Lisa van Leent

Teacher shortages remain a global phenomenon (UNESCO, 2023) despite governments proposing many strategies for the recruitment and retention of teachers to the profession. For this paper, and in lin...

Autistic students often face unique challenges related to Internet threats. When intersected with gender and sexuality diversity, challenges can compound and lead to increased risk of bullying, discrimination, marginalisation and exclusion. Although there is an intersection between autism and gender and sexuality diversity, the voices of gender and sexuality diverse autistic students about Internet threats remain an underexplored research area. Most studies have focused on neurotypical, heterosexual and cis‐gender students or addressed autism, sexuality and gender separately. This paper builds on findings from a recent exploratory pilot study offering new empirical insight into autistic perceived Internet threats—an area currently underrepresented in inclusive education and digital safety. This paper presents considerations from the exploratory pilot study to inform future research on gender and sexuality diverse autistic students' perspectives on Internet threats. The pilot study engaged with autistic voices and employed a D/discourse theoretical framework, the Inclusive New Literacies and 4 CO:RE Classification of Online Risk to Children frameworks when interpreting the data. Recommendations may inform educators, parents/carers, policy‐makers and practitioners regarding appropriate Internet safety education to promote positive and safe online learning experiences of gender and sexuality diverse autistic students who are a population with unique neurodiversity, identities and experiences.

The global teacher shortage continues to intensify, with disparate impacts across geographic and socio‐economic communities. In Queensland, Australia, where this study originates, post‐COVID teacher shortages have intensified workforce pressures, leaving several regional, rural and remote schools as some of the ‘hardest‐to‐staff’ in the country. Despite Queensland's mobility policy and high teacher mobility potential, encouraging teachers, especially from more metropolitan areas, to relocate to these communities has proven historically difficult. This study explores teachers' spatial and social mobility to identify determinants of individual mobility behaviour that shed new light on geographically inspired aspects of the teacher shortage. Using Vincent Kaufmann's three‐part conceptualisation of motility, we analysed semi‐structured interviews from 14 school leaders and teachers from two schools located in the very remote Northwest Queensland region. Findings revealed that teacher mobility in these contexts is shaped not only by logistical access to places, but by a complex interplay of personal motivations, values and social and professional competencies. While geographical factors are influential, we suggest that teachers' biographies play an equally, if not more, significant role in their mobility‐based decisions. Drawing on Kaufmanns' concept of motility and Giddens' concept of ontological security, we argue that cultivating a sense of ‘home’ in these communities is essential to a teacher's capacity to sustain and thrive in remote teaching roles.

The Queensland Department of Education has been a member of Pride in Diversity, a national workplace LGBTIQA+ inclusion program, since 2018 and was recognised as a Platinum Employer in 2026. It has now commenced ending its membership. The Queensland Department of Education (DoE) LGBTQ+ workforce strategy, Proud at Work 2022-2024, has not been updated, and its Equity and Diversity Plan 2026-2029 does not refer to LGBTQ+ staff. Once the withdrawal from Pride and Diversity is complete, the DoE will have no published strategy or external benchmark for LGBTIQA+ staff. Research documents ongoing discrimination against LGBTIQA+ teachers in Queensland and Australia creating unsafe environments, including threats and lack of support from school leaders, and consistently identifies professional learning as a response.

Painting a Picture of Career Change Teachers in Queensland reports on a phase of the Australian Research Council Linkage Project titled Career Change Teachers: Addressing teacher shortages in Australia (ARCLP210300839). The research aims to address teacher shortages by generating a better understanding of the employee group termed career change teachers (CCTs) – individuals who enter the teaching profession after 25 years of age from other careers – by informing policy and school practices that support their retention.