW); 79 from South Australia (SA); and 29 from
Tasmania (Tas). Table 1presents a summary of participant
demographics according to state.
The majority of participants worked in government-
owned schools (96.7%). Regarding job description, 75.7%
classified themselves as Teachers, 20% as Coordinators/
Executive Teachers, 2.9% as Deputy/Assistant Principals,
and 1.4% as Other. Regarding employment condition,
86.8% were permanent, 11.7% were contract, and 1.3%
were temporary relief teachers. Regarding work hours,
80.7% worked full-time, 15.7% worked at least half-time,
and 2.7% worked less than half-time.
Measures
The survey asked participants to rank options from a list of
seven changes that could be made in Australian schools, in
order of importance for supporting teacher mental well-
being. The survey question was developed by the authors
and was worded: ‘‘Please rank the following options in
order of which you believe would best assist in supporting
teacher mental well-being’’. Participants needed to drag-
and-drop items from the list in descending order from ‘‘1st
(most important)’’ to ‘‘7th (least important)’’. The seven
options presented included: ‘‘improved measures for
managing student behaviour’’, ‘‘reduced workload’’, ‘‘im-
proved school-level management’’, ‘‘improved opportuni-
ties for professional development’’, ‘‘higher salaries’’,
‘‘smaller class sizes’’, and ‘‘increased funding for school
resources’’. The survey also featured other measures
120 A. Garrick et al.
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including gender, state/territory, and years spent working at
their current school. Following data collection, we cate-
gorised years of work at current school into three levels
(\5, 5–15 and [15 years) for comparative purposes.
Procedure
We gained ethical clearance for this study through the
relevant university procedures. We advertised the survey
website with permission through several Australian teacher
union newsletters and websites. Participants completed an
online anonymous cross-sectional survey by visiting a
website created by the authors. An information page was
presented prior to the survey questions. Inclusion criteria
were that participants were employed as a teacher or
member of school leadership in an Australian school at the
time of taking the survey. Another paper has previously
analysed other variables measured in this survey, to explore
teacher psychological injury (Garrick et al., 2014).
Results
Figure 1presents the percentages of participants who
ranked each of the seven suggested changes as first or
second most important. ‘‘Smaller class sizes’’ was selected
as the most important change overall, with over half of the
sample (51.9%) ranking this option as the first or second
most important change. ‘‘Improved measures for managing
student behaviour’’ was the second most frequently chosen
option, ranked first or second by just under half of the
sample (47.2%). ‘‘Improved school-level management’’
and ‘‘reduced workload’’ were ranked first or second by
approximately 30% of the sample. ‘‘Increased funding for
school resources’’ and ‘‘higher salaries’’ were ranked first
or second by 21.2 and 15.5% of the sample, respectively.
The lowest ranked option was ‘‘improved opportunities for
professional development’’, with 5% of participants
selecting it as the first or second most important change.
Table 2includes percentages of the seven changes
ranked first or second most important, according to par-
ticipants’ (a) gender, (b) years of teaching at current
school, and (c) state or territory of their employment. We
conducted Chi-squared tests to identify if gender, years of
teaching experience, or state/territory were related to any
of the seven proposed changes being ranked as first or
second-highest priority. We used listwise deletion to han-
dle missing data, i.e. cases with one or more missing values
were removed from analyses. There was a significant
association between gender and prioritising change in
workload, v
2
(1) =9.19, p\.01, indicating that females
were more likely than males to rank workload as the first or
second priority for change. There was also a significant
association between gender and prioritising change in sal-
ary v
2
(1) =4.70, p=0.02, indicating that males were
more likely than females to rank ‘‘salary’’ first or second.
We did not find any significant association between priority
for change and years of teaching at one’s current school.
There was a significant association between state/terri-
tory of employment and ‘‘workload’’ as a priority for
change, v
2
(4) =18.57, p\.01, indicating that teachers
from NSW were less likely than the other states/territories
to rank workload as a first or second priority. There was
also a significant association between state/territory of
employment and ‘‘school-level management’’ as a change
priority, v
2
(4) =10.84, p=0.03. Regarding school-level
Table 1 Sample demographics according to state
State Gender Age (years) Years at current school
Male (%) Female (%) M SD M SD
Western Australia 25 75 45.95 0.44 7.39 0.26
Australian Capital Territory 24 76 43.12 0.96 4.69 0.47
New South Wales 19 81 47.50 1.06 6.56 2.23
South Australia 29 71 47.57 1.26 6.83 0.69
Tasmania 38 62 49.52 1.98 7.36 0.91
5.0%
15.5%
21.2%
28.6%
30.6%
47.2%
51.9%
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0%
Professional Development
Salaries
Resource Funding
Workload
School Management
Student Behaviour
Class Sizes
Fig. 1 Priorities for change—percentage of teachers who ranked
each item of change as first or second most important (N=939)
[Each option ranked between 1 (most important) and 7 (least
important). Mean ranks: Class Sizes 2.8; Student Behaviour 3.0;
School Management 4.0; Workload 4.1; Resource Funding 4.0;
Salaries 5.0; Professional Development 5.2]
Teachers’ Priorities for Change in Australian Schools to Support Staff Well-Being 121
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management, none of the states/territories demonstrated a
significant difference individually (no standardised resid-
uals [±1.96), although SA and NSW appeared to con-
tribute the largest amount to the significant Chi-squared
test (standardised residuals -1.7 and 1.8, respectively).
This suggests that teachers from SA were less likely to
prioritise school-level management change, while teachers
from NSW were more likely to prioritise school-level
management change.
Discussion
We conducted an online survey to measure Australian
school teachers’ priorities for changes that could be made
in schools to support staff mental well-being. Our results
showed that Australian teachers’ priorities for change were
relatively consistent across gender, years of experience,
and state/territory. Overall, teachers perceive smaller class
sizes as the most urgent change needed in schools, con-
sistent with the frequent strike action taken by Australian
teacher unions across the country pushing for fewer stu-
dents in classrooms (Maslen 2014). While not statistically
significant, our results indicate that this need for change is
most frequently endorsed by teachers from SA, WA, and
NSW (Table 2), which is in agreement with research
reporting that these three states have the largest class sizes
in Australia (AEU 2010). A large class may increase tea-
cher stress in several ways, such as making it more diffi-
cult to manage student behaviour and provide adequate
attention to all students, and increased assignment mark-
ing, parent interaction, and noise levels (French 1993).
This result highlights the importance for education
departments to reduce class sizes as a first priority in
supporting their teachers’ mental well-being. A recent
literature review has found that smaller class sizes are
related to improved student learning outcomes (Zyngier
2014); given Australia’s current decline in student per-
formance, policy changes targeting smaller classes appear
timely. Unfortunately, the current government has indi-
cated that it intends to increase class sizes (Maslen 2014),
which is likely to increase teacher stress and negatively
impact student learning outcomes.
Improved measures for managing student behaviour
was the second most frequently selected priority for
change, with almost one-half of participants choosing this
option as first or second-highest priority. Previous research
has found student behaviour difficulties to be an important
factor in why some teachers choose to leave the profession
(Barmby 2006). Behaviour management demands in
Australian schools have increased over recent years (Smith
2014), which may be related to reductions in funding for
teacher aides (Chilcott 2011), as well as a trend towards
Table 2 Priorities for change—percentage of teachers who ranked each option as first or second according to gender, years of teaching at current school, and state
Gender (N=923) Years teaching at current school (N=939) State/territory (N=931)
Male Female \5years 5–15years [15years ACT NSW SA Tas WA
Class sizes mean rank
a
51.3% 2.9 52.0% 2.8 49.7% 2.9 55.5% 2.6 49.1% 3.0 42.0% 3.1 49.1% 3.0 59.0% 2.6 48.3% 2.7 53.9% 2.8
Student behaviour mean rank
a
50.4% 2.9 45.7% 3.0 46.3% 3.0 48.4% 2.9 47.2% 3.0 46.6% 3.1 53.4% 2.8 46.2% 3.3 37.9% 3.2 46.6% 3.0
School management mean rank
a
30.6% 4.0 30.2% 4.0 30.8% 4.0 30.8% 3.9 28.7% 3.9 34.4% 3.9 39.7% 3.5 19.2% 4.4 27.6% 4.4 29.1% 4.0
Workload mean rank
a
21.1% 4.6 31.5% 3.9 31.0% 4.0 26.4% 4.3 25.9% 4.2 29.8% 4.0 13.8% 5.0 21.8% 4.1 37.9% 3.6 31.9% 4.0
Resource funding mean rank
a
20.3% 4.0 22.0% 3.9 19.7% 4.0 22.5% 3.9 23.1% 4.0 25.2% 3.8 20.7% 3.7 26.9% 3.9 24.1% 3.6 19.8% 4.1
Salaries mean rank
a
19.8% 4.5 13.9% 5.2 16.9% 4.9 13.5% 5.1 16.7% 4.9 18.3% 4.8 15.5% 5.3 21.8% 4.5 17.2% 5.2 14.0% 5.0
Professional development mean rank
a
6.5% 5.1 4.6% 5.2 5.6% 5.1 3.0% 5.2 9.3% 5.1 3.8% 5.4 7.8% 4.8 5.1% 5.3 6.9% 5.4 4.7% 5.1
a
Range: 1 (most important) to 7 (least important)
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‘‘inclusive’’ education. Inclusion policies are resulting in
more children with significant intellectual, physical, and
psychological difficulties being brought into mainstream
classrooms, without providing necessary resources or pro-
fessional development measures (McMillen 2013; Timms
et al. 2007). Our finding emphasises the need for school
management to support staff in managing student beha-
viour, such as by building behaviour management skills
through initial and continuing teacher education.
Improvements might also be achieved through investing in
more teacher aides, school counsellors, security equipment,
and cooperatively developing policies, support systems,
and student placement strategies with staff.
The next two most highly ranked options were
improved school-level management and reduced work-
load, which are likely related. Several factors have been
identified as critical for effective school management,
including placing reasonable demands on staff while
providing sufficient resources for task completion, effec-
tive evaluation of staff performance, and recognition of
quality teaching (Timms et al. 2007). Our findings indi-
cate that there is a need to provide further training and
potential assessment of school managers in Australia,
given that a large proportion of our sample endorsed
improved management as a high-priority change. School
management/leadership also plays an important role in
balancing teacher workload.
We found that almost one-third of our sample identified
reduced workload as their first or second priority for
change. Australian teachers face increasing workloads due
to factors including understaffing, expanding student–tea-
cher ratios, increased documentation, and more tasks
(particularly administrative) being added to the teacher’s
workday (Comber et al. 2004; Timms et al. 2007). The
high levels of non-paid work that teachers are required to
complete outside of work hours is detrimental to staff
mental health by reducing opportunities to detach from the
mental stress of work even after the school day has offi-
cially ended (Sonnentag and Kruel 2006; Timms et al.
2007). High workload is also related to decreased time
available for teachers to interact with each other at work, in
order to share ideas and support one another (Easthope and
Easthope 2007). Teachers also report feeling pressure to
engage in co-curricular work that is unpaid and time-con-
suming, with schools not taking these into consideration
when allocating extra responsibilities such as yard duty
(AEU 2010; Timms et al. 2007). Many teachers have
expressed worry that if they do not ‘‘volunteer’’ for extra
responsibilities, their opportunities for promotion would
diminish (Timms et al. 2007). We also found that female
teachers were more likely to identify workload as a high
priority for change. While our data do not indicate the
causal factors in this relationship, possible explanations
include greater workloads being placed on female teachers
or a tendency for female teachers to perceive workload as a
more salient factor for well-being.
Approximately one-fifth of our sample ranked increased
funding for school resources as the first or second priority
for change, demonstrating that a large proportion of Aus-
tralian teachers think that increased resource funding is
vital in supporting their well-being at work. This is con-
sistent with research that has found that 61% of Australian
school principals identified fundraising and voluntary
contributions to be ‘‘very important’’ to their school budget
(AEU 2010). The issue of Australian school funding is
complex and currently in a state of political uncertainty.
The Gonski report on school funding reform (commis-
sioned in 2010 and released in 2012) criticised the current
school funding model as lacking coherency and trans-
parency, and involving duplication of funding in some
areas (Gonski et al. 2011; News 2013). The report rec-
ommendations included an increase of $5bn in federal
funding to education and allocating additional resources to
schools according to the number of disadvantaged students.
These additional resources would have included hiring
additional teacher aides, which would likely have benefited
teacher well-being through greater support in student
management. However, the current federal government has
dismissed the recommendations made in the Gonski report
and is proposing another review of school funding (Don-
nelly 2013). This will delay or cancel implementation of
suggested improvements to school funding identified in the
Gonski report, along with the potential benefits for teacher
well-being.
The two least-often prioritised changes were increased
salary and improved professional development. We found
that male teachers prioritised salary higher than female
teachers, which suggests that continuing to pursue higher
salaries for teachers will be important to try and improve
the current underrepresentation of male teachers in Aus-
tralian schools (Tovey 2013). Only five percent of our
sample ranked improved professional development as the
first or second most important change needed in schools,
although it is unclear whether this small number reflects
relative satisfaction with current levels of training or if
teachers feel it is less salient to their well-being. Previous
studies have found that collaborative continuing profes-
sional development is linked to increased teacher self-es-
teem, motivation, and confidence as well as student
learning outcomes (Bakker and Bal 2010; Cordingly et al.
2003). Hence, while efforts to continually develop and
improve professional development opportunities for
teachers will likely produce positive outcomes for staff and
students, our findings indicate that there are others areas in
teaching of greater priority with regards to school-level and
policy change.
Teachers’ Priorities for Change in Australian Schools to Support Staff Well-Being 123
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Limitations and Future Research
Our preliminary focus group was small (N=4),
although previous literature on focus group methodology
has indicated that this is an acceptable size (Kitzinger
1995). Not all Australian states/territories were repre-
sented in our sample and those that were measured had
uneven numbers of participants. In addition, we were
also unable to locate any material that provided com-
prehensive comparisons between the teaching conditions
of different Australian states, thus limiting our ability to
make comparisons of state-level policies relating to
teachers’ priorities for change. Owing to the method of
advertisement used for the online survey, the majority of
participants worked in government schools, and hence no
meaningful comparisons can be drawn between the
opinions of staff working in government and private
schools. Finally, there is likely considerable overlap
between the seven areas for change that participants
were asked to rank. For example, larger class sizes likely
increase issues related to student behaviour management,
while school budget that is targeted at teaching resources
may reduce the budget available for hiring more teachers
to reduce class sizes.
Further qualitative research investigating specific areas
where funding is currently allocated and how this might be
shifted to address teachers’ concerns may help to elucidate
the most appropriate use of available resources. Addition-
ally, future research should investigate relationships
between the seven areas for change measured in this study
and psychological measures of work-related stress and
motivation. This would help to identify if differences in
these aspects of a teacher’s work environment produce
actual differences according to validated measures of well-
being. Our research identified broad areas for change that
teachers would like prioritised, although it is beyond the
scope of this paper to investigate specific ways in which
these should be implemented as government policy. Fur-
ther research is needed in each specific area of change to
elucidate practical means by which change can be actioned,
e.g. reviewing the current requirements and training for
school management personnel and identifying deficits and
methods to address these.
Research from Australia and internationally has identi-
fied similar relevant factors when exploring teacher stress
and well-being (e.g. Barmby 2006; Easthope and Easthope
2007). Hence, there may be some generalisability of our
findings to teachers working in countries other than Aus-
tralia. However, further work with different samples would
be needed to establish this, as the political, educational, and
occupational context that Australian teachers operate in
will presumably have many unique characteristics that may
result in a different set of priorities for change compared to
international samples.
Conclusion
Education outcomes in Australia have consistently fallen
relative to other OECD countries but there has been a lack
of attention paid to the potential strategy for improvement
that is most open to policy change influence—teacher-re-
lated factors. This study identified areas of change that
teachers themselves place the highest priority on when it
comes to staff well-being and found that smaller class sizes
and improved measures for student behaviour management
are considered to need the most urgent change. Further-
more, we found relative consistency in the priorities of
teachers across gender, years of experience, and location.
Easthope and Easthope (2007) comment that over the last
decade or so educational policy makers in Australia have
tried to force the education system to serve the economy as
its primary objective, which clashes with the ideology of
teachers who are concerned with the support of their stu-
dents. By considering the experiences and opinions of
teachers when devising policies and objectives for change
in Australian schools, education departments and school
management teams may be able to minimise losses of
investment in training due to stress-related staff turnover,
sick leave, and reduced productivity. Teacher stress and
well-being are subjective experiences, and so there is of
course no guarantee that psychological outcomes will
improve for the entire teaching workforce if organisational
changes at schools are made in line with teacher self-re-
ported priorities. However, this study adds to the literature
investigating various factors that likely contribute to the
overall mental well-being of the teacher population, and
uniquely, from the perspective of teachers themselves
around what types of interventions will be most helpful.
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