Abstract

Many pre-service teachers prolong studies or fail to complete teaching degrees due to financial hardship. This attrition exacerbates the teacher shortage in Australian schools. Our research uses critical theory to explore the challenges for pre-service teachers as they complete the compulsory professional experience component of initial teacher education. This phenomenological study, based on interviews with eight pre-service teachers at a university in Western Australia, gives voice to pre-service teachers experiencing placement poverty, revealing the difficulties faced in their quest to become teachers. The findings highlight the importance of addressing the financial barriers that hamper students’ abilities to become quality teachers.

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

1-1-2025

Volume

35

Issue

4

Publication Title

Issues in Educational Research

Publisher

Western Australian Institute for Educational Research

School

School of Education

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Comments

Green, T., Gray, C. & Lambert, K. (2025). "It was either food or petrol": Financial hardship during professional experience for pre-service teachers. Issues in Educational Research, 35(4), 1494-1510. https://www.iier.org.au/iier35/green-abs.html

First Page

1494

Last Page

1510

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

https://www.iier.org.au/iier35/green-abs.html