The complexity of teacher housing policies: the case of Australia

Teacher shortages are a challenge for almost every nation. While substantial attention has been paid to the pipeline of teacher supply and to a lesser extent on working conditions, little has been made of the need for teachers to be proximally housed to where they are most needed. The provision of teacher housing was foundational to the establishment and sustainability of schools but has been decoupled from school provision and limited to an incentive to attract candidates to hard-to-staff locations. Drawing on teacher housing policies from Australia, this paper argues for a subtle shift from an individual to a systemic focus for teacher housing and rethinking the proximal housing of teachers as part of the public infrastructure of schooling as a social institution. Noting the complexity of the policy challenges of achieving full systemic staffing, a framework is offered for thinking about the relationship between school provision and teacher housing that can be applied to other jurisdictions to better understanding this timely policy challenge for school systems. The overarching goal is to embed the housing of teachers in public infrastructure and make it part of the planning process to ensure all schools are staffed.