Schools across Australia are experiencing significant staffing pressures, with teacher shortages now widely recognised as a systemic and enduring issue, particularly in lower income and disadvantaged communities where attracting and retaining qualified teachers is most challenging. This report examines the lived experiences of teachers during unprecedented shortages, focusing on those who remain in hard-to-staff Australian schools and how systems can better support retention.

The situation is particularly complex for schools serving lower income students or disadvantaged communities, which are consistently the hardest to staff. Teacher shortages and high staff turnover have far-reaching consequences, generating complex and cumulative effects that extend well beyond staffing numbers. These pressures undermine teaching quality, workforce stability and leadership continuity. As such, the challenge extends beyond the headline issue of teacher supply to affect every level of school functioning, from classroom practice to sustained leadership. 

This research contributes to debates on teacher retention by identifying the conditions under which teachers stay, endure or ultimately leave, rather than focusing solely on exit or intentions to leave. At the same time, it reveals the personal and professional costs of staying, challenging celebratory narratives of resilience and commitment that underpin many teacher status campaigns aimed at improving public perceptions of the profession. 

The study provides a more nuanced foundation for retention-focused interventions, one that attends to the everyday realities of work in disadvantaged schools, including the organisational pressures, relational demands and moral commitments that shape teachers’ capacity to remain in hard-to-staff contexts over time.