Australia’s teacher shortage hits hardest in rural, remote and disadvantaged schools. Yet until now, there has been no integrated way to map where teachers live and work, or what drives them to stay or leave.
Dr Babak Dadvand is working with colleagues from La Trobe University, QUT, UNSW and RMIT on an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project titled ‘Improving Teacher Retention in Hard-to-Staff School: A Geo-Spatial Approach' which aims to close this critical gap through innovative research in school workforce planning.
“We are developing the Workforce Distribution Dashboard, Australia's first geo-spatial tool linking teacher workforce data with housing, transport and community factors across Victoria, NSW and Queensland. It maps exactly where teacher exodus zones exist and why,” he says.
“Our research is also flipping the script from ‘why do teachers leave?’ to ‘how do some schools succeed at keeping them?’ This strengths-based approach reveals practical strategies already working in the system.”
“Finally, we're pioneering Social Labs methodology for teacher workforce issues, bringing teachers, principals, policymakers and communities together to co-design and test retention solutions.”
Dr Dadvand says these innovative approaches address educational equity at its core and creates shared ownership across the system.
“Education departments can now identify teacher exodus zones, target resources effectively and plan proactively. Schools also get actionable models showing what works, not just what fails, empowering them with evidence-based retention strategies they can adapt locally.”
