There is hardly any doubt that there is a shortage of teachers in Sweden. There seems to be great agreement on this, highlighted by representatives of trade unions, the National Agency for Education, responsible politicians at municipal and national levels, government representatives, school principals, teachers, and researchers (Boström et al., 2021). There is widespread agreement on both the seriousness of the teacher shortage and the importance of having trained teachers in schools for students to have the best possible conditions for learning. However, actors’ views of the teacher shortage differ, as do views of its causes, how the teacher shortage should be remedied, and who can best act/have the best decision-making powers in the situation that has arisen (Berglund and Bostedt, 2023).

The acute shortage of teachers has been visible in the media in recent years. For example, some schools have had to close due to a lack of qualified teachers (Lärarförbundet, 2022), pupils are sent to other schools for certain lessons to be graded by qualified teachers, and popular upper secondary education programs are canceling admission for certain groups of pupils. In sparsely populated areas, some subjects are sometimes taught through digital distance learning by qualified teachers from elsewhere. The consequences of the teacher shortage are also highlighted in various ways in the media. One warning is that some subjects (science subjects) will be “wiped out” (Jansson, 2015); another is that the shortage of teachers, especially in northern Sweden, may threaten companies’ ability to recruit experts from other parts of Sweden and the rest of the world (Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien, 2020). There is a general perception that the teacher shortage also has a negative influence on society’s development as a whole.

In the public debate, the shortage of teachers is rarely nuanced in terms of differences related to teacher categories or differences between regions. This applies nationally and internationally; teacher shortages are an international problem (García and Weiss, 2019; See and Gorard, 2020). Federičová (2020) showed large regional differences in Europe regarding teacher turnover. In southern Europe, teacher turnover is relatively low (about 15–16%), while the corresponding figure for northern European countries such as Sweden is up to 39%. Skolverket (2021) stated in a teacher prognosis that “There are major differences between different parts of the country in terms of the need to recruit more teachers and preschool teachers” (p. 6). The differences are affected by the estimated number of children starting or attending school and the opportunities to recruit teachers in sparsely populated and socioeconomically vulnerable areas. The teacher shortage in Sweden is particularly acute for subject teachers in Grades 7–9 and vocational teachers; there is also a projected shortage of teachers in preschool and primary school teachers in Grades 4–6 (Skolverket, 2021). In a review based on the Labour Force Survey (Arbetskraftsbarometern), Berglund and Bostedt (2023) have also shown that the need for special needs teachers and those for school-aged educare students remains high.

Teacher shortages are a national and international problem with many possible and undesirable consequences. UNESCO (2016, 2023) and the European Commission (2019) have long warned of the alarming international teacher shortage. In Sweden, for example, Skolverket (2017, 2019, 2021) and Statistiska Centralbyrån (2017a,b) have highlighted the problem. However, a review of ongoing and current research on the issue shows that nationally, it is quite limited, and most research on the phenomenon seems to have been conducted in the United States. Craig et al. (2023) have advocated for contextualizing the teacher shortage situation, creating a long-term vision of how to implement teacher reforms and promoting the value of the teaching profession. They argued that much of the teacher shortage has been caused by “historical missteps” (p. 211) due to reforms and the lack of vision to improve the teaching profession.

This description of the current situation regarding teacher shortages justifies in-depth studies in this area. This can be done in several ways; studies of the perspectives of individual actor groups (decision-makers such as politicians, school heads, or principals) have dominated. In this study, a multiactor perspective was chosen to investigate whether (and if so, how) perspectives on the causes of and possible solutions to the teacher shortage differ between relevant actor groups. It is reasonable to assume that the greater the heterogeneity of perspectives on the situation, the greater the challenges in addressing the issue in a way that is effective, acceptable, or desirable for all involved. In fact, heterogeneity in perceptions of the problem and possible policy action may be part of the problem itself or create paralysis in the face of necessary action. This is based on the assumption that there is already a general and accepted perception that something must be done (see previous paragraphs). The question is, then, whether the possible causes of and solutions to the teacher shortage are burdened by major differences in the perspectives of the relevant groups of actors or whether there is a consensus on both the causes and possible measures to solve (fully or partially) the situation. This study is focused on just that—the question of homogeneity or heterogeneity in the perspectives of a number (though not all) of the relevant stakeholder constellations regarding the causes of and possible solutions to the issue of teacher shortages. Such studies have been few, which is why this study can contribute to the overall knowledge of how teacher shortages as a social problem can be understood and addressed.

The study’s theoretical starting point is wicked problem theory to analyze and understand the phenomenon of teacher shortage. Wicked problem theory (Rittel and Webber, 1973) addresses social issues that are serious, complex, and difficult to solve due to contradictory and changing demands or value conflicts. Important features of the wicked problem theory are causal pluralism regarding the existence of the problem, interdependence between several important causes and solutions, the fact that efforts to address/solve the problem can lead to unexpected consequences and constitute a changing problem of a social nature, the requirement for interorganizational coordination, the fact that it affects individuals’ behaviors and perceptions, and the characterization of problems by policy failures over a long period. All of these points have been shown to be applicable to the teacher shortage phenomenon (Blanco et al., 2023; Berglund and Bostedt, 2023; Boström et al., 2021), making the theory useful for a comprehensive analysis and understanding of the problem area. Teacher shortage is a complex problem, and understanding and addressing the problem requires coordinated efforts. Therefore, it is a misguided illusion to believe that individual efforts and/or constellations of actors will solve the problem. This conclusion—that the problem involves many actor constellations, and that knowledge is needed to understand whether there are major similarities or differences in perceptions of causes of and possible solutions to the issue of teacher shortages—justifies this study and its analyses and conclusions.

The wicked problem theory’s assumption that complex societal problems are often linked to contradictory and changing demands or value conflicts implies that the phenomenon affects many actors/actor constellations. In relation to the issue of teacher shortages, these relevant actors are citizens (pupils and guardians), social partners (employers, employees, and trade unions), and societal representatives (decision-makers and clients of various kinds). We argue that the wicked problem theory can be linked to Bacchi (2009) theory of “what the problem is represented to be” (WPR). Different understandings and perspectives on the teacher shortage problem (representations; Bacchi, 2009) constitute one of the two areas of inquiry on which this study focuses.

The second area of inquiry in this study, possible actions for the problem, concerns how solutions can best be defined and implemented. To address this question, it is appropriate to complement the wicked problem theory and WPR with a third theoretical approach—coordination. This study is based on perceptions of problems and possible solutions. We do not study how solutions are actually implemented. However, we believe that analyzing the conditions for effective action in the form of similarities or differences in professional groups’ perceptions about possible measures is important and interesting to study.

Coordination is a theoretical concept taken from organization and interorganization theory (Abrahamsson and Andersen, 1996; Alexander, 1995; Roger and Whetten, 1982). In this case, however, it is not applied to institutions/organizations, but to groups of actors. The concept of coordination has been defined and is used in this study as the possibility of systematic linkage between actors’ decision-making (Lindblom, 1965). Coordination is then made possible via conditions for mutual adaptation between actors/actor constellations (individual decision-making) or a conscious interaction between actors in their decision-making (joint decision-making; Alexander, 1995). In this article, coordination as a theoretical concept relates primarily to our interest in the second of the question areas that the study is focused on—what to do about the problem of teacher shortages. The concept can be said to address the classic theme of implementation theory: Coalitions of interests/coinciding power interests can exist (SOU, 1990) that can enable or prevent effective problem-solving based on power, position, or special interests. Therefore, action on complex social problems requires an analysis and action strategy based on knowledge of similarities or differences in perceptions and values of the problem and possible solutions. In this study, representation is used as a theoretical concept in relation to perspectives on causes and conditions for coordinated efforts in relation to possible or necessary action. This approach also relates to a social problem, the shortage of teachers, which exhibits many of the characteristics of a wicked problem.

Based on previous research and dialogue meetings with regional and national policy actors relevant to the problem area, such as researchers, school leaders, trade union representatives, and politicians, an online survey was constructed consisting of 16 statements about the causes of the teacher shortage, 13 statements about possible solutions, and two statements about time perspectives for solving the teacher shortage. These statements were developed through a national and a regional conference with various policy actors in autumn 2021. This article aims to describe and analyze the significant aspects of the causes of and possible solutions to the teacher shortage as stated by the professional actors (i.e., those who have concrete everyday experience of the teacher shortage and its consequences).

Based on the resulting 29 statements, we sought answers to the following research questions:

The teacher shortage appears to be a major societal problem in most countries, including Sweden (See and Gorard, 2020). The world needs at least 69 million new teachers to achieve the education goals of the 2030 Agenda (UNESCO, 2016). Internationally, the teacher shortage has been commented on since the Second World War, but the shortage still exists and has accelerated more than 70 years later (Swanson and Mason, 2017). In the United States, the teacher shortage has been a recurring problem (Aragon, 2016; Darling-Hammond and Podolsky, 2019) since the mid-1930s. It is referred to as a chronic teacher shortage (Carothers et al., 2019). The causes appear to be several factors, such as too few new teacher graduates in various fields, teacher turnover, changes in educational programs, lack of administrative support, teacher salaries, and the attractiveness of the profession in general and in specific locations (Sutcher et al., 2016; García and Weiss, 2019). Politicians have been criticized for seeing teacher recruitment as the main way to address the problem, instead of also focusing on measures to retain existing teachers (Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond, 2019).

Teacher shortages are also reported in England, and policies have been criticized, specifically in that the negative effects of the various policy-initiated changes are not sufficiently considered and that “teacher shortages are partly created by government policies themselves” (See and Gorard, 2020, p. 416). These researchers suggest an independent review of teacher supply. In Australia, authorities have pointed out that teacher shortages have increased due to factors such as the status of the profession, workload, working conditions, pay, and regional differences (Australian Government, 2022). In Europe, teacher shortages exist in almost all countries (Federičová, 2020). The problems are similar in volume and causes in Sweden. The various causes of teacher shortages listed can be summarized by Blanco et al. (2023) conclusion that structural, social, and cognitive influencing factors need to be considered.

In Sweden, the issue of teacher shortages has attracted some attention in the last decade. Teacher supply is recognized as “a challenge of historic proportions” (Bertilsson, 2018, p. 1). There are many interconnected factors of the teacher shortage in Sweden. Among other aspects, researchers have mentioned changed conditions, low status, the quality of teacher education, early dropouts from the profession (Håkansson Lindqvist et al., 2022), numerous reforms in the school area, varying governance philosophies, changing teacher education programs (Boström et al., 2021), and negative attitudes about the profession in the media and society (Boström, 2023; Grannäs and Frelin, 2019). It is clear that the teacher shortage must be viewed from a more long-term perspective, emphasizing the complexity of the problem and the covariation of influencing factors over time for teacher categories, as well as how factors relate to each other. Berglund and Bostedt (2023) described a historical review, and an analysis based on the wicked problem theory (Rittel and Webber, 1973) using the Labour Force Survey’s publications (Arbetskraftsbarometern) from 1973 to 2022 regarding the shortage and supply of teachers over the past 50 years. The 50-year review clearly shows that the phenomenon of the teacher shortage is not a suddenly emerging problem. Due to its complexity, the problem is characterized by policy failures over a long period. Berglund and Bostedt concluded that Sweden’s great variation in actors’ perceptions of schools’ problems and possible solutions has created uncertainty and a lack of clarity in the school world in terms of goals and governance ambitions. “It is likely that several of the school reforms implemented to address various perceived problems in the education system have simultaneously given rise to other problems” (Berglund and Bostedt, 2023, p. 205). While the teacher shortage is recognized in various ways, there are also initiatives to ease the situation, for example, in the form of temporary teachers (Axelsson, 2021), full-time mentors (Gardsten and Fonsceca, 2019), and teacher assistants who provide teachers relief from their duties (Lindqvist, 2020).

The following section presents the results for all respondents’ rankings of the statements and the items answered with “I do not know.” It then presents the results regarding significant differences between occupational groups and interpretations for each subresult.

Tables 2, 3 show that the statements of the questionnaire were validated as relevant by the professional groups in terms of causes of teacher shortages and what can be done. Furthermore, the review of the empirical material presented in Table 4 showed a fairly large similarity in perceptions between the professional groups, with some exceptions. A very clear difference can be found in the evaluation of possible causes of the teacher shortage between student health personnel (medical personnel, behavioral scientists, school psychologists) and others working in schools. One possible explanation is related to professional activities. Student health workers are not involved in the daily pedagogical activities of a school, and they have different professional educational backgrounds than teachers, as well as a different and more limited focus on student groups and the work of the school. This differs from the other stakeholder constellations studied and may indicate the reasons this group evaluated the causes of teacher shortages differently compared to the others. The same clear difference between student health staff and the other stakeholder groups studied does not recur in terms of possible solutions to the teacher shortage.

In addition to those described, the analysis of other differences between professional groups can be facilitated by categorizing the statements into different dimensions of school activities. These include structural, social, and cognitive influencing factors of importance (cf. Blanco et al., 2023).

The structural dimensions of teacher shortages can be described as relating to the nationally set conditions for school activities (i.e., influencing factors outside the control of professionals). The causes of teacher shortages include political reforms, governance philosophies, the general crisis in welfare, teacher education reforms, curriculum reforms, and teacher licensing requirements (cf. Boström et al., 2021). Perceptions of possible solutions include higher salaries, better opportunities for professional development, different governance, improved teacher training, more or fewer independent schools, more training places for teachers, and more intensive or shorter teacher training (Håkansson Lindqvist et al., 2022).

The social dimensions of teacher shortages can be described as relating to the conditions of the organization of school work. The causes of teacher shortages include changing and deteriorating conditions for teachers, declining status, increasing numbers of pupils, and imbalance between male and female teachers (Boström, 2023). Perceptions of possible solutions include higher status as well as faster and better validation of knowledge.

The cognitive dimensions of teacher shortages can be described as relating to the relevant actors’ individual perspectives on work in schools or teaching. The causes of teacher shortages include the deprofessionalization of the profession, dropouts from teacher training or the profession, the negative media debate, perceptions of the risk of violence or abuse, and perceptions of the view of knowledge that permeates the curriculum. Perceptions of possible solutions include the need for a different media debate on the teaching profession and a focus on facilitating student learning (Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien, 2020). It is important to emphasize that these three dimensions are not mutually exclusive. In some cases, the statements categorized under each dimension also contain elements that can be placed in one of the other dimensions. Therefore, the categorization into dimensions was only done to clarify possible differences between the stakeholder groups, but it needs to be evaluated and analyzed in more detail in further research.

In addition to the overall discussion regarding student health staff, the statements categorized under the structural dimension show a certain difference in perspective between trained and untrained teachers regarding the causes of the teacher shortage. There is also a (not unexpected) difference in evaluation between trained teachers and principals regarding one of the statements in the social dimension—deteriorating conditions for teachers. With regard to the cognitive dimension, the principals’ stronger emphasis on the negative media debate compared to trained and untrained teachers is particularly noteworthy. The negative media debate on schools is also perceived to have a direct impact on principals’ abilities to recruit teachers.

The clear differences between student health staff and other stakeholder groups regarding the causes of the teacher shortage are not present in the evaluations of possible solutions. With regard to this area, there is an overall greater variation in responses between the groups. The greatest variation in the area of possible solutions to the teacher shortage is in the responses to the statements included in the structural dimension. For example, several of the statements in this dimension show a difference between trained teachers and other school staff (cf. Lindqvist, 2020). Not unexpectedly, untrained staff emphasize shorter training to become a teacher. Regarding the social dimension, there is, also not unexpectedly, a difference between untrained teachers and other school staff regarding the need for faster and better validation of knowledge/competence. Additionally, in relation to this statement, a statistically significant difference exists in responses between head teachers and student health staff. This difference highlights the earlier comment about differences in educational background and tasks in the school. This result is worrying, given the potential for successful preventive and health-promoting student health work via student health teams consisting of educators, student health staff, and management staff. Regarding the cognitive dimension, there are differences in responses between head teachers and several other stakeholder groups regarding the media debate on the teaching profession. It is noteworthy that students do not appear in Table 4, but they do in several of the statements in Table 5. The explanation is probably that students do not feel confident about the causes of the current situation, but they may have ideas about what can be done in the future.

The article’s theory presentation involves three theoretical approaches relevant to the study of teacher shortages. Representations (Bacchi, 2009) of the problem are important in describing similarities or differences between professional groups’ perceptions of the causes of teacher shortages. The importance of analyzing the representations of the problem can be linked to the complexity of the problem area described via the wicked problem theory (Rittel and Webber, 1973). Regarding the perception of solutions, and considering that the teacher shortage can be understood and analyzed as a wicked problem, we believe that coordination becomes an important concept in the sense of whether the conditions for coordination of possible decision-making on solutions (Lindblom, 1965) exist, or whether the values of the relevant groups of actors differ so much that efforts need to be made for a more uniform problem description and a common action plan. Opportunities for coordinated action on the societal problem of teacher shortages can be significant in terms of possible solutions, and why little or nothing has been done, despite long-term knowledge of the problem area (cf. Berglund and Bostedt, 2023). In the introduction and background sections of this article, we discussed the fact that wicked theory has previously been used to analyze teacher shortages. The empirical evidence presented in this study confirms the usefulness of the theory. In questions about the causes of the problem and its possible solutions, the multiactor approach of this study shows variation in representations of the problem and regarding possible solutions. This variation in views on which solutions are preferable/most important provides a basis for the need for further analysis and public discussion of teacher shortages, as well as concern about the possibilities of coordinated efforts. Coordinated interventions based on policy decisions by authoritative decision-makers with accompanying program initiatives must also be accepted and implemented by relevant school actors.

While this study shows a variety of perceptions of possible solutions, it is worth noting that initiatives to address the teacher shortage have been launched. In particular, four new phenomena to solve the acute teacher shortage can be mentioned. One is temporary teachers, the extent of which is predicted to increase and the outcome of which is controversial in terms of cost-effectiveness and the contribution to pedagogical development (Axelsson, 2021). The second is full-time mentors (Gardsten and Fonsceca, 2019) hired to address teacher shortages, who have been shown to facilitate teachers’ everyday work. The third, closely related to mentors, is teacher assistants, whose number has increased significantly in recent years. They give teachers relief from their duties, but at the cost of reducing teachers’ contact with pupils and guardians (Lindqvist, 2020). The fourth is the current government proposal for a professional program for teachers and principals (Regeringskansliet, 2021).

Three of the four initiatives listed are not included in the stakeholder groups’ suggestions for solutions, emphasizing the need for coordinated policy efforts in this area. However, it also shows that new actors and new possible solutions to the teacher shortage are emerging. It remains to be seen whether the implementation of the proposed solutions facilitates or further complicates the teacher shortage. It is possible that some of the proposals may make it easier for teachers to remain teachers (cf. Lindqvist, 2020).