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ship and professional development programs for new teachers (Rainbow District School Board, 2010). The programs put in place are helpful to supporting new teachers, however, despite the efforts attracting and retaining teachers still remains a serious problem.

Ontario's current educational landscape

In a 2010 report by Liz Papadopoulos, the chair of the Ontario College of teachers, it was stated that there are roughly 7,000 more certified and qualified teachers entering the teaching profession each year than positions to fill. It is becoming increasingly hard for teachers to find work in their profession with the job market getting drastically worse each year. This alarming trend is expected to continue for years (Tibbetts, 2008). Despite Ontario's College of Teachers move to decrease enrolment, US border colleges and teaching education programs abroad continue to play a role in creating a surplus of teachers (McIntyre, 2008). The effects of the surplus of teachers are seen particularly in urban areas where teaching positions are in high demand. In 2007, Toronto received more than 10,000 applicants for less than 1,000 jobs (Tibbetts, 2008). The only demand for educators appears to be for French language teachers.

This low job success rate has caused many highly qualified education graduates to undergo years of volunteering, supplying, and long term occasional teaching before landing a full time teaching position (McIntyre, 2007). This lack of employment and underemployment has caused many new teachers great amounts of stress and frustration.

Staffing rural schools internationally

The problem of staffing rural schools is not isolated to Northern Ontario; rather it is a global concern (McEwan, 1999; Sharplin, 2010; Smithers & Robinson, 2000). Despite the negative ramifications of this seemingly global dilemma, it serves this study by 1) helping to overcome certain empirical gaps in the literature concerning northern Ontario; and 2) allows a certain degree of comparative analysis between northern Ontario and other geographic regions. Therefore, to help inform this study, literature from multiple countries will be discussed to demonstrate the prevalence of this dilemma in rural communities. The three major problems consistently addressed are: 1) staffing rural schools; 2) retaining teachers; and 3) finding qualified teachers (Roberts, 2004; Jimerson, 2003; McClure & Reeves, 2004; Monk, 2007). These three problems are the same as those in northern Ontario. However, the problem of unqualified teachers in northern Ontario solely refers to inexperienced teachers. An unqualified teacher internationally usually implies individuals without the proper academic qualifications to teach.

Internationally, many of the rural and remote areas tend to have a disproportionate amount of young teachers (Sharplin, 2010). This also parallels the concerns of northern Ontario. These teachers are seen as being under qualified and receive lower pay and benefits. These new teachers have an extremely high rate of resigning after a short period of time; many not staying over 3 years (Sharplin, 2010). This turnover puts students at a disadvantage as teachers are unable to fully develop their teaching craft. Students also do not have any consistency in their educators and may begin to feel undervalued.

The literature also con