Initial teacher education (ITE) is responsible for providing beginning teachers with the knowledge, skills, and characteristics to prepare them for the classroom. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the Australian ITE sector’s current challenges, and opportunities for reform.

Australia’s education outcomes have deteriorated, despite increased spending on teachers and policies to increase the quantity and quality of teachers. This paper challenges several persistent assumptions about the quantity and quality of the teacher workforce and identifies areas of concern supported by data and evidence.

Policy-makers have increasingly looked to improvements in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) as key to overcoming declining education outcomes. The analysis in this paper validates this concern and places a specific lens on ITE for beginning mathematics teachers.

Home-based learning due to pandemic-induced school closures is the greatest educational disruption impacting on school systems in recent history. This research adds to the evidence base by not only assessing whether students’ learning may have been impacted during home-based learning, but also why students may have performed better or worse, as well as which students...

Indigenous educational disadvantage remains among the most pressing and persistent public policy challenges in Australia. This research examines sources and extent of Indigenous educational disadvantage and proposes how policymakers can better meet the ambition of closing the gap.