Anonymous #263

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #263

Where are you located?

Western Australia

What type of area do you live in?

Metropolitan

Are you an education professional?
(e.g. teacher, school leader, learning support assistant, teacher’s aide)

Yes

Which sector do you work in?

Secondary

What is your occupation?

School leader

Elevating the profession

The actions proposed recognise the value teachers bring to students, communities and the economy.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

The unflattering depiction of Teachers and School Leaders by the media, Federal and State Ministers over 2 decades or more have fueled the low status of the profession. The tenor set by government is the tenor felt in the community. The pandemic catapulted the work of schools into the forefront with quasi hero status, but those of us in the field will never forget the guilt trip tactics adopted by the then PM. Deriding public schools and teachers is almost a political strategy to undermine the profession to create a scapegoat. I’ve seen this time and time again in my 30 year career. Education is now a blue chip political commodity and the nauseous political commentary to the lead up to any election (be it state or federal) all come from the same manual: ‘our schools need to be doing better’. Schools are soft targets that have little or no recourse of defense and are left defenseless by those very officials that should be there to support and defend them.

Further to this, Teachers and School leaders are left with the institutional blame of societal challenges. Governments and senior department personnel are unwilling to ask the hard and uncomfortable questions due to political sensitivities. What must come with elevating the profession is providing a CLEAR AND UNAMBIGUOUS boundary of the responsibility of teachers and school leaders. Schools feel we have to pick up where others have failed, but are the ones held most accountable.

Improving teacher supply

The actions proposed will be effective in increasing the number of students entering ITE, number of students completing ITE and the number of teachers staying in and/or returning to the profession.

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

‘Attracting the brightest and best’ to the profession has been a mantra adopted (in some form) by governments of all persuasions. I applaud the long overdue national approach to a teacher workforce shortage. Pity that it had to take a crises to motivate action. It must be said here that this crises is more than a decade in the making as suggested. Teacher shortages in areas have been a problem for 3 decades or more. I commenced teaching in 1992 as a Secondary Mathematics and Science Teacher and was a ‘rare breed back then’, which is still the case. Clearly, targeted attraction and retention strategies have been an abject failure given that we face the same challenge as we did 30 years ago.

Care MUST be exercised in any ‘fast tracking’ program (eg qualifying Education Assistants to Teachers) as it could back fire and erode the profession further.

I lead a large Senior High School that have embraced taking Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) for practicums. Whilst most PSTs are motivated and impressive, we’ve had, on occasion, to ‘fail’ a PST only to be met with a hostile response from the University. Sometimes, the university provide another opportunity for the PST. It is rare that we make a negative recommendation to a PST - but we should not be subject to hostile and interrogatory tactics of a University with representatives who have had little recent experience in the classroom.

What is silent in this strategy is to ensure that Universities are staffed with credible and contemporary practitioners delivering teaching programs. This is an imperative…and has been for a long time.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

The actions proposed will ensure initial teacher education supports teacher supply and quality.

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Paramount to strengthening ITE is proper preparation for the workforce. Having a strong moral purpose is very important as an educator. Equally so is high levels of resilience and fortitude to cope with the day to day happenings in a school. Unfortunately, teaching in the modern world requires a level of ‘grit’ that is not adequately understood. This is not to say that this level of ‘grit’ is acceptable, which hopefully is evident in other areas of this feedback, nonetheless points to the need for resilience. Whilst teacher qualifications have grown from 3 to 4 years, then to 5, there is no evidence of improvements of preparedness for the workforce. Increasing practical components, robust assessments of Preservice Teachers (PSTs) capability that are standards driven and having the courage to decline PSTs in progressing in the qualification are vital. Furthermore, focus on high effect instructional strategies, classroom management techniques, embedding technologies etc are very important. So to is some understanding of brain theory. It is interesting that our job is to shape minds and generate curiosity and test there is little emphasis on brain theory in terms of how it connects to the craft and science of teaching.

There have been international recruitment programs in the past which have had limited success. This has been particularly true for international teachers deployed to rural and remote areas.

Maximising the time to teach

The actions proposed will improve retention and free up teachers to focus on teaching and collaboration.

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Whist this priority looks at workload issues and has the well intended sentiment of maximizing time to teach, it doesn’t address the sources of workload. Ultimately, schools are designed to deliver to the masses, but they operate under the expectation of an individualized approach to education. This expectation is completely unworkable (and unreasonable) and causes significant stress at the ground level. Documented Individual Education Plans, Individual Behaviour Plans, Individual Teaching Adjustment Strategies and associated accountabilities are now common place and completely unsustainable. Furthermore, the crushing expectation on schools is why we are in this crisis. Political posturing of ‘how well schools are resourced’ will spiral our current crisis.

It would be prudent to better defining a teachers work day, which is not a new idea. Whilst this will be fiercely fought by unions and parts of the profession itself, it must be said that defining a teachers work day may have a positive return of redressing the misconception that teachers finish at 3pm. Furthermore, it will recognise that an hour or so after instructional hours is considered DOTT time which would be cost neutral. The flexibility afforded to teachers fuel an ‘industrial envy’ by others who see the exodus of teachers at the end of the school day. Suggestion that this will erode the professionalism of teachers who work at home is nonsense. Industrial instruments already recognise that a teachers work goes beyond school hours, and this will continue regardless of defining a teachers work day. A component of this ‘additional time’ after school hours could, to a degree, be subject to working from home arrangements. However, this will need strong limitations.

In the early years of teaching, teachers need to observe more and teach less. This will be a significant stress on a workforce in a shortage, but the concept of teachers having strong mentoring and critical self reflection has merit.

Better understanding future teacher workforce needs

How effective are the proposed actions in better understanding future teacher workforce needs, including the number of teachers required?

Slightly effective

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

The national strategy eludes to the need to publish reasons for why people are leaving the profession. The issue here is that there is an abundant amount of data already in the field. I am a school leader and participate in the ANNUAL Principal Health and Well Being Survey (Deakin University). This longitudinal study has about 10 years of data and the results have been a compounding tragedy. What is a greater tragedy is the superficial analysis undertaken by the DoE WA over a number of years that have institutionalized a passive attitude of acknowledging the challenges of the Principalship (violence in schools, poor work life balance, workplace intensity, workplace stress etc) with hollow platitudes to which there is no resolve nor courage to address the plight of those who work in schools. I say ‘courage’ as it seems inconvenient to accept truths that are not the making of schools, but which schools are blamed and held accountable for with arbitrary measures which then provides the Minister of Education of the day a politically motivated line of ‘holding schools to account’.

Regardless of iterations of the DoE WA over the last 30 years, they have had a ‘workforce directorate’, who have reported upwards to the system. WA is not alone in this bureaucratic structure. The fact that we now face a national crisis which has been decades in the making points to the failure of government towards a profession that is a cornerstone to our society. It’s pleasing to see that government will now lead the charge in ‘talking up’ the profession which hopefully will transfer to the homes in Australia. I believe that our country holds more regard to those in ‘high vis jackets’ than teachers - an Australian psyche which needs immediate redress.

Universities, seem more interested in fulfilling quotas as opposed to understanding (whether they like it or not) that in certain tertiary qualifications, they are part of the workforce supply chain. This strategy is now directing universities to reserve places for points of workforce need which is well overdue, but welcomed, and points to the ineptness of our universities.

Better career pathways to support and retain teachers in the profession

The proposed actions will improve career pathways, including through streamlining the process for Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher (HALT) accreditation, and providing better professional support for teachers to retain them in the profession.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Throughout this feedback, I have attempted to state the plight of those who work in schools. The paradox of being undervalued in a profession that is a cornerstone to society. Attraction, retention and promotion of the profession are immediate imperatives.

The AITSL Standards for Teachers and Principals are dense statements that describe the complexity of the work of teachers and administrators. WA has a process for Level 3 Teachers which is very robust, and from my perspective, rewards those HALT. It is however an onerous task and off putting for some. However, I would be concerned that the streamlining of this process could dilute its rigor.

We need to see teaching as both an art and science. The standards reflect this so to should the public discourse. Downplaying the role of teachers, and blame statements of ‘Teachers should…..’ must stop to curtail this crisis, which sadly will be seen for some time,