Internationally, support provided to teachers during their early career phase has long been referred to as ‘induction’. In Australia, induction is largely provided by schools because ‘school-based induction practices … [are the] … the most useful in enculturating beginning teachers to their school and to their career’ (Kearney, 2021, p.153). However, with 60% of new teachers employed casually or on short-term contracts (Preston, 2019), many work across multiple schools and education sectors. Such teachers might engage in multiple induction events at individual schools; however, it is unlikely they receive an ongoing, systematic induction that meets their individual needs across the first few years of their work.
This paper reports a critical policy study that examined the ‘Graduate to Proficient: Australian guidelines for teacher induction into the profession’ (2016). It draws on critical human resources management theory, including concepts such as ‘onboarding’ with the aim of providing alternative insights into the induction process for early career teachers.
Our analysis suggests that the guidelines are more concerned with onboarding practices delivered to teachers with job security, rather than an overall system of practices that develop all new teachers regardless of their employment mode. The limitation means that the guidelines are unlikely to support precariously employed early career teachers to maximise their development during the earliest months and years of their career. Finally, we argue that further research on the teaching workforce which draws on the human resource management research is needed to better understand the development of the teaching workforce.
