Conference Program

This paper analyses teacher education, recruitment and retention policies in Portugal through a sociological lens that treats “shortage” not only as a technical mismatch between supply and demand but as a policy problem constructed through specific frames, instruments and temporalities. Building on national diagnosis of an ageing workforce and projected retirement pressures, we argue that policy responses have tended to be organized around short-horizon measures, designed to stabilize staffing in the present—rather than around integrated, prospective workforce planning that aligns initial teacher education capacity, induction, career structures and working conditions (Conselho Nacional de Educação [CNE], 2024). We conceptualize this pattern as a technocratic policy orientation in the sense of governing through instruments. It privileges managerial levers, quantification and rapid regulatory adjustments that render the profession “manageable” while leaving less visible the relational, institutional and political conditions that shape professional commitment and career continuity. International evidence on teacher shortages and retention stresses that sustainable solutions require system-wide strategies centred on professional support, decent working conditions and coherent career governance, reinforcing the limits of reactive approaches (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2025; UNESCO, 2024). Methodologically, the paper undertakes qualitative analysis of official reports and policy documents to trace how teacher supply is narrated, which instruments are prioritized, and what assumptions about professionalism and responsibility underpin policy choices. By linking policy temporality (short-term responsiveness versus long-term planning) with policy rationality (technocratic instrumentality versus professional and democratic governance), results reveal that “quick fixes” may contribute to cyclical instability and transfer responsibility to schools and teachers, undermining retention. We conclude by arguing for the need for a more prospective democratic governance architecture where education, recruitment, retention and wellbeing are treated as structurally interconnected dimensions of professional sustainability.