Conference Agenda

In line with the poly-crisis theme addressed by ECER 2026, the increasing prevalence of burnout among pre-service teachers exemplifies how global education systems are simultaneously shaped by interconnected social, economic, and institutional pressures (Henderson, 2025). Burnout extends far beyond an individual psychological issue; it also reflects the lack of capacity of teacher education systems to provide equitable, inclusive, and sustainable learning environments that prepare future teachers for complex professional realities (Goddard & O'Brien, 2006). When pre-service teachers experience exhaustion, disengagement, or diminished motivation, the implications are wide-ranging—affecting not only their professional identity formation and instructional qualities (Hong, 2010), but also long-term teacher retention, a challenge documented across many countries (Lee et al., 2023).

Particularly in China, there is a growing concern regarding pre-service teacher burnout, especially among pre-service teachers from low socioeconomic status (Low-SES) backgrounds. This specific group of pre-service teachers frequently faces substantial financial strain, often balancing part-time employment with demanding academic and pre-service training requirements (Zhao & Liu, 2019). Rigid program structures, extensive coursework, and high-performance expectations within teacher education universities contribute to sustained pressure (Ran et al., 2012). Social challenges—such as difficulties adapting to unfamiliar institutional cultures or limited peer support—further compound their vulnerability (Zhang, 2010). For Low-SES pre-service teachers, these cumulative burdens may heighten the risk of emotional exhaustion and reduce their confidence and commitment to the teaching profession.

Pressures experienced by the Chinese pre-service teachers illuminate systemic vulnerabilities within China’s teacher education landscape, which seem to mirror broader global challenges. Although in China, national initiatives such as the Publicly Funded Teacher Training Program and the Outstanding Teacher Training Program were introduced with the aim to reinforce teacher quality, expand pathways for disadvantaged pre-service teachers, there is evidence that burnout has not decreased—and in some cases has intensified—among pre-service teachers (Xie & Xiao, 2022). This suggests an enduring mismatch between the resources these policies aim to provide and the demands actually faced by low-SES participants.

Understanding this mismatch requires conceptual and methodological approaches capable of capturing the interplay between individual characteristics, institutional arrangements, and policy environments. The Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) framework (Bakker, 2011) will be used for examining how financial strain, academic pressure, social exclusion, and family responsibilities (Johnson et al., 2014) interact with personal and institutional resources such as self-efficacy, optimism, belonging and program-level support (Zhang et al., 2010; Ke et al., 2023). Existing research has examined teacher burnout and resilience around the world. However, substantial gaps remain, as past studies in this topic often neglect equity-oriented perspectives, overlooking within-group heterogeneity and the influence of institutional environments on burnout trajectories.

To address these gaps, this study employs a person-centered approach to identify patterns of professional preparation demands and resources among Low-SES pre-service teachers across different programs and universities in China by applying a multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA). This approach is suitable to reveal institutional and individual factors that co-configure burnout risk.

The research addresses the following questions:

Q1: What are the profiles of perceived professional preparation demands and resources among Low-SES pre-service teachers across different teacher education programs and universities in China?

Q2: How can education programs and universities be profiled according to the proportions of profiles of Low-SES pre-service teachers' perceived professional preparation demand and resources?

By situating China’s reforms within global debates on teacher shortages, social inequality, and workforce diversification (UNESCO, 2023; OECD, 2023), this research contributes further insights into how structural inequities shape teacher development. The findings aim to strengthen support for disadvantaged groups in teacher education, enhance psychological well-being and professional commitment, and promote the sustainability of the teaching profession amid intensifying global challenges.

This paper draws on the Teach Cornwall research project (2023 – 2025) and asks the research question: how can educational research more effectively know, and act with and from, place in addressing persistent teacher supply challenges in rural and coastal contexts? The paper explores how conceptual and methodological work on educational isolation (Ovenden-Hope & Passy, 2019; Ovenden-Hope, Passy, & Iglehart, 2022) reconfigures what counts as evidence for teacher education policy and practice in peripheral areas.

England’s dominant policy direction for initial teacher education (ITE) recruitment is implicitly urban (Brooks & Perryman, 2024), assuming dense labour markets, extensive transport infrastructure, and diversified housing and employment opportunities. The findings presented in this paper challenges these assumptions through an in-depth case study of Cornwall, England’s most south‑western county, and the recruitment of student teachers. Cornwall serves over 75,000 pupils across 295 schools, and is characterised by rurality, coast, seasonal tourism, and high levels of deprivation. Despite a national teacher shortage (Department for Education, 2024), Cornwall experiences a paradoxical oversaturation of qualified teachers in primary phase education, alongside acute difficulties recruiting trainee teachers in specific locations and secondary subject areas (Ovenden-Hope, Brown and Walsh, 2025).

Using the lens of educational isolation (Ovenden-Hope & Passy, 2019), the paper argues that student teacher recruitment in Cornwall is structured by the intersection of three dimensions: geographic remoteness, socioeconomic disadvantage and cultural isolation (Ovenden-Hope & Passy, 2020). Qualitative data from interviews with trainee teachers and ITE providers illuminate how these dimensions materialise in everyday trajectories into, through and beyond initial teacher education. Trainees describe unsustainable commutes, dependence on private transport, and limited school placement choice; acute housing precarity shaped by second‑home ownership and short‑term lets; and experiences of professional and cultural isolation as minoritised educators in a largely White, mono‑cultural region. At the same time, ITE providers articulate powerful place-based assets: strong community ties, the pedagogical and wellbeing affordances of rural and coastal environments and accelerated professional responsibility in small schools where trainees “feel like a teacher from day dot”.

The paper makes three contributions to teacher education research and practice. First, it foregrounds educational isolation (Ovenden-Hope & Passy, 2019) as a critical analytic for re‑knowing ITE in rural and coastal places. Rather than treating Cornwall as a deficit peripheral case, the study interrogates how national policy architectures, funding regimes and data infrastructures systematically misrecognise place-specific conditions. Second, it demonstrates the potential of reflexive, place-engaged qualitative methods, undertaken in partnership with a whole‑county ITE network to generate actionable knowledge. The project surfaces both system-level constraints, such as fragmented workforce data and misaligned national incentives, and meso‑level innovations developed by providers to mitigate them. These include hub‑based and hybrid delivery models that reduce travel burdens; “grow your own” pathways that scaffold progression from teaching assistant to qualified teacher. Third, the paper argues that acting on this reconfigured knowledge requires a shift from generic, urban‑normative teacher supply strategies towards place‑sensitive teacher education ecologies.

National policymakers are called to revisit assumptions embedded in bursary schemes, accountability measures and workforce planning models, recognising place-based determinants of entry into teaching (Ovenden-Hope, Brown, & Achtaridou, 2025). For ITE providers and local alliances, it calls for governance and partnership arrangements that treat rural and coastal schools as co‑researchers in designing viable training routes, not simply as placement sites. By situating these research findings within wider international debates about rural and coastal education, teacher shortages and place-conscious teacher education, the paper shows how educational research can both describe and disrupt the changing conditions under which teacher education is enacted, opening up new potentials for knowing and acting with justice in, and for, rural and coastal communities.

Nearly one in four Australian students come from a language background other than English (ABS, 2022), yet teacher shortages persist, particularly in schools serving culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities (AITSL, 2025). Teachers in these settings navigate language barriers, cultural differences, and varied student support needs, intensifying everyday complexity (Schweitzer et al., 2021) and contributing to elevated emotional demands, stress, and reduced wellbeing and retention (Cruz et al., 2020; Yin et al., 2019). Similar patterns are found across Europe, where migration and refugee settlement have reshaped school demographics, placing additional pressure on teacher preparedness, emotional labour, and workforce stability (European Commission, 2023). Despite policy attention, only 20% of European teachers receive cultural responsiveness training, leaving many underprepared for inclusive pedagogy and exposed to emotional demands when supporting students facing discrimination or trauma.While European reforms embed intercultural curricula and assessment adaptations, teachers remain frontline responders to student discrimination, trauma, and exclusion, sustaining high emotional demands (European Commission, 2023).

Cultural responsiveness (CR), encompassing teachers' beliefs, self-efficacy, everyday practices, and engagement in targeted professional learning, is a core lever for equity in CALD classrooms, drawing on students' cultural and linguistic strengths to support belonging and participation (Gay, 2013; Comstock et al., 2023; Hilliard et al., 2024). However, uneven access to quality professional development and limited specialist support constrain teachers' capacity to adapt instruction (Szelei et al., 2020; Tualaulelei & Halse, 2021). Generic training may increase uncertainty, while confidence in CR practice strengthens instructional clarity, student relationships, and morale (Darling-Hammond, 2017; Comstock et al., 2023; Premachandran, 2025).

Teacher wellbeing is a global concern (OECD, 2020; WHO & UNESCO, 2021). Stress and emotional labour (EL) contribute significantly to burnout and attrition (Australian Government, 2022b; Rahimi & Arnold, 2024). Teachers in CALD settings often regulate emotional displays to maintain classroom stability while juggling diverse learning needs (Kariou et al., 2021). Stress accumulates when expectations exceed resources, and underprepared teachers report higher stress and EL (Tatar & Horenczyk, 2003). Systemic drivers, including funding shortfalls, limited interpreters, and inconsistent assessment adaptation processes, intensify pressure and shape school norms (Darling-Hammond, 2017). While surface acting increases emotional exhaustion, deep acting and authentic expression support healthier classroom climates but require adequate preparation and collegial support (Smith et al., 2025).

Culturally responsive practices and strong occupational commitment support teacher retention in CALD schools (AITSL, 2025; Comstock et al., 2023). Self-efficacy is associated with stronger commitment and lower quitting intentions, whereas stress and EL reduce commitment (Klassen & Chiu, 2011). While the importance of culturally responsive education is increasingly recognized, limited empirical understanding exists of how CR, EL, and stress interact to shape teachers' occupational commitment in CALD contexts.

This study investigates relationships between CR, EL, stress, and occupational commitment in teachers working in CALD schools across Australia, examining both quantitative patterns and teachers' lived experiences. Drawing on Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory and the Self-Care Matrix (El-Osta et al., 2019), the study conceptualizes teacher wellbeing as relational, contextually embedded, and shaped by institutional supports and professional environments.

Research questions: (1) What are the relationships between cultural responsiveness, emotional labour, stress, and occupational commitment in CALD schools? (2) What do teachers say about their CR capacities, stress, EL, and commitment?

Identifying practice-ready levers such as targeted professional learning, specialist staffing, role design, and assessment policy can strengthen supportive teaching environments and improve retention in schools most in need of stability (AITSL, 2025; Comstock et al., 2023; Rahimi & Arnold, 2024). These findings hold relevance for European contexts facing similar challenges in supporting teachers within increasingly diverse educational settings.

Teachers who are able to support complex systems of learning with nuance and expertise are an integral factor of student learning (Darling-Hammond, 2016; Özer, B., Can, T., & Duran, V., 2020). Yet, in too many countries, solutions for ensuring high-quality student learning are shifting toward a technorational view that attempts to simplify complex systems of learning and replace them with simplified “teacher proof” practices that are defined at a policy level (Dadvand, Ryan, & Murphy, 2025). As teachers engage in their central work of teaching students, they are being increasingly inundated with bureaucratic requirements that center proving their worth through the use of data in ways that strip detailed tapestries of student learning and reduce them into little more than the most general of outlines (McCarthy, Riddle, & Hickey, 2025). This is a form of knowledge creation that locks teachers into a “performative agenda” that does benefit the students it is purportedly meant to serve. Here, knowledge is being “created” in a way that decenters teachers and students and replaces them with nameless, faceless claims that highlight their failures while offering only very few pragmatic solutions that are contextually relevant to local learning spaces.

We can’t help but contrast this stripped, simplified, and depersonalized version of teaching and learning with research about exemplary learning contexts that emphasize how knowledge across domains “is subject to the professional identities of their ‘owners’” (Hameyer, 2007) and learning theories that emphasize the importance of “build[ing] on the situated nature of learning, emphasising the value of learning through ‘doing’ in the company of others and acknowledg[ing] both the socio-cultural and socio-material nature of learning,” (Carvalho & Yeoman, p. 1122). These versions of learning are complex and difficult to enact. They require continued teacher learning and critical reflection throughout a teacher’s career. They center the teacher and student in the learning process rather than trying to remove or mitigate their impact.

As pre-service teachers are prepared to enter this complex and contradictory system, they are too often faced with the abrasive realities of teaching without having access to contexts where teachers are engaged in creative processes of mitigating the negative impacts of these tensions. One veteran teacher described her concern for pre-service teachers who were entering schools and were, “just get[ting] schooled in how school is…like the culture of school and it really takes some of the joy out of teaching,” (Adeyemi, Pratt, & Stanton, 2025). Field experiences offer an important context for new teacher learning and they must pair these with intentional introductions to the creative, constructive, and sometimes subversive work that teachers do to meet the needs of their students despite the challenges they face.

In this study, we look at one example of this work by examining the experiences of a group of teachers, who have been working to reshape and reimagine their own understandings of teaching and learning. By coming together, they have engaged in a process of knowledge creation as they co-construct pedagogical strategies to address instructional dilemmas they face in their own classrooms. We also examine their process of inviting pre-service teachers to participate in this space, as an opportunity for considering the fabric of possibility in the context of school.

Research Questions:

1. How do teachers describe their experiences of collaborative knowledge construction?

1. In what ways are teachers using the process of knowledge construction as a mechanism for teacher learning?

1. How does a community for teacher inquiry inform the teacher learning of teacher educators and pre-service teachers who are connected to the community?

2. What are the systems that have sustained this community for teacher inquiry over time?