Shortage of teachers and measures for ensuring staff in the context of education reform

Ana Bogdan Zupančič and Marko Gavriloski Tretjak

Summary:  The shortage of teachers is a key challenge in educational reform and requires addressing various aspects: demographic change, social status of teaching profession, working conditions, salary policies, adjustments to educational programmes, etc. The aim of this article is to understand and address this problem through the interconnected systemic levels at which teachers operate: Micro (individual strategies), Meso (organisational policies) and Macro (national and international initiatives). Through a systematic literature review, we have identified and highlighted some teacher retention policies in the European Union at all three levels. This type of review follows the aim of the research to provide insights into strategies to address teacher shortages and potential solutions for teacher retention. The final analysis includes 40 materials from the Scopus and EBSCOhost databases, which were processed using Atlas.ti software and a qualitative thematic analysis. Our findings show that an integrated approach to tackling teacher shortages is needed, taking into account both local and international perspectives. The article provides new insights into global trends that are crucial for education reform, with a focus on adapting measures for the Slovenian education system. This not only contributes to the understanding of trends and challenges in education, but also offers concrete solutions and strategies for the Slovenian context, which are essential for the further development and improvement of education quality.