Futurity Investment Group

Submitter information

Name

Futurity Investment Group

Where are you located?

Victoria

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)

No

Elevating the profession

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

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Futurity appreciates the Government’s efforts to address this longstanding issue within the Australian community.

Futurity’s exclusive research captures the views of Australian teachers and parents on whether the teaching profession is sufficiently recognised. The Futurity Parents Report Card 2020 <https://futurity.me/parent-report-card-2020> findings show that close to two-thirds of parents surveyed felt that teachers are less than sufficiently recognised while only 1 in 4 teachers surveyed for the NEiTA-ACE Teachers Report Card 2021 <https://futurity.me/neita-ace-teachers-report-card > believe that the status of the profession has improved after COVID-19.

Futurity believes in the importance of recognition for the teaching profession and has been wholly supporting the National Excellence in Teaching Awards (NEiTA) for close to 30 years.

NEiTA <neita.com> is the longest running and only national community-based teaching awards program across Australia and New Zealand. Since inception, NEiTA has received over 40,000 nominations from early childhood and school communities. More than 1,100 teachers have received awards, including a special award each year for a teacher serving communities in regional and remote areas. The NEiTA Foundation has awarded more than $1.2 million in professional development grants.

Futurity is pleased that some award recipients have received leadership opportunities after receiving the Award. We are also proud of those who continued their transformational momentum years after receiving the award, moving into positions that empower them to design policy and pedagogies.

For instance, [READACTED] when she received a NEiTA Award in 2020, has since been promoted to [REDACTED].

Futurity welcomes and supports the adoption of Action Item 2, in particular. Futurity is in a unique position and is willing to participate and to partner with Government in the delivery of this critical element of the draft Action Plan to both ensure quality of outcome and efficiency.

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.

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Futurity support’s the broad thrust of the Government’s initiatives to improve teacher supply. To maximise these efforts, we recommend greater focus on teacher retention initiatives.

Futurity appreciates that the draft Action Plan recognises the importance of more teaching places at universities and job placements to provide experience for initial teachers. Based on our research, we are aware that many teachers who pass initial teaching leave the profession only a few short years later for various reasons, including lack of recognition, collegiate support and mentoring. The resignation rate of NSW teachers within first 5 years of teaching was 11.6% in 2021 - highest in 13 years. (Source: SMH article on 23 September 2022 - Young NSW teachers quitting in record numbers <https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/young-nsw-teachers-quitting-in-record-numbers-20220923-p5bkfq.html>)

In fact, close to half of teachers surveyed for the NEiTA-ACE Teachers Report Card 2021 <https://futurity.me/neita-ace-teachers-report-card > said that, post-pandemic, over the course of a year they thought about leaving the profession either ‘fairly often’ if not ‘all of the time’. While most teachers felt supported by their colleagues, those in their early years of teaching who are often yet to secure permanent roles felt an acute lack of support.

In addition to highlighting and rewarding excellence in teaching, the NEiTA Awards seek to encourage more teachers to stay for longer in the profession. The NEiTA Foundation recognises outstanding achievement and potential among newer entrants to the profession – recently out of teacher education or out of industry – through the ‘NEiTA Early Career Teaching Award’.

Studies show that in Australia, the perceived ‘low status’ of teaching has become self-reinforcing, putting off high achievers who might otherwise want to teach. Studies have shown that higher pay is an incomplete answer to reduce teacher workload and associated wellbeing challenges. The projection of teaching as ‘a career to be proud of’ can draw high achievers to teaching.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

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

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Futurity recommends explicitly recognising that modern teachers work collaboratively and learn from each other either via formal or informal mentoring.

Mentoring is a powerful means of professional learning. It provides teachers an opportunity to acquire knowledge and expertise, and to learn with and from each other. It enables teachers to reflect on and critically analyse their practice.

A significant proportion (59%) of survey participants for the NEiTA-ACE Teachers Report Card 2021 <https://futurity.me/neita-ace-teachers-report-card > said they have benefited from being mentored, either formally or informally, by an experienced fellow educator. Interestingly, almost three-quarters said they sourced their mentoring either informally through contacts and networks (69%) or through other means (5%), while only a quarter (26%) accessed formal mentoring programs.

There is willingness among teachers to engage in mentoring: half of those surveyed said they would be interested in participating in a formal mentoring program as a mentor.

There have been anecdotal reports of the difficulties faced by teachers and teacher-educators after the return to face-to-face interactions and reconnection with their students. Peer mentoring by experienced teachers has and will continue to provide the best guidance for initial teachers in this space.

Understanding the significance of peer mentoring, the NEiTA Awards recognise an “outstanding teacher-mentor” each year to highlight the value of teachers who actively mentor their peers and/or willingly take on more initial teachers.

Teachers relish the opportunity to hear what works for other teachers beyond their own school. By shining a light on classroom innovations, NEiTA gives teachers insight into what works beyond state boundaries. For instance, the NZ NEiTA Awards gives Australian teachers lessons on Indigenous recognition and culturally responsive approaches to teaching First Nations and Maori students.

Maximising the time to teach

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

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Our research findings from the NEiTA-ACE Teachers Report Card 2021 <https://futurity.me/neita-ace-teachers-report-card> show that teachers focus significant effort and time beyond the classroom with lesson planning, marking homework, engaging with parents, and administrative duties.

More than three-quarters of teachers admitted to feeling stressed during a typical work week either ‘fairly often’ or ‘most of the time’. A third felt that they can ‘be the best teacher they can be’ only ‘occasionally’ or ‘very rarely’.

Demands on teachers’ time, workload, expectations and dealing with classroom behaviour and other challenges is impacting work-life balance and creating stress. These factors fuel pessimism about their performance, leading to thoughts about leaving teaching.

From our research, we understand 1 in 5 educators are actively considering exiting the profession. This is unsustainable. Teachers’ workloads need to be adjusted and streamlined so they can focus on what they are passionate about, trained and employed to do – teaching.

All systems and schools should prioritise lightening the administrative burden on teachers. Schools must introduce efficiencies into existing administrative practices, such as through software solutions, and find new ways to reduce or share the burden, such as through in-house or outsourced support services.

Behavioural issues, even if limited to one or two students, can impact a whole class. Solutions need to engage school communities more broadly. This is particularly important where pandemic conditions have created new challenges. Investment in building the capabilities of teachers and the resources available to them, including teacher aides, is a great place to start.

Giving ITE students more time in the classroom provides them with valuable classroom experience, but only if the qualified teacher is also present in the classroom to offer guidance and feedback. ITE students are not teacher substitutes and therefore cannot be treated as such. Otherwise, what may be considered a quick fix may compromise the future.

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?

Very effective

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Futurity supports initiatives designed to understand teacher workforce needs and better plan for the future.

Futurity explored this issue in 2021 and found the compulsory school-aged population is projected to keep growing. Under a conservative (low fertility, low migration) scenario, it is projected to grow by 0.4 million over the next 10 years. (*Source: NEiTA Insights blogpost ‘Who is going to teach the kids?’ <https://www.neita.com/post/who-is-going-to-teach-the-kids>).

Compare this growth with a shrinking pool of teachers: 30% of Australia’s teachers are aged 50 and above. We will likely have to renew a third of our teaching workforce over the next decade or so.

Further, applications for undergraduate programs in education have dropped by almost a fifth over the last decade. Recent history suggests that half of those who apply and complete their studies will eventually move away from teaching. Given 87% of teachers said they find teaching rewarding, we must find ways to accentuate the positive elements of the profession. This starts with recognising, rewarding and promoting quality teachers.

We also need to be conscious of the widening pay gap between teaching and other degree-qualified professions over time. There is a positive correlation between teachers feeling valued and satisfaction with their salaries.
The very real risk is that the available teaching pool will continue to leak and shrink. The ambition should be that suitable people who are attracted by the opportunity to make a difference through teaching are enabled to do so to meet burgeoning demand.

A national quality framework for teacher recognition and to oversee teacher regulatory authorities will assist much-needed teacher mobility between the states and from beyond our borders.

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?

Futurity is supportive of initiatives to create better career pathways and to support and retain teachers in the profession. Mentoring is particularly important. Government should explicitly recognise that modern teachers work collaboratively, and learn much from each other either via formal or informal mentoring.

This is yet another reason for reducing the administration and compliance burden for teachers - to give teachers of all ages more time to collaborate with and mentor peers and initial teachers.

From a survey conducted to gain insights for the NEiTA-ACE Teachers Report Card 2021 <https://futurity.me/neita-ace-teachers-report-card >, we found that a significant proportion of survey participants (59%) said they have benefited from being mentored, either formally or informally, by an experienced fellow educator. Interestingly, almost three-quarters said they sourced their mentoring either informally through contacts and networks (69%) or through other means (5%), while just over a quarter (26%) accessed formal mentoring programs.

Each year, the NEiTA Awards recognise an “outstanding mentor” to highlight the value of teachers who actively mentor their peers and/or willingly take on more initial teachers.

Futurity also supports any initiatives designed to enhance teachers’ access to quality professional development and delivery, including via micro-credentials.