Attracting and Retaining Teachers in Rural Australia: How Principals Respond to Teacher Shortages

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This was a wonderful addition to the perils of the teaching supply in rural contexts. The research questions, evidence presented, and conclusions aligned in a succinct manner. The conclusions of this paper were thoroughly supported by both prior literature and the data collected. This piece is one more body of evidence to support the importance of context/place when discussing the hurdles of education. As the reader, I felt the manuscript flowed seamlessly, and I do not recommend any major edits. I did, as a former student and teacher of rural schools, wonder if you found any substantial tension between the responses of the different participants, as not all rural spaces have the same issues. If there were tensions, would you consider including them or expanding upon them in a future manuscript?

Author Response

Reviewer 1 Comment:
I did, as a former student and teacher of rural schools, wonder if you found any substantial tension between the responses of the different participants, as not all rural spaces have the same issues. If there were tensions, would you consider including them or expanding upon them in a future manuscript?

Response:
Thank you for this thoughtful observation. We agree that rural spaces are not homogeneous and that participants did not speak from identical contextual conditions. While our analysis identified substantial commonality across participants’ accounts, we also found important variation in how principals understood and responded to workforce instability. In particular, Jeremy’s account sat somewhat outside the dominant pattern of findings, offering a more system-facing orientation to leadership emphasising mobility, transferability, and progression, in contrast to the more place-embedded perspectives evident across much of the dataset. To make this tension more explicit, we have strengthened the Discussion by clarifying that the data do not support a singular or unified orientation to place and by identifying Jeremy’s account as an important point of contrast within the findings. We have also added a brief statement in the Conclusion to reinforce that rural contexts and leadership orientations are not uniform. These additions appear in the Discussion, line 694 and in the Conclusion line 899.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The research raises relevant, important and scientifically sound problem in the rural education field that supports changing state of the art in teacher shortages. Research is multidisciplinary, it belongs to education and data science disciplines. Study is well-structured into five distinct parts: research context, methodology, findings, discussion and conclusions. This structure corresponds to posed anticipated results and allowed to complete research objectives.
From geography angle, the study is conducted in Australia, Victoria. Rural locations were defined using RRMA classification and the Australian Statistical Geography Standard.  Victoria is characterized by rapid population growth, high cultural diversity, and intense urbanization, with over three-quarters of its population concentrated in Greater Melbourne. As of the 2025 Census, Victoria is one of the fastest-growing and most diverse states in Australia. This case adds more value to research. At the same time research can be sucesfully decoupled from the geographical position and applied in other parts of the world with similar demographical situation and regional problematics.
Authors have chosen data-driven methodology based on surveys and theoretical framework. Furthermore, they used qualitative research design to explore the leadership strategies, conducted semi-structured interviews to get contextually grounded insights. They have defined framework using place based leadership perspective by Gruenewald. 

Research answered the defined question: how do school leaders translate these diverse policy responses into sustainable, contextually grounded workforce solutions.
Examining how principals in rural Victoria navigate and reconfigure policy initiatives in ways that respond to the lived realities of their local contexts, highlighting the critical role of leadership in shaping workforce sustainability. Authors understand teacher shortages as a place contingent expression of labour market mismatch rather than a uniform policy problem which is aligned with Gruenewald's, Green and Reid's and Preston's approaches.
Interestingly, authors were able to fully uncover socio spatial nature of educational leadership building multiple dimensions on top of conducted study.
Further, authors examined how principals mobilise local knowledge, relationships, and resources to respond to workforce instability. 
To reach research goal, authors conducted data analysis using a hybrid approach (inductive and conceptual framing).

In conclusion, study provided insgihts and recommendations for social and economical policy-making on how to address teacher shortages. Authors provided methodological evidence and revealed that teacher shortages in rural education as both a workforce and a leadership problem. The findings can be used by other research or instititustions. Authors captured the multidimensional nature of leadership in workforce challenged context. Focus on sustainability aspects in leadership additionally contributed to UN SDGs - SDG4 - quality education, SDG8 - decent work, SDG10 - reduced inequalities.

Critically:
1. Research could have include larger data subset, as it is based un 17 interviews. Adding more perspectives would contribute to better results. 
2. More data on schools background would increase critical discussion. It is not fully clear if the schools are state-owned or they are private schools.
3. Impact of business on teacher shortages is not discussed. Maybe it is not specific to Australia, but in general, good to analyse. For example, global companies often provide their specialists on educational partnership basis with schools. What about religious schools? They also have interesting background how they address the teacher shortages problem.
4. SWOT and/or PESTLE analysis of the teacher shortages problem in Victoria could provide holistic picture.
5. Impact of AI is not discussed. According to latest advancements in education AI can partially replace teachers or at least mitigate risks. In this case, teacher shortage problem might be solved.
6. Article contains too few visuals. Reviewer recommends to add more visual elements, e.g. diagrams. It would contribute to overall good perception and readability of the research.

 

Author Response

Reviewer 2 Comment:

The research raises relevant, important and scientifically sound problem in the rural education field that supports changing state of the art in teacher shortages. Research is multidisciplinary, it belongs to education and data science disciplines. Study is well-structured into five distinct parts: research context, methodology, findings, discussion and conclusions. This structure corresponds to posed anticipated results and allowed to complete research objectives.
From geography angle, the study is conducted in Australia, Victoria. Rural locations were defined using RRMA classification and the Australian Statistical Geography Standard.  Victoria is characterized by rapid population growth, high cultural diversity, and intense urbanization, with over three-quarters of its population concentrated in Greater Melbourne. As of the 2025 Census, Victoria is one of the fastest growing and most diverse states in Australia. This case adds more value to research. At the same time research can be successfully decoupled from the geographical position and applied in other parts of the world with similar demographical situation and regional problematics.
Authors have chosen data-driven methodology based on surveys and theoretical framework. Furthermore, they used qualitative research design to explore the leadership strategies, conducted semi-structured interviews to get contextually grounded insights. They have defined framework using place-based leadership perspective by Gruenewald. 

Research answered the defined question: how do school leaders translate these diverse policy responses into sustainable, contextually grounded workforce solutions.
Examining how principals in rural Victoria navigate and reconfigure policy initiatives in ways that respond to the lived realities of their local contexts, highlighting the critical role of leadership in shaping workforce sustainability. Authors understand teacher shortages as a place contingent expression of labour market mismatch rather than a uniform policy problem which is aligned with Gruenewald's, Green and Reid's and Preston's approaches.
Interestingly, authors were able to fully uncover socio spatial nature of educational leadership building multiple dimensions on top of conducted study.
Further, authors examined how principals mobilise local knowledge, relationships, and resources to respond to workforce instability. 
To reach research goal, authors conducted data analysis using a hybrid approach (inductive and conceptual framing).

In conclusion, study provided insights and recommendations for social and economical policy-making on how to address teacher shortages. Authors provided methodological evidence and revealed that teacher shortages in rural education as both a workforce and a leadership problem. The findings can be used by other research or institutions. Authors captured the multidimensional nature of leadership in workforce challenged context. Focus on sustainability aspects in leadership additionally contributed to UN SDGs - SDG4 - quality education, SDG8 - decent work, SDG10 - reduced inequalities.

Critically:
1. Research could have include larger data subset, as it is based un 17 interviews. Adding more perspectives would contribute to better results. 
2. More data on schools background would increase critical discussion. It is not fully clear if the schools are state-owned or they are private schools.
3. Impact of business on teacher shortages is not discussed. Maybe it is not specific to Australia, but in general, good to analyse. For example, global companies often provide their specialists on educational partnership basis with schools. What about religious schools? They also have interesting background how they address the teacher shortages problem.
4. SWOT and/or PESTLE analysis of the teacher shortages problem in Victoria could provide holistic picture.
5. Impact of AI is not discussed. According to latest advancements in education AI can partially replace teachers or at least mitigate risks. In this case, teacher shortage problem might be solved.
6. Article contains too few visuals. Reviewer recommends to add more visual elements, e.g. diagrams. It would contribute to overall good perception and readability of the research.

 

Response:
We thank the reviewer for this thoughtful reading of the manuscript and for recognising the significance of the study’s contribution to understanding rural teacher shortages as a place-contingent and leadership-mediated challenge. We appreciate the reviewer’s positive assessment of the article’s structure, theoretical framing, methodological coherence, and relevance to broader policy and sustainability agendas.

1. Sample size
   We acknowledge the reviewer’s point regarding the sample size. This study was designed as a qualitative inquiry aimed at generating in-depth, contextually grounded accounts of how rural principals respond to teacher shortages, rather than producing statistically generalisable findings. The 17 interviews enabled rich exploration of leadership practice across diverse rural school contexts in Victoria. We have clarified the rationale for the sample and its diversity in the Methodology section, Section 2.2 (Participants and Sampling), line 306.
2. More background on schools / school sectors
   We appreciate this suggestion. The manuscript already includes contextual information about participating schools in Table 2 and in the Participants and Sampling section, including school type, level, student population, ICSEA percentile, Indigenous enrolment, and LBOTE proportions. As the reviewer notes, clarification regarding school sector is important. In this study, the participating schools were rural government schools, including primary, secondary, combined, and specialist settings. We have clarified this in Section 2.2 (Participants and Sampling), line 306.
3. Business impact / private and religious schools
   We thank the reviewer for this suggestion. We agree that the role of business, industry, and non-government schooling sectors, including religious schools, in shaping teacher supply and retention is important. However, these issues fall beyond the empirical scope of the present study, which focuses specifically on principals in rural Victorian government schools and on leadership responses within that system context. We have therefore not expanded the manuscript substantively in this direction, but we recognise this as a valuable avenue for future comparative research and have included a statement to this effect in the Conclusion, Line 879.
4. SWOT and/or PESTLE analysis
   We appreciate the suggestion to include a SWOT or PESTLE analysis. However, this study is an interpretive qualitative analysis grounded in semi-structured interviews and a place-based leadership framework, rather than an organisational audit or strategic planning model. We therefore consider SWOT/PESTLE frameworks to sit outside the analytic aims of the paper. To preserve methodological coherence, we have retained the current analytic approach.
5. Impact of AI
   We thank the reviewer for raising the possible role of AI in education. While AI may have relevance for some aspects of teaching and administrative support, the present study examines principals’ leadership practices in responding to teacher shortages as these were described by participants. AI did not emerge as a theme in the interview data, and we were cautious not to introduce a new line of argument that was not grounded in the dataset. We therefore have not added substantive discussion of AI, though we agree this may be an important area for future research on educational workforce change.
6. More visuals / diagrams
   We appreciate this recommendation. The manuscript already includes two tables that provide contextual detail on rural classification and school characteristics. Given the qualitative focus of the paper and the journal format, we have retained the existing tables and have not added further visual elements at this stage.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Author(s), thank you for conducting this study. I have outlined the strengths and weaknesses/areas for improvement of this research below.

Strengths and weaknesses/areas for improvement:

• Teacher employment in rural areas varies from region to region. Although this study was conducted in a single Australian state, it may contribute to research on teacher employment in other states or countries. In this regard, the article has the potential to transcend the boundaries of the region where the study was conducted.
• The abstract has been prepared to provide information about the entire study.
• The keywords are consistent with the study’s content. However, new keywords relevant to the study, such as “teacher employment,” “disadvantaged schools,” “Australia,” and “equality of opportunity in education,” could be added.
• “Australia” could be integrated into the article’s title in a suitable manner.
• Current strategies implemented to address the teacher shortage are included.
• The rationale for the research is sufficiently convincing. However, the importance of the research has not been adequately explained. A significant omission stands out: “students.” The challenges students face in rural areas affected by the teacher shortage, as well as the steps they take to address this shortage, should be explained in detail. Additionally, the importance of the teacher-student relationship and its role in child development should be addressed, with evidence provided in the models.
• The study should specify how the teacher shortage could increase principals’ workload and address its potential impacts on school-family collaboration.
• I recommend including the “Research Questions” section at the end of the introduction.
• The research paradigm underlying the choice of qualitative research methods should be explained (e.g., the interpretive paradigm).
• The sampling method used to select participants and the reasons for its selection must be clearly stated. For example, if convenience sampling is used, the risk of researcher bias should be noted in the limitations. Additionally, the total number of teachers, schools, and principals in the region should be specified.
• It is understood that the number of participants is sufficient for a qualitative approach.
• Data collection dates must be clearly stated.
• Data analysis and data collection tools have been sufficiently explained.
• Ethics committee approval has been included.
• Which analyses were used to assess inter-rater reliability during coding? What are the results? For example, were Cohen’s Kappa or Miles and Huberman’s methods used?
• The findings are explained in detail. For example, dialogues are included. However, no tables or figures have been provided to facilitate interpretation. This makes it difficult for readers to interpret the data and evaluate the study’s results holistically. As a result, the findings remain limited to the researchers’ perspectives. I recommend the use of tables or figures.
• The abstract provides clear information about the entire article.
• The arguments presented are supported by references. Access to data from recent years, such as 2026 and 2025, indicates that the researchers are keeping up with current studies.
• When were the research data collected?
• Why haven’t the results been published until now? Were any changes made to regional policies after the data was collected?
• The discussion section makes sufficient use of references.
• The study’s recommendations are insufficient. The conclusion section repeats evidence already presented in the “findings and discussion” sections. This section should devote more space to recommendations.
• Do the researchers have an ethical statement regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence?

Author Response

Reviewer 3 Comment with responses in red

Strengths and weaknesses/areas for improvement:

• Teacher employment in rural areas varies from region to region. Although this study was conducted in a single Australian state, it may contribute to research on teacher employment in other states or countries. In this regard, the article has the potential to transcend the boundaries of the region where the study was conducted.
• The abstract has been prepared to provide information about the entire study.
• The keywords are consistent with the study’s content. However, new keywords relevant to the study, such as “teacher employment,” “disadvantaged schools,” “Australia,” and “equality of opportunity in education,” could be added.

Thank you for your valuable feedback. We have updated the keywords to include: teacher shortages; rural schools; principals; teacher employment; Australia; educational equity.   

• “Australia” could be integrated into the article’s title in a suitable manner.

Thank you for this suggestion- we have updated the title.

• Current strategies implemented to address the teacher shortage are included.
• The rationale for the research is sufficiently convincing. However, the importance of the research has not been adequately explained. A significant omission stands out: “students.” The challenges students face in rural areas affected by the teacher shortage, as well as the steps they take to address this shortage, should be explained in detail. Additionally, the importance of the teacher-student relationship and its role in child development should be addressed, with evidence provided in the models.

Thank you for this important observation. We agree that the significance of teacher shortages for students should be made more explicit. In response, we have strengthened the Research Context section by adding a sentence in Line 41 that clarifies how workforce instability affects students directly through reduced continuity of relationships, diminished access to specialist teaching, and less stable everyday learning conditions. At the same time, the primary focus of this study is on principals’ leadership practices in responding to teacher shortages, rather than on student experiences or child development as a separate object of analysis. We have therefore revised the manuscript to make the implications for students clearer, while retaining the paper’s central focus on leadership and workforce sustainability.

• The study should specify how the teacher shortage could increase principals’ workload and address its potential impacts on school-family collaboration.

Thank you for this helpful comment. We agree that teacher shortages can intensify principals’ workload in rural schools. This issue is already reflected in the manuscript through discussion of heightened administrative demands, staffing complexity, and the additional leadership work involved in induction, wraparound support, and local workforce management. To make this more explicit, we have added a clarifying sentence in the Research Context section in Line 28, noting that teacher shortages can concentrate staffing, induction, and community liaison responsibilities in already stretched leadership roles, with possible implications for the time and capacity available to sustain school-family collaboration. While school-family collaboration was not a discrete focus of the present analysis, we agree that this is an important area for further research.

• I recommend including the “Research Questions” section at the end of the introduction.

Thank you for this helpful suggestion. We have added a Research Question subsection at the end of the introduction to state the study’s guiding question more explicitly. This appears in Section 1.3., Line 219. Numbering of following sections will now need to be updated.

 

• The research paradigm underlying the choice of qualitative research methods should be explained (e.g., the interpretive paradigm).

Thank you for this helpful methodological suggestion. We have clarified the research paradigm underpinning the study in Section 2.1 Research Design, Line 306 by noting that the study is informed by an interpretive qualitative paradigm, consistent with its focus on understanding principals’ meaning-making and contextually situated leadership practices.

 

• The sampling method used to select participants and the reasons for its selection must be clearly stated. For example, if convenience sampling is used, the risk of researcher bias should be noted in the limitations. Additionally, the total number of teachers, schools, and principals in the region should be specified.

Thank you for this suggestion. We have clarified in Section 2.2 (Participants and Sampling, Line 297 and 306) that the study used purposive sampling and have made the rationale for participant selection more explicit. Participants were recruited through a broader Department of Education-funded context-tailored rural placement program operating across rural Victoria, which provided access to principals with direct experience of rural workforce challenges across diverse school settings. Consistent with the qualitative design, the aim of the sampling strategy was to generate rich, contextually grounded insights rather than statistically representative findings. We have not added total numbers of teachers, schools, and principals across rural Victoria, as the study does not seek quantitative representativeness across that full population and instead uses a purposive sample to explore leadership practice in depth.

 

• It is understood that the number of participants is sufficient for a qualitative approach.
• Data collection dates must be clearly stated.

Thank you for this helpful suggestion. We have clarified the timing of data collection in Section 2.3 (Data Sources, Line 330) by specifying the period during which the interviews were conducted.

• Data analysis and data collection tools have been sufficiently explained.
• Ethics committee approval has been included.
• Which analyses were used to assess inter-rater reliability during coding? What are the results? For example, were Cohen’s Kappa or Miles and Huberman’s methods used?

Thank you for this important methodological question. The study employed reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2019), an approach in which coding is understood as interpretive and theoretically informed rather than as a process aimed at maximising coder agreement. Accordingly, we did not calculate inter-rater reliability statistics such as Cohen’s Kappa or Miles and Huberman agreement coefficients. Instead, analytic rigour was supported through iterative coding, reflexive memoing, and sustained discussion among the researchers during theme development. We have clarified this in Section 2.4 (Data Analysis, Line 366).

 

• The findings are explained in detail. For example, dialogues are included. However, no tables or figures have been provided to facilitate interpretation. This makes it difficult for readers to interpret the data and evaluate the study’s results holistically. As a result, the findings remain limited to the researchers’ perspectives. I recommend the use of tables or figures.

Thank you for this suggestion. We appreciate the value of tables and figures in supporting interpretation. The manuscript already includes two tables that provide contextual detail on rural classification and school characteristics. Given the qualitative focus of the paper and the journal format, we have retained the current presentation of the findings, which combines thematic organisation with extended participant quotations to support transparency and interpretation. We have therefore not added additional tables or figures at this stage.

• The abstract provides clear information about the entire article.
• The arguments presented are supported by references. Access to data from recent years, such as 2026 and 2025, indicates that the researchers are keeping up with current studies.
• When were the research data collected?

We have clarified the timing of data collection in Section 2.3 (Data Sources, Line 330) by specifying the period during which the interviews were conducted.

• Why haven’t the results been published until now? Were any changes made to regional policies after the data was collected?

Thank you for this important question. This article draws on data generated through a larger funded project, from which the research team has already published in related areas. Given the scope and richness of the overall dataset, the team has needed to prioritise different strands of analysis across multiple publications. The present article focuses specifically on the principal interview data and on leadership responses to teacher shortages in rural schools. For this reason, this aspect of the project is being reported at this stage. While policy settings continue to evolve, the manuscript has been updated to engage with current literature and policy sources where relevant, and the analysis remains focused on enduring leadership and workforce issues rather than on a single time-bound policy moment.

• The discussion section makes sufficient use of references.
• The study’s recommendations are insufficient. The conclusion section repeats evidence already presented in the “findings and discussion” sections. This section should devote more space to recommendations.

Thank you for this helpful comment. We agree that the conclusion should more clearly articulate the recommendations arising from the study. In response, we have strengthened the Conclusion in Line 887 by adding a more explicit policy and practice recommendations section. This now highlights the need to move beyond short-term attraction measures and to invest in school-university partnerships, locally embedded ‘grow your own’ pathways, induction and mentoring supports, community integration, and greater recognition of rural principals’ place-based expertise in workforce policy and decision-making.

 

• Do the researchers have an ethical statement regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence?

Thank you for this reminder. We will insert a statement at the end of the Conclusion, Line 907

 

 

 

           

 

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Author(s), thank you for the careful revisions you have made. This study, which addresses an important topic, has high citation potential and originality. The author(s) have carefully reviewed the shortcomings identified in the initial peer review and made significant improvements. The scientific quality of the study has improved considerably. I extend my regards and wish you continued success.

Author Response

We thank Reviewer 3 for their two suggestions for further improvement. We appreciate their incisive attention and have now acted on each point, as outlined below.

1. There appear to be two sections labeled 1.3. Please revise the section numbering so that “Theoretical Framework: Place-Based Leadership” becomes Section 1.4 and “Defining Rural Locations” becomes Section 1.5.

Thank you for detecting the missing numbering. We have now corrected the numbering of the subsections in section 1.

2. 
   Please clarify whether the factors presented in Tables 1 and 2—such as inner or outer regional classification, school type, student population, socio-educational profile and ICSEA percentile, proportion of Indigenous students, and language background revalant to the study or not. It would be helpful to discuss whether and how these contextual variables may or may not have influenced variations in the findings.

Thank you for raising this valid point. We agree that the two tables overly drew attention to school variables that are not pertinent to the analyses and findings per se. We have now removed what was Table 1, merging the ASGS classifications into the second table. Additionally, in the text, we have now better explained the significance of this information in terms of sampling transparency. The variables were not quasi-experimentally controlled in this study. The contextual factors that did influence the principals’ practices are instead described qualitatively in the Findings and Discussion.